Weekly Sports Betting and Handicapping News Articles

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 10/19/2011

E – Evgeni Malkin. The most unintentionally funny professional athlete Twitter account belongs to Pittsburgh Penguin Evgeni Malkin, a Russian. English is not his first language and from the looks of his tweets it’s not his second, third or fourth either. On Oct. 12 he tweeted, “I am getting ready to Halloween)))))))”. On Oct. 3 this nonsense was posted, “for all the heads of all let go from his job, a day of rest))))” And his all-time best came on Oct. 1, “just read that the tomato - fruit?? true?” Most of his tweets end with a bunch of close ended parentheses, which he may think are actually exclamation points.

Weekly Sports Betting Hot/Cold List
by - 10/18/2011

What is going on in the NFL? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, people ran the football and played tough defense. Now teams are throwing the ball 50 times and giving up points in droves. How many times have you found yourself screaming at the television “GET A STOP,” just to see your defense let a team throw a 30-yard screen for a touchdown?

Monday Couch Potato: NFL Week 6/NCAA Week 7 Betting Recap
by Alan Matthews - 10/17/2011

Welcome again to the Monday coach potato, a recap of the football weekend that was. I hope you took my advice on the Bodog prop for which team would be the last unbeaten. That is Green Bay, and that’s the team I recommended (they were second favorites behind the Pats when that prop was released). Here are three other things that caught my attention in the pro and college ranks this past weekend:

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 10/14/2011

As always, a quick recap of what the Public Action Report is. We are on the lookout for teams for which the odds get more attractive even though the bulk of the betting action (at least 70 percent of all bets placed) has been placed on them. When a team has that kind of lopsided attention the odds should get less attractive as the books try to balance their action to minimize risk.

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 10/12/2011

B – BCS National Championship. Since college football has no playoff, Bodog has gone ahead and slashed the possible wagers on the 2011-2012 BCS National Champion. There are only 13 teams you can wager on and not a ‘field’ option. The favorites are Alabama (7/4), Oklahoma (3/1), LSU (9/2) and Wisconsin (7/1). The long shots are Georgia Tech (50/1), West Virginia (50/1) and Texas (125/1). This is obviously different than the NFL where you can still wager on the Rams to win the Super Bowl.

Weekly Sports Betting Hot/Cold List
by - 10/12/2011

Flipping through the pages of the Beckett’s Baseball Monthly is one of the best memories I have from my childhood. (Look, there wasn’t much to do in the 80s.) It was equal parts baseball bible and pre-adolescent trading card porn. Cracking that thing and diving into the first few pages each month was as good as it got for a 10-year-old kid.

Monday Couch Potato: NFL Week 5/NCAA Week 6 Betting Recap
by Alan Matthews - 10/10/2011

If you continue to bet on Michael Vick and Co., you are clearly just throwing your money away. As I mentioned last week, the Eagles have sort of become the Yankees (how’d that work out by the way?) in the eyes of oddsmakers in that Philly is always overvalued. Somehow, the then 1-3 Iggles were three-point favorites on Sunday at 3-1 Buffalo.

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 10/7/2011

Last week was not the best for the Public Action Report. In fact, outside of calling a very nice upset of Northern Illinois by Central Michigan, it was a totally forgettable week. Not every week can be great, though, and it has been strong up to this point.

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 10/6/2011

A – Are You Ready For Some Football? For the first time in over 20 years there was no racist redneck asking us if we were ready for some football on Monday night. Thanks to a rant comparing President Barack Obama to Hitler, ESPN yanked Hank Williams Jr. from the opening of “Monday Night Football”. His half-assed apology probably didn’t help expedite the process of getting him back on the air. His “apology” basically reiterated his first statement and he went on to thank his supporters. He closed it by saying, “This was not written by some publicist.” Well that was pretty obvious.

Monday Couch Potato: NFL Week 4/NCAA Week 5 Betting Recap
by Alan Matthews - 10/3/2011

I actually had a productive betting week, but it would have been tremendous if not for those stupid, stupid Detroit Lions! I used to live in Michigan so am happy for friends and family who follow this team, but I expected the Lions to lose both last week at Minnesota and on Sunday in Dallas. Instead, the Lions (+1.5 at kickoff) made last week’s comeback from 20-0 down look average as they rallied from a 27-3 hole in Big D to win, 34-30. The Lions are 4-0 for the first time since 1980.

