A preeminent offshore oddsmaker
stated that the schism between the sharp player and square bettor has never
been larger. “Professional bettors are winning at a higher rate than ever
before, but luckily (for sportsbooks)
there are more losing bettors,” this offshore betting pioneer asserted.
This gap is widest in NFL betting. The oddsmakers and
sharp players continue to advance, but the square gets suckered more than
anytime in history. The reasons are quite elementary.
Extensive prognostication ammo is readily available. Usage
of the thoroughgoing volume though is so time-consuming its complete deployment
is confined to the oddsmaker, learned full-time
handicappers and the professional gambler.
About 20 years ago, the boiler room sales pitches from the
toll-free blowhard touts included cookie cutter boasts about having scouts “all
over the country” work for them and crowing about “inside information”.
Now, with small monetary investments and enormous time
expenditure, bettors can have “scouts” working for them, especially in NFL predictions.
Yes, this means employing intuitiveness from former NFL players who scrutinize
game film for hours. Who knew how
prophetic the snake oil touts really were when they alleged scouts labored for
them?
As much flack as I often take for giving props to the
four-letter evil empire, ESPN Insider continues to be one of our beloved
sources for betting intel.
Via their Scouts Inc, which is led by Jeremy Green the son
of former NFL and college coach Dennis Green, sports investors get first-rate
scouting reports from film room junkies.
Former NFL players Ron Jaworski
and Merrill Hoge also give valuable game film
insight. Jaworski has been known to camp at NFL Films
and one can bet (so to speak) that he does have a tremendous point of observation
Speaking of NFL Films, their Senior Producer Greg Cosell has his “Film Room Blog”
on FantasyGuru.com, one of the best sites for fantasy football with overlapping
handicapping vantage points. In includes Cosell’s
notes from “watching coach’s tapes”. Considering his status and employer, he’s
not blowing smoke. His reports are comprehensive, profound, and invaluable for
my NFL handicapping.
Sports Xchange, touted by Howie Long and John Madden, is consumed by sundry media
outlets and by yours truly in the NFL and MLB.
How about college sports? Scout.com is the centralized
portal for Internet and hard copy team specific sites, that in their words,
“publish inside and exclusive content” on many of the teams. The caliber of
intuition varies greatly from team to team, but sifting through the filler
content often uncovers handicapping wisdom.
The next time you hear a handicapper claiming to have
scouts with inside information, he may actually be telling the truth. There is
one certainty, the oddsmakers have the skinny and the gambler is in serious hardship
without it.
The more advantages the bettors’ opponent has the less
leverage for the gambler. Make no mistake, the oddsmaker
is the enemy. The cost of not having a scout’s angle has never been greater.
The only way to counteract the munitions that the linesmaker has is to use that same artillery against him.
Luckily the bookmaker has to post odds long before the investor needs to
finalize his picks, allowing the gamester to empower superior real-time
information.
The Information Age continues to be great news for both
the oddsmakers and professional speculator, while the hunch bettor underwrites
at an accelerated rate. To that we are forever grateful.
The author, Joe Duffy is CEO of OffshoreInsiders.com
where you can opt to be part of the elite club of winning bettors, or chose to
finance those who are.