March 19, 2024
Sports handicappers, also known as "cappers" are people that study and wager on sports events.
A professional sports handicapper is somebody that does sports betting for a living.
A regular sports handicapper may not even be profitable. A professional handicapper is very good at what they do, and a regular handicapper is usually your above average sports bettor (which often times is still someone losing, since gambling is built for you to lose).
Often times, sports handicappers will also sell their betting tips. This is where the industry gets a bit fishy.
We believe we are the most qualified to educate you on this topic, as team of actual professional sports bettors, with real qualifications and 3rd party verified winnings.
Buying picks from the right team is worth it, yes. It will be extremely profitable long term, and generate a nice ROI (we have clients that buy multiple years in advance).
With the wrong team, you not only will lose your entry fee, but also most of your bankroll.
A large part of this article was written to teach you how to spot a scam. In turn, we hope that you can just give us your trust to continue educating you about the space -- regardless of if you ever sign up or not, we genuinely care about making this industry cleaner.
Let's jump into it.
Sports betting is built for you to lose, meaning that almost every person betting loses money.
So, what if there was a way to keep betting, but not lose money?
Ding! Light bulb goes off in peoples heads. "Let's sell my awful picks and market ourselves as a winning team". Then, people will charge high prices and market themselves to be winning 60%+ of their picks, show off their lifestyle, and boom. You have a business that costs next to nothing to run, makes you look cool, and absolutely scams the living hell out of every person that looks their way.
Often times these pages tend to be run by young handicappers, college students, and people with very little regard for the others they harm with their service.
Not joking, whether you are a professional handicapper reading this, or you are a complete newbie, you could flip a coin for every game and win more than some of these pages selling betting advice.
As a team that is built off ethics, there is nothing we hate more than this industry and the amount of unqualified people selling betting advice.
A popular way these accounts selling betting advice will market themselves is by posting themselves in exotic cars, at luxury hotels, and sell you that buying their picks will allow you to live just like them.
Often times it is also popular that people will be talking (or yelling) into the camera about how much they are winning, how they are on the best hot streak of their life, and how everyone else can't compare to their business.
Even worse, some of these very same people will even attempt to call out others for being a scam, as an attempt to make their audience view them as an authority who is looking out for you.
Let's use logic to figure this out.
Gambling is built for you to lose. The best sports handicappers in the world spend hours every single day tweaking betting models and using advanced statistics & software to locate stale lines.
Meaning that the people selling picks have to do hours of work every day to just have a chance at selling profitable bets. This isn't even factoring the time it takes to do marketing, sales, manage clients, etc.
Couple this with their luxury lifestyles of partying, watching games, and everything else, it is almost physically impossible to do by one person (ethically).
So, to be clear, there are very rare exceptions to these criteria. For the most part, they are scams.
Spotting a scam is actually pretty easy for most people that have knowledge about the space. Here is how you can spot a scam yourself...
Long term proof of results. This is widely regarded as the most important thing that the top cappers (people qualified to sell picks) should have.
For example, our team can show years of data from our analysts. All 3rd party tracked, meaning that bets are verified to be real. Losses cannot be deleted and wins cannot be inflated. Our analysts won 87 units in 2022, meaning that a $100 bettor won $8,700.
Always ask to see long term proof of results. If you ever message or talk to one of these people selling picks directly, it is likely you will be able to see right through them. If they do have proof of results, be sure to ask if they track on BetStamp or Pikkit to verify their lines. Action network and google sheets are good, but can be easily manipulated.
We use both google sheets for basic tracking (aesthetic), and a BetStamp for the 3rd party verification of profitability. This makes sure our record speaks for itself, and shows our profitability in the long haul. Consistent winners have great tracking.
The easiest to look for is their win rates, and the average odds that they bet on. For example, if someone says they win anything above 60% of their bets at -110 odds, this is a glaring red flag (assuming long term).
This is because at -110 odds, your implied win percentage should be about 50%. The best handicappers in the world are consistently beating the books with a win rate between 53-57% at -110. Anything above 58% long term is where it starts to become unrealistic from a human betting.
Side note - we say from a human because if you use a powerful bot, it is possible to grab edges large enough to push up your win rate. Example: A bot that gets lines before they move within seconds.
This one is very advanced, and is meant to determine if someone knows what they are talking about in terms of picking winners vs using statistical analysis.
For the professional handicappers reading this, be sure to ask them about what percentage of picks beat closing lines. Also ask if they know what their long term edge over the house tends to be (average expected value per pick for example).
It is possible that some professional handicappers don't even know this exact data, but a professional handicapper will at least know what these terms mean. Most people selling picks will have to jump on google to figure out what you are even asking.
If you are from Europe especially, you may see people advertising "fixed matches" where you pay a fee, and they tell you what is supposed to be a guaranteed win. These are scams, please stay away! Sure, they may win a few bets here or there, but these are awful scams.
Most pick sellers are Vegas's best friend. Since most people selling picks aren't long term winners, they are just recruiting more losing bettors for Vegas and the casinos to clean out.
We will say, most people selling picks tend to only bet American sports. It is less likely to find people selling betting advice for European football (soccer) in comparison to college basketball for example.
