Weighing the odds in sports betting?

[King Yao]

Hi, this is the first time I've heard of any physical problems with the books. The binding on all the books I've handled have been superb. I'm sorry this happened to your copy. If you contact my publisher (via BJ21.com), I'm 100% sure they'd correct the problem for you.

[King Yao]

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Will the basics (such as terminology) be covered well enough that a true newbie can understand the material that follows?

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Yes. The Basics chapter is 18 pages and covers basic topics such as: Converting a money line into percentage, terminology of cents, and reading the board in a Las Vegas sportsbook.

[PokerHorse]

This is going to be negative so dont read if you want to drink the kool aid.
King is a smart guy and uses his skills learned from the trading business in the sports world.
Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground, and was imo written in a style very similar to that of his publisher's books, stanford wong.
Wong has written some good books in the past, but always based on others findings, none his own.His latest was a book on controlled dice throws, and he hopped on the ban-wagon after several books had already been published on the subject, and he added nothing new.His sportsbetting book, considered to be the bible, was derived from his own forum at bj21, and inspired by the posts of others. Im not saying hes not smart, just not original in my opinion.
King yao was discussing writing a shorthanded book on his blog, but scratched the idea after going online and not being able to beat the game, decided he would write a book on sports betting. Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money. Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.
King has been ocasionally testing the waters on various forums as to the response for a sports betting book, and that's fine, but just like his poker book, you wont profit from it. These of course are just my opinions and I have nothing against him personally. good luck

[uDevil]

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This is going to be negative so dont read if you want to drink the kool aid.

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Yummm, kool aid....

Come on, buying and reading a book doesn't constitute a suicide pact.

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Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground...

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Your standards are very high. Though expected value calculations were of course not new, his extensive use of them in every situation he analyzed made the book both unique and useful.

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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money.

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I rarely get the chance to do sports betting and know pretty much nothing about the topic. But I am curious about it. A good general introduction is pretty much what I'm looking for.

[King Yao]

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Weighing the odds of poker was an unneccesary book. It covered no new ground, ...

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Too bad you didn't get much out of it, but I don't agree with your opinion as it fits other readers. It wouldn't serve me any good to argue your opinion in a public message board, but all I can say to others is to take a look at the reviews for other opinions.

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....and was imo written in a style very similar to that of his publisher's books, stanford wong.

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A couple of people have mentioned that my writing style is similar to Stanford's. He edited both books I wrote. Maybe some of his style came through the editing. The bottom line is that I wrote both books and although I like Stanford a lot as a friend and publisher, I resent the implication that Stanford was the ghost writer of my books. Maybe this is not what you were implying, if not, my apologies for mis-reading your post.


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King yao was discussing writing a shorthanded book on his blog, but scratched the idea after going online and not being able to beat the game, decided he would write a book on sports betting.

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I did discuss writing a shorthanded book, mainly expanding the two chapters in Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker into a full-blown book, but then I scrapped it. It surely wasn't because I was losing. It wasn't like I just started playing shorthanded when I posted in my blog. That was the main form of poker I played online since 2002 in the days of Planet Poker's 5-max games. Go ask Roy Cooke (Planet's room manager at one point) if I was one of the biggest winners in the shorthanded game. Planet's 5-max game was one of the few (if not the only one, I'm not sure) dedicated shorthanded games out there in the early days of online poker. So why did I scrap the idea of writing a short-handed book? The main reason is that I started writing sports betting articles for 2+2 and the time and energy I dedicated to writing went towards those articles...which then turned into Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting. I couldn't do both and I decided to abandon poker and concentrate 100% on sports. That included the time I spent gambling and writing.


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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money.

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The point about me not spilling all the beans is a valid point. Its a problem when writing or discussing sports betting in general. I wrote about it in the introduction. I do think the majority of sports bettors, even the experienced ones, will benefit from the book. But I might be wrong. I'll have to wait to see the reviews and what sports bettors (experienced or not) think about it.

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Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.

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This point I agree completely. For the readers that didn't enjoy and/or got nothing out of my sports betting articles, there is little reason to buy my book, that makes sense. For some, it may be worthwhile to read the three articles that are online right now to see if its worthwhile to spend the money for the book. I know I'd do that if I was a potential buyer. Here are the links to the three articles online right now.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/current/yao0707.html
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue30/Yao0607.html
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue29/Yao0507.html


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King has been ocasionally testing the waters on various forums as to the response for a sports betting book, and that's fine, but just like his poker book, you wont profit from it. These of course are just my opinions and I have nothing against him personally. good luck

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I disagree, but respect your thoughtful opinion. Nothing personal taken (except possibly for the implication that my work isn't really my own...if that was the implication you were making). Good luck.

[SGspecial]

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Now, as far as I know King IS a sports bettor, but if he actually taught you and I how and where he makes his money, he would lose his edge, so you can expect a very general book on subjects such as futures betting etc, which imo isnt going to teach you to make money. Read the articles that he has written and if you think those will make you money then ,...buy the book.

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I'm not a sports bettor, but I know several people who are and they are small time compared to what I've heard people wagering on games. There must be Billions of $ bet on sports in the US every year, with most people betting $50+/game on 5-6 games a week (correct me if I'm wrong here). So, in order to profit from a $20 book, the average bettor would need to have >40% of winning 1 more bet in his lifetime . Even if King doesn't give up all his secrets, I'd say a book like this is a good bet.

[dragon14]

King,

Earlier when I mentioned Wong as a possible collaborator I wasn't trying to insult you in any way. It's just that Wong has an unusual writing style at times and at certain times in your first book (for instance the River Paradox introduction) the writing reminded me of Wong's. The copy on the back of the book and the advertisement for your new book also seem as if possibly written by Wong.

I trust that the ideas are your own I just thought that perhaps Wong was assisting in the writing or editing and perhaps his influence came through.

[King Yao]

Thanks for replying, I appreciate it. Thanks for the comments.

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The copy on the back of the book and the advertisement for your new book also seem as if possibly written by Wong.

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Although Stanford did edit the sports betting book, ironically, the copy on the back of the book wasn't edited (or maybe just one or two words). I guess this simply means my writing style has become similar to his.

[MicroBob]

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It seems the glue or whatever that is used to keep the pages in doesn't work very well and once one page falls out it you start to lose the next twenty or so. I have several chapters that I would considered "filed" within the books now as opposed to still being part of it.

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same thing with my copy.

[PokerHorse]

Im not implying that your book was ghost written at all. Im saying there really isnt anything original in your work.
You take a slight twist on looking at pot odds in weighing the odds in Holdem, but virtually everything in the book has been widely discussed. Im also saying that Stanford Wong has done the same thing very successfully, starting with his black jack books. He is a good marketer. The example I used was his latest book about controlled dice throwing.
Is your sportsbetting book ground breaking with new infornation not available at better sports betting websites
such as Fezziks, sharp sportsbetting.com, etc. ??
And it covers new material not found in Wongs book,
and those books available at Sharp Sportsbetting .com?
Will i be able to not just gather info, but actually take the info and realistically be able to make money from the information provided in your book?
You admit that spilling the beans fully about methods, and places to make the money you make, would be hurtful to your
income, yet you promote the value of the basic, general information that your book will discuss. I see nothing in your table of contents that isnt available to anyone who really is interested, for free on the net.
I know you are a smart guy Mr yao, but maybe an opportunist
as well. You have every right to write and market your book, but I have every right to also inform and express my opinion on your work. Again, I dont know you and have nothing personal against you, I just dont see the value in your work.