Sports Service Scams

If you look around the Internet, you’ll find no shortage of sports services offering to do all of the hard work involved in handicapping sports for you. These services usually cost a great deal of money to purchase, but promise excellent returns for a fraction of the time that handicapping games yourself would take. Usually, they’ll post picks each and every day, plus give you additional information that can help you if you’d like to handicap additional games.

However, these services can range from excellent to awful, and it’s often difficult to tell which type you’re dealing with until you start seeing the results first hand. There are plenty of services that actually do have profitable track records, but others are long-term losers. Even some of the most expensive services, which can cost thousands of dollars per year (or even for just one season in a single sport), don’t produce results that justify the cost.

However, in the above examples, we are dealing with sports services that are generally honest and on the up-and-up. Some may win and some may lose, but they are generally giving you picks they believe in. Unfortunately, there are many other sports services that have much less integrity. These services will use a variety of sports service scams to try to separate you from your money. Here are some examples of what these sports services might try, and what you should look out for to avoid being scammed.

Taking Both Sides

One simple scam is simply to take both sides of the action on a big game, making sure that about half of a service’s customers are on the winning side no matter what happens. This is especially popular among services that operate by sending you picks by telephone or email.

Here’s one way in which this scam might work. Imagine a sports service contacts 800 potential clients with a “can’t lose” NFL pick that they’re giving away for free. In actuality, they offer half of the targets one side of the line, and suggest the other half take the other team. After that game, they’ll have 400 potential clients, and pull the same scam for a second week. They now have 200 players who have won twice in a row. They can then pull the scam for a third week, which will give them 100 customers who have gone 3-3 using their picks. At this point, they start asking for money, and many of the 100 customers – thinking the service has been making great predictions – may buy into the scam.

On the Internet, there’s a new version of this scam that has been making the rounds. In this case, one person simply runs several different sports service sites under different names, giving different picks on each site. Again, some of these sites are certain to win over a short time period, meaning that many gamblers unknowingly think that one of their sites is great at handicapping games. With this in mind, you should always take free picks with a grain of salt if the source starts wanting to charge after a few wins in a row.

Using Shills

Other sports services try a slightly more subtle approach. They simply have people post in popular gambling forums, advertising the “great” records that the service has had recently. The idea is to have the shill inspire confidence in the sports service, which will lead to new clients. If you see someone being overly enthusiastic in their praise for a sports service, chances are you’re dealing with a shill, not honest praise.

There’s no shortage of other scams out there. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use a sports service, but be wary. Stay on your guard and ask other gamblers you trust for opinions on which sports services are the most trustworthy and reliable, and you should be able to stay away from most sports service scams.