The sports betting world is a dark place, full of landmines set for the average person to get ripped off. If you were lucky enough to stumble upon this article, you found one of the only genuine companies in this industry. So it is time we inform you a bit more about us.
We aren't one guy doing marketing, picks, sales, etc. Our marketing team does only marketing. Our two full-time analysts (professional handicappers) make all the picks. These two top cappers never touch our marketing, they don't even have access to.
Our analysts are WAY too busy making picks to be able to manage a brand selling sports betting advice.
Our team prioritizes client results over anything. If we wanted to make a higher profit, we would sell our own picks by flipping a coin like anyone else. We would save a lot of money by not hiring a team of professionals (which is why everyone else sells their own picks).
We have had many different analysts on our team, and depending on when you read this, we may have more. We have had analysts that literally used to be oddsmakers, meaning they set the lines for DraftKings and FanDuel.
We are 3rd party tracked and documented with proof, meaning that wins cannot be inflated and losses cannot be deleted. BetStamp verifies that every pick we send is a real bet, available at a real sportsbook, and that we cannot fake anything.
When we say we are up 87 units, we have the proof of everything. All the way down to the exact minute and date each bet was placed, and at which sportsbook.
Seriously. It might sound cliche, but please open a support ticket with our team, or message us on Instagram for example. You will see first hand how much we care.
We genuinely want people to succeed with us. We aren't in this for the money or to make a quick buck (we already make money off our picks). We know that long term if we take this approach, it will lead to happier customers, a better brand, and ultimately more money.
Do your research. Regardless of if you join us or not!
We are expensive, but as you read above, you can probably see why. We employ a team of real professional sports bettors. It isn't cheap.
If you do think you want to give us a shot, we offer a full refund if your first 30 days do not finish positive units.
P.S. If we don't profit in your month, open a support ticket and your next month will be completely free of charge. No point in an unhappy customer.
You can sign up at the bottom of this article!
So, now that we have covered how many sports cappers sell their picks, it is time to cover a bit more on how to actually begin picking winners. Many bettors spend their entire life losing and losing, which is often due to bad fundamentals.
The fundamentals of sports betting are really simple to say, yet hard to apply. They are the very reason why sports books are making so much money.
Bankroll management. If you are someone who reads our blogs a lot, you probably know that this is something we hammer in. There is no such thing as a "best bet" or a "lock" to go huge on. So get those out of your head now. We don't care what xyz have told you on Instagram. Whale plays don't exist, locks don't exist, etc.
There are picks that have a larger quantifiable edge over the house, which you should go bigger on, but even these are far from locks. You are best off dividing up your bankroll into units, and being conservative in deploying your units.
For example, if you have a $1,000 bankroll, you could use $20 units (2%), and set a limit that you will never bet more than say 2 units on a single play. This would be good bankroll management.
Poor bankroll management would be heading into a Las Vegas casino with your bankroll, and tossing money everywhere across the board just based off your own thoughts and opinions. This is exactly what you want to avoid under any and all circumstances!
Emotions. Keep your emotions in check! Sports gambling is already extremely difficult. If you buy our betting tips and we lose for example, that does not mean the next pick is a guaranteed win and that you should double down!
Sports handicappers always will have losing days. It is a simple part of the sports betting business, and any human who tells you otherwise is lying.
For every bet you place, make sure that your head is in the right place logically and emotionally.
Either bet where you have an edge, bet for fun, or don't bet at all. This is a firm opinion our team has developed, and we encourage you to as well.
For a more in depth look at some of the fundamentals of sports betting, be sure to read our article on 5 Common Sports Betting Mistakes
The job description of being in the sports handicapping business is tough. So let's jump into how you can actually make some money betting on major sports after you have the fundamentals down.
The first thing you should do is gather a firm understanding of sports betting odds, and how they work.
Almost every sportsbook sets their lines independently. This means that if FanDuel has a team listed at -110, BetMGM will not take FanDuel's line into factor when setting theirs (in almost all cases).
Thus, leading to the best thing about sports betting... Since every book sets their lines independently, there will always be glaring market inefficiency in some spots! Meaning that it is easy to make a profit if you know what you are doing and have the right tools. I'd argue it is 2 to 3 times easier to make money in sports betting in comparison to the stock market.
The downside to this market inefficiency, is that sports betting is much less scalable. Meaning you can make a good amount of money with it, but it is extremely hard to become a millionaire with. This is because casinos are smart, and will ban or limit you when they detect you as a winning bettor.
For example, I've been limited on Barstool Sportsbook severely (they are notorious for this). So next time you hear a sports betting millionaire story from someone selling picks, refer back to this article and ask start asking some questions!
After you are fully knowledgeable about the fundamentals, how betting odds work, it's time to jump into sharp money vs public money, as well as narrowing down a good starting point.
Sharp money is a good stat to look at, and learn to see where better sports bettors are at. This can be found on a site like action network for example. We encourage you to take a look into this a bit!
