Sharper: A Guide to Modern Sports Betting

Great read. PokerJoe speaks from experience and explains the sheer effort it takes to handicap any given sport. Any bettor, new or experienced, can learn from this book. I have read it twice all the way through and constantly use it as a reference to my daily handicapping. Job well done!

Spells out in great detail how difficult it is to beat the books. Take gambling serious. Don't throw your money away. Try to beat them. But don't be surprised when you don't.

As the title suggests, the focus of this book is betting. While many books focus on handicapping (using statistics and information to assign probabilities of different outcomes), a majority of this book is about trading. A lot of new information is covered here that I have never seen in other published books. When is a line movement sharp? When can you jump in front of a line movement and expect it to be +EV? There is a lot of analysis on types of movement, what it means, and how to exploit it. There is also good discussion on fundamentals -- push rates for events, EV, why winning percentage in a vacuum is meaningless.One other interesting bit near the end is making objective adjustments based on injuries.This is a core skill that can offer value even if you did not handicap the game. The examples he used started with Madden Football player ratings as a baseline, and is a very reasonable approach.My only criticism is that the book is disorganized. While the book is divided into roughly 30 chapters, many parts of it read like a stream of consciousness.I gave the book 5 stars because no other book I have read addresses the nuts and bolts of trading, this book did a thorough job on this topic, and this was a 0.99 title. With more editing and organization, this could be a 5-star full priced title.

This is a solid guide about sport betting. The author is not bragging about how much he won or how much he knows about the sports, he is only trying to explain his insights and a crucial issue: all the decisions must be made due the math implied. If you don't like math don't waste your time or money buy buying this book. If you like maths you maybe notice there is a lot of holes about how pokerJoe take decisions based on math, but it's fine. You can figure out and if you need furthermore information you can ask to him. Remember , this is a guide, a personal insight from one author, not the Bible, not a holy book about bets. It's a fine guide an a good starting point

I am an avid reader and sports bettor. This is some of the most original and specific advice I have seen out there. This books shows you the process and how to think.

As sports betting becomes mainstream, gaining regular coverage on ESPN, the sea of charlatans and out right con artists seeking to exploit naive bettors by profiting off terrible advice continues to grow. So, if you want to know the fundamentals of sports betting and how people really beat it, Pokerjoe is here to pluck you from that sea of misinformation.I personally, had moved past believing in the RJ Bells of the world and into handicapping small market sports, and looking for stale lines and mistakes when I read Sharper. And I think that's typical of the vast majority of the 1% of bettors who profit. Even if you are already a decent handicapper or "AP" bettor, this book will very likely improve your fundamentals, so that when you make a bet, you'll have a clearer idea of why you are doing it, which will allow you to find more good bets and shave off some bad ones. The book could be priced at $100 and it would still easily be worth the price for practically everybody who bets on sports.

As PokerJoe puts it, if you don't have serious math skills then being a "sharp" isn't for you. There is a ton of number crunching and database work involved in this. I think I would have to go to part time to manage it all. But it's good to know what the Sharps are thinking and how they make decisions since they move lines. I like the straight forward style of writing here, he cuts to the chase on teasers, parlays and buying points. Somewhat helpful for someone in between a "Square" and a "Sharp" (I don't think Squares read these books?), but I think I'll keep my day job. I do appreciate his point on sports gambling mentality - it is NEVER a sport question, it's always a math question.

I bought this book based on other reviews. If you're looking for a clear cut system or approach, its not here. He does have some system plays at the end but who knows if they work. There should be a good chapter on money management-its not here. He discusses the Kelly Criterion- he blew it in this chapter. Nothing on the history of the Kelly criterion, he gives you the formula but he should of included a chart already worked out with the %'s. Also, he should of included some charts of the Kelly, how it performs in real life. Its not here. I know why the Kelly works or doesn't because I took the time to work it out in charts. He missed some basic fundamentals. He talks about keeping track of every NFL player with rating! Give me a break. Picking winners should not be this complicated. Nothing on how teams perform against the point spread, year by year. How could you not cover that? Too much basic information is missing. Some of the topics he covers is not helpful in picking winners. Like I said, this book leaves a lot to be desired. I wasn't impressed.

This is a good introduction if you are interested in systematic / model / positive EV (expected value) betting. This is NOT and does not want to be a book with 'holy grail' systems - they don't exist and please don't buy anything that promises you a positive return. Just don't. Read this, get down with the basics. Get some data, dig through it, create your own models. Test and repeat :)Only 3 stars though as it is quite basic and did not really give me much new insights - but again, if you are a beginner this is a must read.Thanks

Good book about numerics in odds and predictions. He often refers to the edge of the bettor. But how to make that edge. Where are the machine learning models/data behind ? The "edge" is still dark magic in this book, but how should one reveal his edge when making money? You can have the best money management/strategy, without beating the odds (eg. logloss) you cannot make money. Only strong bots that constantly beating the odds will survive long-term.

Se lee como el relato en voz baja de un defraudador anónimo.

5 star book. Recommend it if you are into sports betting. I really enjoyed reading it and its really simple