Customer Reviews

Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I agree as many of the other reviews before. That's it's a good book for beginners in sports betting. The math is quite simple to understand. If you never done sports betting and want to learn more about how to calculate EV and to understand how sports betting is working, this is the book for you.

I always was intrigued about the lines and odds in sport betting, This book explains everything. The only little negative is that it does not cover soccer just American sports

Really did enjoy this book and will refer to it again and again to re-inforce some of the material in here. Very sound advice and the content is easily grasped. My only criticism (and it's a minor issue) is that some of the topics aren't covered in deep enough detail (IMO) i.e. Some of the topics are written in 2-3 paragraphs when I felt they needed a little more in depth coverage on them.

That aside, it's a good read and useful resource in a genre where quality is hard to come by.

I'm a beginner in the world of sports betting and this is exactly what I was looking for. The book is very specific with its details and now I feel much better prepared to place bets.

It's a decent general overview of how sports betting works. The problem is that I read it in parallel with Feustel's "Conquering Risk." Feustel's book nearly makes Yao's book obsolete, as it contains most of the same material (though more concise) and then adds a ton of detailed strategy advice, which Yao's book lacks. In short, I would have recommended this book to the beginning handicapper were there nothing better available. As it stands now, I don't think there is a ton of unique value here.

If you are new to sports betting I strongly recommend buying this book and Stanford Wong's Sharp Sports Betting. These are the two quintessential books for the beginning bettor. Reading the two books will take you from a total newb to an advanced beginner in the shortest time possible and will make you +EV in sports betting to a certain degree.

Probably not. But is it really worth buying this book? No. There aren't any good books on sports betting. It's because those that actually win at sports betting do not write books and they don't like to share info with others. There are too many douches, scammers, and touts in sports betting community. Bottom line, you want the best advice for sports betting? Don't buy picks from any one, don't buy books on sports betting, don't try to make models unless you are a math geek that has years of data, and do it for recreation. I doubt there are more than 1% winning at this crap.