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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent academic textbook approach to sports betting
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...
Published on July 26, 2007 by Elihu D. Feustel
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Save your money
Don't buy this book! It really doesn't offer anything that is useful. Everything is from a 30,000 foot view that doesn't give detail on things that will help you. It talks about only betting when there is positive Expected Value (EV). Really! Gee, and this whole time I thought I should bet on things that were expected to lose money over time. But it never helps you...
Published 27 days ago by pokerplayer
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent academic textbook approach to sports betting, July 26, 2007
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.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
positve EV for $13.57, August 23, 2007
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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
About as good as it gets for sports betting literature, December 18, 2007
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
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good Book For Beginners, January 27, 2009
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good beginner betting book, April 25, 2008
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
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.
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Save your money, August 11, 2010
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
Don't buy this book! It really doesn't offer anything that is useful. Everything is from a 30,000 foot view that doesn't give detail on things that will help you. It talks about only betting when there is positive Expected Value (EV). Really! Gee, and this whole time I thought I should bet on things that were expected to lose money over time. But it never helps you decide how discern between the two. The whole book is filled with things like this. Now I was only interested in football so I didn't read the other sections but I don't hold out much hope for those sections.
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Well organized and easy to understand, August 2, 2010
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
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
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Great book for the beginning bettor., November 15, 2009
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
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.
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Very Good Book, July 7, 2008
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
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.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Digging Deep in Sports Betting, December 16, 2007
This review is from: Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (Paperback)
Can a book be too good? First, you must decide what is meant by "good" . . . Deep insight to some, is inscrutable for others. I've run a major sports betting website for many years, and what is undebatable is that the average fan is looking for guidelines, rather than a complicated forumla. But if you are looking to dig deeper, this book offers valuable insight.
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