No, were not talking about a Clint Eastwood movie here, were talking about the industry of sport betting services. Sport betting advisors have been around for a very long time. In the early days they were known as “tout services” or “sport services”. The big question has always been, are they a necessary evil or just a group of scam artists preying on the addiction or greed of sport bettors? Answer: True and True. Most serious sport bettors whose bottom line is building their bank accounts, have to rely on a sport betting advisor to maintain a consistent profit season after season. The time requirements of successfully handicapping a daily sporting schedule is for the most part the biggest obstacle for sport bettors to do their own selections. It takes a dedicated fulltime effort to be a winning handicapper. Sport betting advisors are as important to the sport bettor as a stock broker is to the stock player. Without the knowledge and time to analyze the daily schedule, the average sport bettor or stock player would have little chance of being successful over any extended period of time.

That being said, choosing the right service can be as stressful as handicapping the schedule. The best way to pick your service is through referrals or hands on experience. Twenty years ago it was not all that difficult as there were only a handful of visible services to choose from. The age of the internet has made the industry a wide open opportunity for scam artists and “wannabe’s” to jump on the bandwagon and rape the industry with advertising and marketing campaigns that would range from the ridiculous to the bizarre. I obviously believe that we are a necessity to many sport bettors and can provide a very useful and profitable service.
I group sport services in three categories….”The Good”…”The Bad”…”The Ugly”…

The Ugly…..When I first arrived in Las Vegas some 20 years ago, I answered an ad for a “sports sales representative”. I figured this to be sport service selling picks, and already being a successful handicapper but having no inside knowledge of how a sport service operates, I applied and got the job….To say the least, I was appalled at what I experienced. This service was definitely in the category of  “The Ugly”. Unfortunately I found that this was the common practice of sport services rather than the extraordinary.

This group are the ones that have no clue how to handicap a sporting event, nor do they care. One method of making their money is to obtain a phone list of known sport bettor’s, these are usually obtained through an inside contact at a sport book, hire a group of phone solicitors and start calling. They offer a “super one time play of the century” for free. If it wins they want $500.00 (some go as high as $10,000.00) to be sent via Fed Ex the day after the game wins. The catch here is that the phone solicitors making the calls are split into two rooms, one room is called the “A” room the other is the “B” room. The A room gives out one side of the game, the B room gives out the other side of the same game, thus insuring the service that half of the people they talked to will win the game.
For the group that wins the game, the solicitors will wait one day for the Fed Ex and then begin calling the winners back, many times offering them “another” play as soon as the money is received. If in fact the money does not come through, there is another person in another room that calls to collect. They use tactics like, “I know where your kids go to school, so you better pay up”, or I know where your wife works, I know the license number of you wifes car etc….Many times they legitimately get this information by calling as a survey taker and talking to the kids or the wife who unknowingly offer this type of information. The intimidation will most of the time get them their money.

Another tactic of this group is to set up 800 numbers with free plays. They use the same approach by having two 800 numbers and give out both sides of the same game. Before getting the game, the caller has to provide their personal information such as phone numbers and many times credit card numbers. Again they are asked to send X amount of dollars if the game wins, and again they are insured that half the people will win. This same approach was also used with 900 numbers, where the callers paid up front. If the callers won the game, they would be inclined to call back the next day, the ones that lost were just replaced with new people through advertising and marketing techniques. Now just to make things clear….I am not saying that every service that offers free 800 selections or offer a 900 service fall into this category. There are many legitimate services which choose to use 800 and 900 numbers as just their method of marketing.

There are many horror stories surrounding this group of who have been dubbed “scam-d-cappers”, way too many to mention in this article. So to classify the “Ugly”, they are the ones who have no interest in handicapping the games and their only motivation is to extract your money with no care as to whether they win games or not. Their on-going marketing ploys and availability of phone lists will keep new customers coming in daily. The other sign of the Ugly is the outrageous ads that are posted on the internet. I actually saw one guy who had the audacity to post an ad that stated that he is 272-0 in his NFL selections over the past 4 years!…I am really curious as to how many people actually bought into that and paid him his $200.00 for the weekend of plays…..I have on many occasions lost members because they had a capper giving away free picks on the internet and they felt they shouldn’t have to pay a service if they can get it for free…or for much less. I can’t begin to tell you how many of these people have called me around the middle of the season wanting me to give them a special deal because they went broke and needed to recoup their money before the season ended. This is the Ugly…

“The Bad”……Unlike the “Ugly” we described in part one of this article, the “Bad” are not those who are giving out both sides of a game and using threats to collect money etc….This group are still ones that you want to stay clear of. They may not be the blatant rip-off artists of the Ugly, they are just bad handicappers who cannot win on a consistent basis.

It takes a fulltime effort and lifetime of knowledge to be a consistent winning handicapper season after season, and there are very few people in the sport service business that have the time and have accumulated the knowledge to be successful. The lure of the boom in sport betting and the convenience of the internet, opened the doors to thousands of “wanna-be’s” eager to take advantage of the millions of dollars being spent in the sport service industry. As for you bankroll…well it is just as much in jeopardy as it would be with the above mentioned “Ugly” only you are getting somewhat of a more “honest” effort.

With this group there is still a bit of larceny as with them not being winners, they will have a tendency to “pad” or exxagerate their records in order to get business. Obviously if you are looking to make money by selling your picks, then you must have a winning record or why would anyone pay you for your picks. This group will normally show their winning days in headlines on the front page of their websites and no mention anywhere on the site when they have a losing day. They will have a tendency to “hedge” the line when posting a play. If a play for example is -2.5, they may post it at say -1.0 or a pick then showing it as a winner when the play falls within the spread. They will skew a record by one game every few days knowing that most viewers pay little attention to whether the record is 47-43 or 48-42.

This group will also be ones, although they don’t fall into the “Ugly” category, they will advertise outlandish and untruthful winning records, taking advantage of the greedy and naive sport betting general public. They will also advertise “free” offers. A free day or a free week of plays hoping that they will just happen to hit a good week and get paid for the following week. There is nothing wrong with occasionally offering a free introductory week of plays, that’s good marketing sometimes, but this group will continue to make these offers and pumping up their advertising to continually get a fresh influx of potential customers knowing they will eventually have a winning week and get paid. Even I give away a introductory week as a means of marketing, but it is very very rare. The best way to choose a service is through personal referral. Many of my clients have been with me for 10-12 and even 15 years and they would not hesitate to offer a recommendation to my service to anyone who asks….at least I think they would.