Sharp Sports Betting [Paperback]

Stanford Wong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

Sharp Sports Betting explains the logic and math of sports bets, including such exotic bets as parlays, teasers, and props. Lots of NFL data.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Pi Yee Pr (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935926240
• ISBN-13: 978-0935926248
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emphasis on Statistics. Good for Beginner to Intermediate., March 14, 2003

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sharp Sports Betting (Paperback)

Sharp Sports Betting is a complete lesson in betting on the NFL. For the beginner, there is instruction on what kind of bets are available and how to place them. And there is detailed instruction on how to handicap sporting events and determine what bets are worth taking using complex statistical analyses. I say that it is a complete lesson in betting the NFL because most examples that the author gives are from the NFL. Much of the book's content can be applied equally to other sports, and the author frequently tells you exactly how to do that. But I would say that it is not a complete lesson in betting on other sports, due to its emphasis on the NFL.

For those unfamiliar with the workings of sports books, Sharp Sports Betting explains how to place bets, money management, calculating what you stand to win on bets, and what types of bets are available, including separate chapters on money lines, over/under bets, props, parlays, and teasers. There is a glossary of sports book terms in the back of the book. And there is a chapter on internet sports books.

Moving beyond the basics, the author lays out his highly mathematical methods of handicapping sporting events and choosing bets. I have to say that I was not at all surprised to find out, on the last pages of this book, that Stanford Wong is also a professional blackjack player. He earned his way through graduate school playing cards. He has written books on blackjack. And he handicaps sports precisely like a blackjack player. I think the cardshark perspective that Wong brings to handicapping sports lends a little extra interest and unique content to Sharp Sports Betting. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the guy is a statistics and probability nut. He doesn't actually make his own lines, so there is no instruction on line-making. He just tells you how to beat the lines that the sports books are offering, using probabilities. At least half of this 384-page book is dedicated to teaching the reader how to calculate probabilities of various things happening in a game -pretty much anything that could happen in a game, actually. I wouldn't know how to begin to explain it, so I won't. In addition to instruction, the author includes a lot of charts which aid you in predicting outcomes, many specifically for the NFL, but some relevant to other sports. There are also 2 appendices with charts of Poisson distribution of events (probabilities), one cumulative and one not. A third appendix contains charts for win-lose-push probabilities.

Sharp Sports Betting is a good introduction to sports betting for the novice. Its very mathematical tone and in-depth instruction on calculating probability make it useful for the intermediate bettor, as well. The author's passion for applying statistics to sports, in the spirit of a card player, may result in some fresh ideas for the experienced handicapper also.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info, but out of date, January 17, 2004

By 

obediah (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sharp Sports Betting (Paperback)

"Sharp sports betting" is a book about sports gambling with an emphasis on the NFL. The book takes a very methodical approach to beating the number posted by the bookmaker. The book outlines a number of interesting techniques for beating various spread, moneyline and proposition wagers.

The author expects the reader to blindly accept many of his techniques. Large sections of the book assume that sports data fits neatly into a particular probability distribution, such as Poisson or binomial. The author does not justify his reasoning and expects the reader to go on faith alone. This left me slightly uneasy because if the underlying assumption is incorrect, all the calculations are rendered useless.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the book is its age. Many of the techniques have already been incorporated into the betting line. No bookmaker will allow the player to have an advantage by buying off the "3" in the NFL. The book is still useful for evaluating certain wagers such as middles but unfortunately its value has greatly diminished with time.

A good book to buy for easy access to NFL reference charts.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The bible of sports gambling, October 8, 2005

By 

Elihu D. Feustel "daringly" (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sharp Sports Betting (Paperback)

Stanford Wong wrote the single best volume for the beginner to intermediate sports bettor (with an emphasis on football). The book teaches the basics of sportsbetting, terminology, understanding odds, and methods to make bets that should win in the long-term. This is an excellent primer on someone who is serious about making money from sports.

The material is slightly dated - internet betting has made the sports markets more efficient. Notwithstanding this, most of the material is still useful (notable exceptions are trends of super bowl teams, and some underdog analysis).

There is a recurring emphasis on mathematics, which any solid gambling book should have. Additionally, the book has several charts that are invaluable to sports bettors. It has frequences of pushes for NFL against different spreads, as well as different totals (these have not changed significantly since the book was published). Additionally, it has odds charts for Poisson distributions for 1 and 2 variables. While an advanced gambler could generate all these charts themselves, this book still saves the newer gamblers many hours - and the book is worth it for these alone.

If you are serious about gambling to win (which means you are willing to put in long hours, and are very disciplined), there are a few other books you might consider: any of Stanford Wong's Blackjack Books; Larry Seidel's "Investing in College Basketball" and Don Pesynski's "Win more-- lose less!".