Investing in College Basketball [Hardcover]

Larry R. Seidel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2004

Investing in College Basketball provides a comprehensive set of tools and techniques for successfully wagering on college basketball. It shows how the returns - winnings -- from investing in college basketball can be far greater than investing in stocks and bonds. These returns can be achieved by anyone with an interest in basketball, basic mathematical skills, and a computer with spreadsheet programs and Internet access. The power of the methodology is demonstrated by actual investing results for the 2003-2004 season of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The book includes an analysis of investment outcomes for the A-10 Conference, the working papers for assessing each team, and the analysis of each game for which an investment was made. There are extensive examples of how theory is applied in analyzing actual games and showing how good analysis consistently pays off.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Gambling on college hoops is a waste of money.

Investing in college basketball can be much more profitable than investing in stocks, bonds, real estate, and other more conventional assets – and doing so can be a lot more fun.

There are a set of tools and techniques for identifying good basketball investments that can be mastered by anyone with an interest in basketball, basic mathematical skills, and a computer with a spreadsheet program and Internet access.

Wagering on college basketball must be viewed like other investments -- applying sound financial and economic principles. For that reason, it is important to adopt a financial perspective – to think of wagers as "investments," sports books as "exchanges," winnings as "returns on investments," and the vigorish as "commissions."

College basketball provides an investing opportunity for the individual investor. While certainly there are professionals in sports wagering, most wagering is done by individuals. To win big it is only necessary to be more insightful than most other individual investors, not to beat the professionals.

In contrast, in the stock and bond markets, most of the trades are made or influenced by thousands of professionals. These traders are supported by hundreds of sophisticated researchers who have more information about companies than individual investors can ever have.

Today, there are enormous amounts of information available for Division I college basketball teams and the games they play. An individual investor can have access to virtually all of the information that is available to the most sophisticated professionals and more information than is used by competing individual investors. By applying proven analytical techniques – largely simple math – individual investors can gain a substantial advantage.

This is the most comprehensive book on college basketball wagering. It addresses how the market and the many sports books work, the different types of wagering opportunities available, how to select a conference to specialize in, the process of identifying advantageous investment opportunities and making investments, the key factors in assessing teams and the match-up in a specific game, money management, and the needed information and technology infrastructure.

Investing in College Basketball shows precisely how all of the tools and techniques are successfully applied. It includes all of the working papers for team assessments and each investment for the teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference for the 2003-2004 season. The results for the season were a 71% win rate and a return on an original bankroll exceeding 300%.

About the Author

Mr. Seidel has specialized in investing in men’s college basketball for more than a decade. He has developed the tools and techniques described in Investing in College Basketball based on actual experience and many of the fundamental financial and economic principles that apply to other types of investments. Mr. Seidel has built and run management and information technology consulting businesses. Most recently he ran a $350M consulting business that addressed several industries including banking and financial services. He received degrees in economics and finance from the University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418481394
• ISBN-13: 978-1418481391
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use with caution, January 14, 2005

By 

Alan K. Mitchell (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Investing in College Basketball (Hardcover)

This book is pretty interesting. On the one hand it does a good job outlining the hard work necessary to win betting on college hoops, and even outlines some nice methods. But all that is almost entirely nullified by the horrendous "money management" advice Seidel gives. He sounds like a tout when he says things such as "if you can't win 60% you should be doing something else". He goes on to talk about how a 75% winning percentage seems to be attainable and gives advice for using bet sizes of over 10% of your bankroll. I can not begin to tell you how bad this advice is. It basically brings into question the rest of the book and how long Seidel has actually been involved in sports betting. His money management advice reaks of someone who had a very nice season betting basketball and doesn't have an appreciation for the swings that are inherent in betting sports. Because even the most successful sports bettor in the world would eventually go broke putting that much of his bankroll at risk. For better money management advice look into classic books such as "Insights into Sports Betting" and Beating the Professional Football Point Spread". I could only recommend this book to people who are seasoned sports bettors with their own set money management ideas and REALISTIC expectations, but are interested in reading about some good approaches to college hoops. Because there is some good advice in the book, just some very bad advice as well.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant NCAA Basketball ideas, October 8, 2005

By 

Elihu D. Feustel "daringly" (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Investing in College Basketball (Hardcover)

This is the single best book I have read on handicapping NCAA basketball. His methodologies for analyzing teams, and setting spreads and totals are both fascinating and deadly. This treatise has a lot of solid theoretical content which I observed in the 2004 season, and it worked in application.

This is not a gambling treatise - while his analysis of basketball is superb, his ideas on money management and risk analysis are borderline catastrophic. However, if you are already an intermediate to advanced gambler, and you ignore all the material on bet sizing, the handicapping material is first rate (and would warrant a 5-star rating).

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invest, don't gamble!, November 15, 2004

By 

B. Levine - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Investing in College Basketball (Hardcover)

This book is great. I love college basketball and this book describes exactly how to win by spending more time on your passion.

I love the concepts. Imagine a stock market where you know more about the stocks than anyone else. Where most of the other investors are amatuers, not professionals. Where there are few frauds like Enron, Marsh, WorldCom or HealthSouth to tank your portfolio. Where investment gains come immediately, not after years. Where there are dozens of brokers keeping commissions low.

Well, this book describes college basketball betting as just such a market. College basketball "investing" offers all of these, plus none of the disadvantages of large and public betting markets such as stock market, or even the NFL or NBA. The book is a how-to-guide for those who want to gain an advantage and have the discipline to invest the time and effort.

The book is heavy on concrete descriptions on how to gather and use information. It describes strategies for each part of the season, the advantages of specializing in a conference and how to choose one, and the key factors in game analysis. The methods seem to require a lot of work and very disciplined selections, but remember, we're talking about college basketball here. This is fun analysis.

This book is completely unlike "The Odds," which came out about three years ago. The characters in that story were gambling, something this author would probably never do. He has written a book that teaches, rather than just entertains.