Recommended sports betting literature

[brett128]

Fellas, I've had a few emails asking about where to start reading about sports betting, and the maths behind it.

These are all books I have at home, and gave me a good baseline of understanding the sports betting world.

Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football


(Wayne L Winston)

Sharp Sports Betting (Stanford Wong)


Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting (King Yao)


Fixed Odds Sports Betting: The Essential Guide: Statistical Forecasting and Risk Management (Joseph Buchdahl)


When you're ready to take the modelling plunge, read these:

Conquering Risk: Attacking Vegas and Wall Street (Elihu Feustel)


Who's #1?: The Science of Rating and Ranking (Langville and Meyer)


Feustel's book is more accessible to the reader, I made my first AFL model adapting his NFL regression model out of the book. There's explanations of 3 good models here, and how to construct push charts too.

Langville and Meyer's book is only for the math enthusiasts. If you don't know calculus and what vectors are, most of this book will be inaccessible to you.

 

[brett128]

Wayne Winston also has an excellent excel modelling course at Harvard Business Online. Costs about $90, but it'll propel your knowledge of using excel as a modelling tool.

The best place to further your knowledge of maths and stats for free on the net is:

https://www.coursera.org/

This website is amazing. It's only been out for a couple years, but it's adding more courses all the time. You get university level short courses in anything you like, and it's absolutely free.

I'd be getting into all the 'maths and stats 101' short courses you can find on there.

 

[Donkson]

conquering risk recommended a known scam book as a good place to bet.

 

[Big Fozza]

Thanks Brett. Much appreciated.

 

[eastcoastcrow]

Anyone can picks winners, but understanding money management and knowing your sport inside out is so critical and the key to successful punting. Most people in here can pick 5 or 6 winners each week but its the discipline involved to punting consistently long term.

Wong and Buchdahl really know their punting. (Wong is a legend in the Blackjack world!) Any book by them in this field is a book worth purchasing. I have a few of them and recommend them. You can actually purchase them online as an e-book.

 

[brett128]

conquering risk recommended a known scam book as a good place to bet.

WTF are you talking about. Name me the sportsbook they're referring to. In fact, give me the page number.

 

[Donkson]

page 54 he recommends betUS, great stuff from a guy who runs a review site.

 

[brett128]

page 54 he recommends betUS, it's not a revelation, it's been talked about in a number of places because of who the author is.

Hmm.... Just checked SBR, you would think that 'Justin7' and his affiliation with SBR would not currently rate the book at D+. And yeah I agree with you, he's a unscrupulous character. He f*cked over one of my American modelling partners.

But the book is good, and explains a lot of basic stuff. No one else had ever written a book directly about modelling sport for the sole purpose of sports betting. So he gets the ticks in the box there.

 

[Daytripper]

Commonsense Punting - A Mathematical Approach by Roger Dedman
Absolute gold this book and written with Australian racing in mind. May be out of print now as it was written probably 25-30 years ago but if you are a serious punter then you need to have read this book. In fact, most professionals I know have.

Enemy Number One - The Secrets of the UK's Most Feared Professional Punter
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enemy-Number-One-Secrets-Professional/dp/190515660X
Fantastic look at the life and times of Patrick Veitch - Gives great insight into how he operates. You won't get many tips on how he derives his winners though as obviously that is his IP but it does provide valuable information on what is needed to be a professional punter.

 

[pmalcolm1984]

Bloody good post.

Fortune's Formula is also good. About Kelly Formula. A lot of it about finance as well but a good read.

 

[arkie]

Anyone know where I can find Feustel's book? It is not in stock on Amazon.

 

[brett128]

SBR might have it. Buy some points with cash and then pay the points for the book.

I think there's an online bookshoop called 'High Stakes Publishing' or somesuch that might stock it too.

 

[Ron The Bear]

http://www.highstakes.co.uk/ph2010/ph2010_onlinepdf.pdf

Sloooow download, but a comprehensive starting point.

 

[pmalcolm1984]

Was able to get the following at BookDepository:
Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting
Enemy Number One
Who's #1?
Mathletics

A few available via e-Readers too:
Enemy Number One
Mathletics
Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting
Fixed Odds Sports Betting

The others are hard to find! Might go the SBR route.

 

[Daytripper]

Was able to get the following at BookDepository:
Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting
Enemy Number One
Who's #1?
Mathletics

A few available via e-Readers too:
Enemy Number One
Mathletics
Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting
Fixed Odds Sports Betting

The others are hard to find! Might go the SBR route.

Let me know what you think about Enemy Number One.

I thought it was a great read personally.

 

[Selective Retention]

Any good Betfair guides out there (for a complete beginner)?

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Commonsense Punting - A Mathematical Approach by Roger Dedman
Absolute gold this book and written with Australian racing in mind. May be out of print now as it was written probably 25-30 years ago but if you are a serious punter then you need to have read this book. In fact, most professionals I know have.

Hey mate, have searched high and low for this book but have had no luck. Am very keen to read it. Any idea of where I could possibly get it?

 

[KardiniaPark]

Hey mate, have searched high and low for this book but have had no luck. Am very keen to read it. Any idea of where I could possibly get it?

Bit of a steep rise from Best Bets champ

 

[Ron The Bear]

Hey mate, have searched high and low for this book but have had no luck. Am very keen to read it. Any idea of where I could possibly get it?

Have you tried the Horseman's Bookshop & Gallery? I'd be surprised if they didn't have a second-hand copy.

http://www.horsemansbookshop.com.au/

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Bit of a steep rise from Best Bets champ

I only read Best Bets to keep in touch with the common man.

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Have you tried the Horseman's Gallery & Bookshop? I'd be surprised if they didn't have a second-hand copy.

http://www.horsemansbookshop.com.au/

Got it! Thanks mate. Greatly appreciated.

 

[KardiniaPark]

You are doing a fantastic job of being common

 

[KardiniaPark]

Have you tried the Horseman's Bookshop & Gallery? I'd be surprised if they didn't have a second-hand copy.

http://www.horsemansbookshop.com.au/

I love this place!

I bought this book 20 years ago! I'm going to get it again and have a look. Wowee!

Thanks Ron!

 

[Lensen]

I love this place!

I bought this book 20 years ago! I'm going to get it again and have a look. Wowee!

Thanks Ron!

Page 1: "Ask the missus"

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[Look2Me4Guidance]

You are doing a fantastic job of being common

An emoticon. You go girl.