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 9/30/2011

Last week was another good one for the Public Action Report. There were six games, and four covered the spread. That’s two solid weeks in a row. It’s a very busy week this week as we go for three strong showings in a row — four college games and four in the NFL.

Monday Couch Potato: NFL Week 3/NCAA Week 4 Betting Recap
by Alan Matthews - 9/26/2011

Certainly the story of the pro football weekend had to be the suddenly resurgent Buffalo Bills ending a 15-game losing streak (as a seven-point home dog) to the New England Bradys with an exciting 34-31 victory on Sunday to take the early lead in the AFC East. The Bills were down 21-0 in the second quarter but were able to pick Tom Brady off four times, including returning one for a score, and they won it 34-31 on Rian Lindell’s 28-yard field goal.

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 9/23/2011

Last week was a perfect example of the potential of the Public Action Report. There were four games that fit our criteria. All four games turned out as we hoped — Penn State and Houston both came back late to win but couldn’t cover, Army won outright as five-point underdogs, and Carolina pulled off a late back door cover on Sunday thanks to Cam Newton’s heroics. It was as good as it can be.

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 9/21/2011

A – Ass. The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Victor Ortiz fight turned into WrestleMania on Saturday night. First there was the illegal Ortiz head butt, then an attempt at a hug that was followed by two sucker punches from Mayweather that ended the fight and sent the crowd into bedlam. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, Mayweather and his entourage mixed it up with 80-year old boxing analyst Larry Merchant in a post-fight interview. Mayweather told Merchant that he “ain’t shit” and Merchant morphed into Mean Gene Okerlund and yelled, “I wish I was 50 years younger, and I’d kick your ass.”

Monday Couch Potato: NFL Week 2/NCAA Week 3 Betting Recap
by Alan Matthews - 9/19/2011

Welcome again to the Monday coach potato, a recap of the football weekend that was. Why the title? Everyone does “Monday morning quarterback” so what fun is that? I’m not a quarterback and I simply sat on the couch and watched as much football as humanly possible over the course of the weekend. So that title seems more apt. Yes, this is the same lead as last week, but I just wanted to make it clear!

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 9/16/2011

It’s time for another edition of the Public Action Report - the second one of the year. While the report typically starts slowly in terms of finding winners it had a promising start last week. It spotted that Ohio State could struggle with a feisty Toledo squad -- and they almost lost that home game and didn’t come close to covering the 18-point spread -- and it identified that Iowa State had upset potential against Iowa in that big rivalry game.

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 9/16/2011

A – ARod and CDiaz. With the power couple now broken up, you can bet on the rebound of both Cameron Diaz and Alex Rodriguez. The odds for who Diaz will date next are actor (‘even’), musician (+200), professional athlete (+250) and model (+400). For Rodriguez the odds are actress (‘even’), model (+150), musician (+250) and professional athlete (+700). The pro athlete prop for ARod seems like a long shot (have you seen the women who play in the WNBA), but, then again, the wager never specifies gender. And no word on what category a Kardashian falls under.

Weekly Football Betting Public Action Report
by T.O. Whenham - 9/9/2011

Another football season is here. That means it’s time to start another year of the Public Action Report — my favorite little pet project. In a nutshell, every week we’re looking for line movement that make sense — a specific type of movement that indicates that a game is worth a closer look. Over the past few years the Public Action Report has done a very good job of picking out games to avoid and underdogs to back.

This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 9/8/2011

A – Antoinette Nikprelaj. That is the real life name for the mermaid in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Phillies bench player John Mayberry Jr. must have just watched that because he had his agent creep on Nikprelaj’s agent and try to ask the mermaid out. The agent of Mayberry Jr. began writing the e-mail by name dropping baseball players she may have actually heard of like Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Andre Either…etc, basically anybody besides John Mayberry Jr. Turns out this won’t work out, probably because nobody knows who John Mayberry is, let alone John Mayberry Jr., but also because Nikprelaj is married and has a kid.

Las Vegas Week 1 College Football Betting Recap
by Vegas Sports Informer - 9/6/2011

What gets bet in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas because I inform the public what really goes down in Sin City. Every football weekend I will report what happened in the Vegas sports books, because that’s pretty much where I live during the months of September through April. I will inform the betting public of the good and the bad in the sports books and I will be reporting what gamblers are saying when they are waiting to wager their plays.