10 Tips For Successful
Handicapping
Here are 10 simple tips to help you better handicap your games and
put yourself in the best position for success.
#1 - Be Selective. It's important to be selective when choosing
your plays for the day. Generally, game lines are quite accurate
reflections of the public's opinion, which makes finding value difficult.
This is the major reason why professional bettors and reputable
handicappers do not play or recommend many games in any one-day.
Be wary of sports services that offer numerous releases for every
sport each day - especially when it comes to nationally televised
sporting events like Monday Night Football. Think about it realistically,
every Monday Night Football (or nationally televised) game simply
cannot have enough value to be a strong play. Sports services that
offer every major televised game are more concerned with getting
a piece of the action rather than helping you make the best decisions
to win. Prime Sports Picks provides its clients with only the day's
strongest plays, and never releases games based solely on their
national television coverage. Be selective to win big.
#2 - Keep Records of Your Action. If you don't know what games
you are playing, you will never know whether your winning or losing.
Keep records of your action throughout the season just as you would
keep track of any other type of investment. Once you have your records
in place, you can get a better picture of your overall success,
which will help you to manage your bankroll. So, keep records of
your plays – it’s very simple to do and will help you
in the long run.
#3 - Manage Your Bankroll. In addition to keeping track of your
action, you should also pay attention to your bankroll. The only
way to win and make money is to monitor your bankroll on a regular
basis. If you don't know whether your bankroll is increasing or
decreasing, you cannot effectively determine the appropriate amount
or frequency of your plays. Keeping an eye on your action will not
only help you make the most of your money, but will also go a long
way towards making more informed plays to attain your goals.
#4 - Set Realistic Goals. If you are serious about winning you
must come to understand the most important truth of sports wagering
- nobody wins every game. Once you get this rule into your head,
you will be in a much better position to set realistic goals for
yourself and then put the appropriate plan in place to achieve those
goals. If you expect too much from yourself, you are bound to be
disappointed, which can lead to poor decision-making and money management.
Once you start pressing and making bad plays you can destroy an
entire season of winning and hard work in no time. So set realistic
goals and maintain your game plan for success.
#5 - Think Long-Term. In addition to setting realistic goals, you
must measure success in the long-term. Short-term hot and cold streaks
do not make or break a season. Don't over react to short-term results;
rather keep you eye on the ultimate prize - long-term profits. Strive
towards winning over the course of a season and you will not fall
into bad habits that could turn temporary losing streaks into a
season ending disaster.
#6 - Read Information Carefully. There are literally thousands
of sources of sports information available today, so you must be
able to differentiate between those that are helpful and potentially
harmful. The key to understanding whether and how much credit (if
any) you should give to the material is to look to the source. Most
information is riddled with opinion instead of facts. Your job is
to discern the facts from opinions to be able to determine what’s
important and useful.
#7 - Use Statistics Effectively. It's been said that, “statistics
can be made to prove anything - even the truth.” While this
statement exaggerates the point, the lesson here is that statistics
can be quite deceiving and often do not tell the whole story. If
you are going to crunch some numbers when performing your game analysis,
do so with caution. Specifically, you should understand that past
seasons' numbers shouldn’t carry much weight when trying to
forecast how this year's teams are going to play. The modern day
of free agency has made the dynasty a thing of the past. Today’s
teams are not going to perform just like they did a few years ago.
Be careful when using statistics.
#8 - Watch The Games. Yes, that’s right, watch the games
and learn. Today we are blessed with having access to infinite sources
of game information and analysis. However, unlike reading statistics,
game recaps or even viewing game highlights, actually watching the
games themselves will always give you truer pictures of teams' abilities.
There is a lot of valuable information that can be gained by watching
the games that you could never learn by spending unlimited hours
studying statistics. So learn by watching as many games you can
to gain an added edge & you’ll have fun at the same time.
#9 - Create Your Own Lines. This is a crucial element in handicapping
that most people simply do not take the time to do. It’s very
important to make your own game lines because it will give you a
completely unbiased picture of what you believe the odds should
be. Avoid looking at the real lines until you’ve made your
own lines so you’re not influenced by outside sources of information
that can skew your perception of the day’s matchups. Compare
your homemade lines to the posted lines and look for games with
significant value (the difference between the posted line and your
line). These are the games that you should be looking to play. As
you can appreciate, taking the time to create your own lines can
go a long way towards helping your bottom line and assist you in
making more informed decisions.
#10 - Be Flexible & Patient. Winning big takes time. You must
set your goals and put together a solid plan to achieve those goals.
However, even the best plans will need some adjustments as the season
(or year) progresses according to your actual performance. Just
as teams on the field have to make changes and adapt to the situations
they confront, you must too. So be patient and flexible on the road
to winning.
Best of luck,
-Drew Cook
Prime Sports Picks
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