A better stat than sharp money, however, is tracking line movement. Meaning seeing which way a line is moving due to money being put into the market (non injury or weather related). For example, if a few player props go from -110 to -130, try to find out why. If you cannot find an answer, it is sharp money. The market was inefficient, and sharp players jumped on it. You could then look to reverse engineer why this happened.
It will always be either:
Write this down: "Lines always move because of sharp players. The casinos DO NOT want to even the money up on both sides of the game, instead they want the most accurate line. A $5 bet from a sharp bettor will have greater market impact than a $100 bet from an average bettor. The ONLY exception may be a big event like the Superbowl."
This has been confirmed by multiple oddsmakers. Anyone who says that casinos try to even the money on both sides of a game does not fully understand the market (this is a popular misconception).
One great way to get your first mathematically profitable bet in is by tracking and betting reverse line movement (RLM).
As a new bettor, reverse line movement (RLM) picks will really be testing your fundamentals of betting in using logic, and not emotion.
Reverse line movement is going to be when a market is moving against public betting consensus, and often times will be moving against your logic/sports fan brain. Let's use some college football picks to give you an example of how to find RLM, and play it yourself.
RLM Example:
Let's say the Alabama vs Auburn football game is tomorrow. Alabama is listed at -150 as a favorite, and Auburn is listed at +125 as an underdog.
By looking at the money percentages, we might see that 90% of the money is on Alabama -150. The public thinks that Alabama should be a bigger favorite, and that it is a value. Your sports fan brain kicks in saying "This is a no brainer".
Tomorrow morning, you wake up and Alabama is -135 (smaller favorite), and Auburn is +115 (less of an underdog). You are in disbelief. Alabama now has 94% of the money on them, and has somehow become even more enticing! Your sports brain kicks in again saying "I have to take them!"
Well, this is exactly when you should place a bet on Auburn +115. Ideally, you would've had a betting model/professionals tell you to get them at +125 (like us) the day before, but the +115 will do.
This is a classic example of RLM because the "better" consensus team has significantly more money on them, and yet has become less of a favorite. When RLM occurs, there is a small profitable edge that will be available by betting opposing side (Auburn). Betting your own money on these bets may be hard, but it's all in your head.
All the sports books understand this, and RLM opportunity occurs almost every day in multiple sports.
For a new sports bettor, this concept will be REALLY hard to do for you. Your sports opinions have got to get thrown out the window. You are going up against billion dollar companies who are engineered to make as much money off you as possible. Going contrarian in this situations will help you net a positive return long term.
See, lines move because of professional handicappers. It goes back to what we said earlier, on how a professional's money has more market impact than a regular person. Our team is a part of the reason those lines move. Sportsbooks may see see our money on Auburn +125, and that is a part of the reason the line moves to +115.
To be clear, there are many forms of profitable sports gambling. RLM is just one that is generally considered easier to learn (even if it sounds difficult now). This is also why so many people pay us (we do the work for you, and have proven profitability).
Another way to generate an edge is to find your own games, and make picks on them. This can be done by say narrowing down a market you feel confident in, and doing some research.
Here is a step by step:
For example, if you want to make NFL picks for Sunday, we recommend that you start by narrowing down the market you want to bet on. Go for small markets! Player props specifically are the best place to start. Casinos are so focused on other bettors placing their bets on large market games, that smaller markets have a higher likelihood of being more inefficient.
Take a few games, and go all in on finding a stale line for something like a receiver's yardage props. You can use betting tools like Action Network to find the best odds, and also use ESPN among other data websites to pick up on team trends and player trends. For example, one overlooked trend could be if someone is known to be a big game player. This as well as momentum are known as relatively un-trackable stats mathematically. A mathematically quantifiable trend could be viewing the players past performances against said team, or in previous weeks.
Start tracking yourself, and try not to get too excited on a winning streak because there will also be losing streaks. The most important stat to track is your closing line value (CLV) though, not winning or win rate in the shorter term.
This is because CLV is a great measurement that can reflect your results long term (even in smaller samples). Meaning if the prop that you bet becomes a bigger favorite after you bet them, then you are in good standing!
Example, you bet at -130 in the morning, and by game time it is -145.
There is no unique ability to pick winners, no matter what you may hear. It is simply just research, and math. There is no magic crystal ball, no matter what other handicappers may say. We handicap games successfully, and our team has over 29 years of combined experience. We are featured regularly across many large social media brands, and can confidently tell you all this information because we live it.
The sports betting industry is not as hard as you may think, it is more so just being able to conquer your own mind and stay disciplined.
There are a lot of evil people in the world, and many of them gravitate themselves towards becoming people who sell betting advice. Please be sure to research absolutely anything and everything. Read this article, and read other articles on our site for more!
You can make a ton of money buying picks off of the right team. The difficult part for most is just finding the right one. Luckily for you though, you found our brand.
Sign up here and we will give you a full refund if we do not finish positive units in your first 30 days. Plus, if we don't profit, we will add an additional month free. This includes all picks in major sports like NFL, CFB, NBA, NCAAB, MLB, NHL, and Golf! Plus 1 on 1 support with a dedicated client success manager. Hope we can see you inside soon!
P.S. We also send one or two free picks to our email list every week. You can always join that too!
