This is a common beginner sports betting question.
We’re asked that question more often now than ever before. With the influx of new sports bettors across the United States in regulated markets (Check out which US States have legal sports betting), the sports prediction industry is booming.
Bookies hire some of the sharpest minds in the business to ensure they beat the public.
ScoresAndStats Online Sportsbook Rankings
To consistently beat the bookies today, the best sports handicappers need to utilize sophisticated betting models, which in some cases have thousands of data points to analyze.
A casual sports bettor might spend Sunday morning doing some handicapping.
Most sports bettors don’t have the entire week to crunch numbers in betting models. If you have a full-time job, you’re never going to be able to handicap games as in-depth as you should be.
This is why thousands of sports bettors purchase predictions.
Best Sports Handicapping Services
We have reviewed numerous sports handicapping services the past year.
Only two have made the cut – read our GameAdvisers Review and Doc’s Sports Review.
Is Buying Sports Picks a Scam?
Absolutely not, however, you need to think of buying sports picks as an investment.
Here’s what you should look for initially when researching sports handicapping services:
Historical Results: Does the service have documented results since launching? The more data available, the better. The most important metric is return on investment (ROI).
The win/loss record is largely irrelevant and can be misleading at best. A handicapper may have a 300-100 record, but if they’re only betting huge favorites, they’re down a lot of money.
Don’t allow misleading data to fool you. A bettor may be hitting 70% of their bets, but what’s the average odds on each wager? If the average odds are -110, the handicapper is crushing it, but if the average odds are -300, then the handicapper has been losing a lot of money.
Sports Picks Coverage: Some will tell you that this doesn’t matter, but that’s not true and we will explain why. Ideally, you want a service with sports picks across major sports only.
Why wouldn’t you want winning Bulgarian volleyball picks? Well, for one, a lot of sports bettors won’t even be able to bet on Bulgarian volleyball and even if they can, the limits will be extremely low.
On top of that, a bettor winning on Bulgarian volleyball is going to be limited/restricted very quickly by their bookie, whereas if you’re betting on the NFL, you can stay under the radar more easily.
Cost: The cost is extremely important. Even if a handicapper is profitable in the sense that they have a positive ROI on their picks, you have to work in the cost of the service as well.
If you’re betting $100/game, you can’t pay $50/pick and expect to turn a profit even if you’re tailing the best sports handicapper in the world. You need to calculate the ROI with the service cost.
Read Our Handicappers Interview with GameAdvisers
Is it Worth it?
At the end of the day, as long as you’re turning a profit, it’s worth it. Why wouldn’t it be?
Buying sports picks is simple as well. You purchase a sports picks membership to a service like GameAdvisers and then they will email/text or even send a push notification every time a pick is released.
All you need to do is place the recommended bet with your bookmaker. Some services will even include the optimal staking plan, so you don’t even need to manage your bankroll.
