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Weekly Q&A with Doc's Sports Expert Handicapper Raphael Esparza


by Doc's Sports - 2/13/2018

Bernardo Silva of Manchester City

This week's betting action at Doc's Sports offers a mixed bag of opportunities across a wide spectrum of sporting events. This creates the perfect opportunity to turn to expert handicapper Raphael Esparza for some inside information and betting tips on some of the biggest action on the board.

The former Vegas Sports Informer honed his craft as one of the best sports handicappers in the nation during a long and successful career in the Las Vegas sportsbook industry. At the peak of his career, he held the prestigious position as the Director of the Race and Sports Book for MGM Grand's Aria until walking away from the sportsbook industry in 2013. Raphael now focuses all his energy trying to beat the books with a successful and diverse sports investment service from his home base in Las Vegas as well as from the Big Easy in New Orleans. The following is this week's Q&A with one of Doc's most interesting handicappers.

Doc's Sports: It is very rare that a team that has played in the last three NBA Finals blows up its roster right before the trade deadline. What do you make of Cleveland's trade moves in terms of the value in its current odds to win the Eastern Conference title for the fourth straight season?

RE: Most of these moves were to alter some poor player chemistry in Cleveland's locker room as well as put some younger pieces in place for the Cavaliers to build around LeBron James in an effort to keep him with the team past this season. I am not sure if it was enough to guarantee a fourth straight trip to the NBA Finals given the strong level of competition in the East from other teams such as Boston, Toronto and Milwaukee.

Doc's Sports: You know that it is a crazy season in men's college basketball when the No. 2 team in the nation loses a game as a double-digit home favorite and still moves into the top spot of the national rankings the following week. Does the wide-open play in the college hoops' regular season point towards a wide-open NCAA Tournament in March where any number of teams have a legitimate shot at winning a national title?

RE: Competition for this year's national title should remain wide open right into the NCAA Tournament in the absence of any dominant teams. A few teams that are currently on my radar as legitimate Final Four contenders would be Xavier, Cincinnati, Texas Tech and Gonzaga. This is the kind of season where you could see some big-named programs make an early first- or second-round exit.

Doc's Sports: We know that you are not the biggest NASCAR handicapper in the nation when it comes to picking winners in the weekly Cup Series events. However, given that the Daytona 500 is the sport's biggest race of the year, do you have any thoughts on how to bet this Sunday's Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway?

RE: I will wait until later in the week to really dig into this year's Daytona 500 since I focus on head-to-head matchups in golf on Mondays and Tuesdays. Jumping ahead, I do like the value in a few lesser-known drivers such as Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Byron when it comes to betting them head-to-head in Sunday's race.

Doc's Sports : You have frequently talked about the betting value in soccer, especially in the English Premier League. In advance of the start of this season's competition in the Champion's League Round of 16, do you have any thoughts on Manchester City as one of the favorites to win heading into the opening matches?

RE: I do love English Premier soccer, but I would normally go against most teams from this league when it came to competition in the Champion's League in favor of some of the other European teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid. This time around, I do like the value in Man City as a +250 favorite to win it all given just how good this team has looked this year.

Doc's Sports: As far as the Winter Olympics, we talked last week about how big curling has become as both a spectator sport as well as a betting event. Through the early action on the men's and women's side along with mixed doubles, which teams have caught your attention when it comes to the best value in winning gold?

RE : This competition on both the men's and women's side of curling appears to be Canada's to lose. Sweden is still a factor, but the current odds weight heavily towards both teams from 'north of the border' taking home gold in this sport. As far as the Winter Olympics in general, the United State's surprising success in snowboarding by some very young competitors has been the big story early in these games.

Click here to visit Raphael Esparza's Insider's Page at Doc's Sports for more information on his amazingly-profitable sports handicapping picks. Also, get $60 worth of Esparza's member's picks absolutely free - no obligation, no sales people - you don't even have to enter credit card information. You can use this $60 credit for any sport Esparza handicaps. Click here for $60 worth of free picks from Raphael Esparza .

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