How to Gather Information Before Placing Your Bet

There are many different avenues through which you can gather information about certain teams before you make your bet. Obviously, the time you spend researching your picks should correlate to the magnitude of your bet. If you are only putting small amounts of games, you are probably wasting your time if you spend hours researching your picks. But if you are wagering large amounts, you should try to be as well informed as possible. We will look at some of these methods and try to decide which ones work better than others.

• Newspapers– One of the benefits of the internet is that you can follow any team closely without living in the town that they play in. Each professional team has at least one (if not more in the larger markets) beat writer whose sole job it is to cover a given team. Newspapers theoretically provide you with an unbiased look into each team. Most beat writers also have blogs or Twitter accounts, where they often provide small tidbits of information that never make it into the print editions of the paper. These are great places to check to see if there have been any last minute scratches or lineup changes before you place your bet. Search on google for the team’s hometown newspaper, and they should provide links for the rest of the information.

• Blogs– Blogs have come into play in recent years as places that fans can congregate (virtually) to talk about their teams. Every professional team and most college teams have fan-created blogs that dissect their teams much more in depth than any newspaper ever could. The problem you run into, however, is that where it’s a newspaper’s job to provide unbiased information, blogs provide extremely biased opinions of teams. That being said, if fans are dedicated enough to have a blog about a team, then they probably know a good deal about that team. They often know when teams are going south or heating up well before Vegas catches on. However, take most information with a grain of salt, because things are never as good, or as bad, as a blog may make it seem. A simple google search will provide you with links to different blogs for individual teams.

• Simulation websites– There are a few websites that take raw statistics and recent trends, and after simulating thousands of games, produce the most likely result. ESPN offers this service to Insider members, and the website accuscore.com is devoted entirely to these game simulations. These can be valuable tools to use to evaluate stats, but at the same time there are many factors (crowd, weather, personal factors) that computers cannot integrate. Because of this, you cannot rely solely on these simulations. But they can provide you with another tool to analyze each game.

• Statistics websites– In recent years, there have been movements to produce more telling statistics in sports. If you are not a numbers person, then these websites are not for you. But if you enjoy working with numbers, then there are some websites out there that can provide valuable information. For NBA basketball, 82games.com gives highly detailed stats. For NCAA basketball, kenpom.com has almost every stat you could ever need. And for MLB baseballprospectus.com and baseball-reference.com cover all of your needs. Each of these websites give explanations of the stats they provide, so consult them with any questions.

• Sports betting message boards– These are places where bettors can get together to discuss their thoughts on certain games. Sometimes valuable information and opinions are shared on these websites, but often, a lot of bad information gets put out here as well. Never blindly follow anybody’s opinion that they post on message boards; especially avoid (or fade) the people that have “guarantees” or “locks of the year”. These people are just looking for the attention. Instead, look for the people that post their records and are pretty consistent in their approach. Often, a person will have a “specialty” team that they seem to excel in picking their games—these can be very helpful as well. Some of the more popular message boards are covers.com, sbrforum.com, bettingtalk.com, and capperslounge.com.

There is no special formula that can provide you winners, but being well-informed will usually help your cause. When you learn to use these tools properly, they will help you be more well-informed and bring you success in the long run.