Paying For Picks

[beetman]

If you're talking about "his balance," I assume you're talking about the FezzDAQ, which was an experiment he did over the past year. The FezzDAQ included many different sports.

In addition to the FezzDAQ, Fezzik also releases official plays. As of late, those have been limited to football, the NBA playoffs, and the NCAA basketball tournament, although last year Fezzik also did some regular season NCAA basketball handicapping as well, focusing mostly on second half lines.

[MyTurn2Raise]

The FezzDAQ is much tougher to match for the average gambler.
It's more of a taking advantage of soft lines deal that close up quickly. It does show how far one can get by pwning soft lines.

As the rest have said, his picks are fairly easy to follow at the current time.

[beetman]

[ QUOTE ]
For example, purely hypothetical, say that both I, my wife, and my brother have accounts on Pinnacle, all of which I have control of - could be direct control i.e. I have their user/pass, or could be I just call them up and say "ok, bet #242 for $5000". When i release a MMA wagering card, I use all three accounts - either myself, or even at the further extreme of contacting each of them to place the bets for my little "syndicate". While its certainly possible that we can shift the line when we place, we're all likely to secure nearly the same line and we've circumvented the max wager amount. Not to mention sites like Pinny where the max bet is a one-time max and not a total max. If i wanted to wager $100k on an MMA fight I could do it with my own account, albeit after making a series of 20 bets at the 5k max (or whatever) giving Pinny an opportunity to adjust the line for each...

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't notice this the first time, but even though this was a hypothetical example, I should point out that using multiple accounts to circumvent their limits is one of the few things that Pinnacle will close accounts for doing.

[Performify]

Good point, beetman. I should have picked a better example - the example of three accounts that our hypothetical sharp calls the owners of and tell them to bet under his control is a better example in this case.

[smbruin22]

there are some good paid services (aim for cheaper ones... phil steele, twominutewarning.com, gold sheets etc.)... but the "free" picks on this forum are pretty good (and better if they have some sort of explanation).

vis-a-vis the original poster's question, it is a huge amount of work to handicap something like ncaa basketball, unless you're playing a system, although i think the inefficiency is there to make $$$$.

[JPT III]

[ QUOTE ]
there are some good paid services (aim for cheaper ones... phil steele, twominutewarning.com, gold sheets etc.)... but the "free" picks on this forum are pretty good (and better if they have some sort of explanation).

vis-a-vis the original poster's question, it is a huge amount of work to handicap something like ncaa basketball, unless you're playing a system, although i think the inefficiency is there to make $$$$.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do not use goldsheet. I've used them for threee straight years in football, which is supposed to be their bread and butter. This year has been horrendous. Last year I won a little bit, and the first year I also lost. Net loser in three years. Moreover, I sent them the following email earlier this year (the factual predicate of which is true and to which they did not respond):


While I have been a somewhat satisfied customer for
the past (at least) 3 seasons, it is disturbing that
Goldsheet posts the LTS releases on the webpage, but
conveniently neglects to include the 9/8/2006
selections, which lost 3.85 units. That day is the
difference between being profitable and being
unprofitable at this point in the season, and absolute
honesty and full disclosure is invaluable in the shady
world of sports handicapping.

Do you disagree?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx[my name]


Again, they did not respond to this email, and to date have not updated their historical data to reflect the picks posted on 9/8 (for Saturday, 9/9). Snce then, their picks have absolutely tanked.

Caveat emptor.

I'm thinking of giving the Sharpsportsbetting.com guys a shot soon. The goldsheet performance and dishonesty was very troubling. I had heard for many years that they were the real thing. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[absentx]

Here is a good sports monitor:

www.sports-watch.com

This is another good one:

www.thesportsmonitor.com

[CarlSpackler]

[ QUOTE ]
Good point, beetman. I should have picked a better example - the example of three accounts that our hypothetical sharp calls the owners of and tell them to bet under his control is a better example in this case.

[/ QUOTE ]

I fully understand what you're saying here, but what would be the standard amount of compensation to the other account owners who are placing wagers for you? A certain % of your profit, a flat monthly fee, etc.?

[beetman]

Phil Steele has so many different clubs and service plans that it's almost impossible to track a true documented record for him.

[JPT III]

[ QUOTE ]
Phil Steele has so many different clubs and service plans that it's almost impossible to track a true documented record for him.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point, and one I think worth amplifying. Consider this: a tout registers 70 or 80 different services with a sports monitor at the beginning of football season. He then picks different plays, randomly, for each service. At the end of football season, doubtless several of his registered and monitored services have winning records, although the aggregate record of all picks made is right at 50% -- losing vig at the same rate your aunt Sharon would have. In fact, if a tout registers enough services, he can give himself a very good chance of haveing one or more of them perform well for more than just one season. And there you have it -- legitimate winning picks, tracked by a reputable motitoring service! You sign up, pay the tout, and we all know what happens with the picks (think aunt Sharon).

If you don't know how many different service plans an individual "handicapper" has registered, even the info from otherwise trustworthy sports-monitoring sites can be very misleading.

I have no evidence (other than beetman's comment above) that the touts do this, but if I can think of it, and if Phil Steel is doing it, the smart money says that the touts have been doing it for years.