Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting [Paperback]

King Yao (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2007

Sports betting can be attacked intelligently. Smart sports bettors do not gamble the same way as tourists play roulette or retirees play the slot machines. Instead, smart sports bettors are making bets that they have thought through carefully with supporting logic and/or research. The purpose of this book is to give you tools to succeed at sports betting, to show you how to evaluate, compare and view sports betting from an analytical perspective, not from a gambling perspective.

This book by King Yao, author of the widely-acclaimed Weighing the Odds in Hold 'em Poker, should be used as a guideline to sports betting rather than a blueprint. The sports betting market changes and adapts quickly. The underlying principles shown in this book should help you adapt and continue to make good bets even when the market changes.

This book is for you if you want to think analytically about sports betting. It is for you if you do not want to be spoon-fed supposed winners, but want to get some ideas to improve your game. You battle bookmakers and line makers constantly; betting sports is a game of maneuvers and adjustments. You can use as many weapons as possible in this continuous fight. This book should help in that regard.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

King Yao: I have analyzed and bet on sports for a long time, but it was after finishing writing Weighing the Odds in Hold em Poker that I turned my main focus on sports betting. There are many different ways to approach sports betting, and the more I delved into it, the more interesting and challenging I found it. You can approach it from a handicapper's point of view and try to make a better line than the line makers and the market. Or you can approach it from a relative-value player's point of view and make distributional, correlated and derivative bets. Or you can approach it from the point of view of a scalper or middler. There are numerous ways to attack the sports betting market and find positive Expected Value.

I did enjoy the process of writing Weighing the Odds in Hold em Poker and decided to write about some of the things I learned about sports betting. In February, 2006, I submitted my first article to the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. I enjoyed writing the article as it forced me to focus on a specific topic and explore it in-depth and from different angles. After a few months of writing articles, I started writing this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Pi Yee Press (July 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935926305
• ISBN-13: 978-0935926309
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent academic textbook approach to sports betting, July 26, 2007

By 

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

This book is clearly written for math-oriented people who have never bet on sports, or gamblers who know about sports but do not have a mastery of the fundamentals to win long-term. This is NOT geared towards professional sports bettors (who will already know most of what is in there).

The first 99 pages are directed towards the technical fundamentals of winning at sports betting. While the mathematics are easy (requiring Algebra at a minimum), it is a component of nearly every analysis. Mastery of this material will teach you how to think like a winning sports bettor. The topics are diverse, including everything from EV (expected value) to evaluation of half-points in a sport. There is an in-depth analysis of hedging (which beginning sports bettors seem to misuse constantly). The quantitative analysis and methodology might make you feel like you are studying a book on stock investing (and in fact, there are a lot of similarities in stocks and sports betting).

The remainder of the book is intermediate material, which uses the principles taught in the first section. How do you determine a fair first-half line in NFL if you know the game spread? How do you determine the fair price on a prop like "Will the shortest TD in a football game be less than 1.5 yards?" There are many exercises that pose a gambling problem, presents research, and shows an analysis of the research to analyze a problem. The reader isn't likely to show an immediate profit from this material, but it WILL show you the thought process used by a winning gambler. If a person understands what they read, they can identify and analyze their own problems, which is the first step to profiting in sports betting.

The author does not give away any "secrets" that will cost him money. While it points you in the general direction, it cannot give away everything - the reader will have to apply what is learned, and do additional research on his own to win. Very few winning sports bettors would disclose more.

If you have never bet on sports, and are wondering what type of work must be done to have a chance, this is the best introductory text on sports betting I have read. Another good beginner's book is Stanford Wong's "Sharp Sports Betting", although that material is dated.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars positve EV for $13.57, August 23, 2007

By 

Greg Richards - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)

the reading is full of good math tips for converting percentage into money lines and vise verse. The EV discussion is pretty basic and many advanced gamblers will be bored by this but really for me it was a nice re review of addressing basic probability theory into your bets and if you cannot mathematically define your advantage in a bet assume it is negative EV and don't bother. Later in the book King has tables and graphs of NFL games from 1989 to 2006 (great sample size IMHO) and the advantage of half points and other tip bids are addressed (so even the advanced gambler will at least get utility out of this book.) Since basketball and other sports are out of season now I did not read those sections yet. The reality is that there are few great books on sports betting due to the fact that the computer teams see huge negative EV in writing about their 'edge.' The fact that King even bothers makes this book a steal for $13. Anyone that puts this book down, I would be very dubious of that review due to the price point of this book being pretty low.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars About as good as it gets for sports betting literature, December 18, 2007

By 

Qofspades - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)

This book is easily worth the 14 dollar investment. I gave this book 4 stars as I was primarily looking for handicapping ideas or methods whereas the book excels in providing "betting" advice which he has learned through the use of his extensive databases.

The book is essential reading if one is new to sports gambling and has not read Stanford Wong's "Sharp Sports Betting". It is especially nice that King Yao provides the reader with information such as fair betting lines for firts half (4.5 innings) baseball lines, as well as fair first half NFL lines corresponding to a full game line.

Overall, very good book and easily worth the money