MLB Handicapping: What The Odssmakers Don’t Want You to Know by Carlo Campanella April 2005 Every game on the day’s schedule is a prospective wagering opportunity to a professional handicapper. It's not like the good old days back in Vegas where "Inside Information" was only known by a select few professional gamblers who traded it with one another by a whisper, while watching the big game at the Stardust. Our daily lives, as well as the gaming industry, have been drastically changed by the advent of the Internet and there are now literally thousands of useful statistics, trends, and angles at our finger tips for each event scheduled on the card. In fact, there is too much information to weed through. It could take hours, possibly even days, to research the information for just a single game, so a skillful handicapper learns how to pick through the masses of information and select just the factors that will have the greatest effect on the final outcome. Over the long term, winners are produced by linking a combination of factors together in order to project how the game will play out, which allows us to accurately predict how it will end. When playing a sport such as football, some plays during the game are more important to the final outcome than others, but it's a combination of all the plays in a game that ultimately lead to victory. In order to make money wagering on sports, it's important to have solid handicapping behind your wager. If you do your homework, and analyze games based on this type of handicapping information and statistics on a daily basis, you’ll find that every team in Major League Baseball can offer wagering value. The trick is uncovering the spots where each team offers the most value. Face it, if only the most popular teams covered the spread, or the favorite always won, Vegas would be out of business and everyone would make a living by betting on sports, instead of going to the office. Information can be categorized into three categories; League Systems, Team Trends, and Key Angles. League Systems are based on the results of an entire league- the MLB, NFL, or NCAA Football, etc. over an extended period of time. For instance, one System that I like to use early in the MLB season tells us to wager on any American League road team that’s bullpen has a combined ERA of 3.75 or lower that’s facing an opponent with a .260 or worse team batting average in April. This League System has produced a 59-29 (67%) record during the past 5 baseball seasons all by itself. Team Trends are based on a variety of statistical situations, but only based on a single teams’ performance. For example, we find the Texas Rangers at 19-6 (76%) when playing at home against AL East teams, while Arizona is 9-25 (26%) against NL opponents that are averaging 4.3 or less runs per game on the season. Key Angles are handicapping factors geared toward a teams’ specific performance behind a specific player, event, or wagering parameter. We find a good example of this as the Texas Rangers are 12-1 (92%) with Kenny Rogers starting on the mound when he’s favored between -125 and -175. While any of these handicapping factors can produce substantial profits when used correctly on their own, they are most powerful when linked together in order to create a premise that can explain how the game will be played out, and therefore, how it will end. For instance, based on the examples above, it could be a solid betting opportunity to play Texas when Kenny Rogers is starting on the mound and favored between -125 and -175 (the Key Angle above), but if we can combine that on a night that Texas is also at home playing against a team hailing from the AL East (our Team Trend), we have a much stronger wagering situation. Wagering on sports is an investment, and by linking handicapping factors together and waiting for the right situations, a player can show a substantial profit on any sport!   Join The Iron Horse (Carlo Campanella) right here for daily Guaranteed Selections