Sharp Sports Betting

Rating:
Summary: Good info, but out of date
Review: "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.

Rating:
Summary: Sharp Sports Betting
Review: I really found this book to be boring. I would recommend this book to a person who does not know anything about sports betting. This book is not for experts. To much basic stuff, like what straight bets, parleys, teasers, ect are. Three quarters of the book explains betting terms. The only one good thing I got from this book is the charts in chapter 13. I found these win loss charts against the spread to be great information. Everything else was weak. Do not buy this book if you are looking for ways to win. I could write a book that would help you do a lot better in handicapping then this book will. There are some great points in this book, but those great points come from other authors. The author gets most of his information from a certain website, so I guess you pay to find that sites name.

Rating:
Summary: Some good information in this book...
Review: Like the person before me I think Sharp Sports Betting is better for the beginning bettor. This is a pretty thick book which might make you think there is a lot about how to handicap your own games but there really is very little on that subject. The book deals mostly with defining types of bets and only really addresses football specifically. However, the reason I gave this 4 stars is because I liked the mathematical approach to prop bets. It gives you a really good way to figure out if they are worth betting on depending on the payouts by the sportsbook. Also, as another reviewer pointed out, the charts at the end were interesting and gives you a few good angles to bet on football. I would have liked to have seen more on handicapping though and less defining of terms and bets. Overall though, Sharp Sports Betting is a pretty good book. The information is current and also addresses things like internet betting, while providing some interesting websites.

Rating:
Summary: Emphasis on Statistics. Good for Beginner to Intermediate.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Emphasis on Statistics. Good for Beginner to Intermediate.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Sharp Sports Betting
Review: The book addresses all aspects of betting. How to place bets, internet betting, book betting. Talks about shopping for the best lines. Addresses quarters, halfs, sides, totals, straight, future, teasers, money lines vs spreads. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in becoming a better sports better. The question and answer section after each chapter quizzes you on the material you just read. The appendixes and tables at the end of the book would satisfy any mathematical curiosity you may have that there is alot of work that goes into beating sports. In closing the index in the back of the book gives you a quick reference guide should a question be asked of you while your on the phone with your friend talking sports. It's the best book on football that I've read, covering all the essentials to betting and handicapping.