One of the most common questions that I get is where in God's name (no pun intended) do Wise Guys and sharp players get so much information? Just as the only way to Carnegie Hall is Apractice, practice, practice", the only way to win in sports handicapping is Ainformation, information, information".



All you need to get that information is to merely live, sleep, and breathe sports handicapping. Well maybe forget the sleep part. Siestas are really is not much of an option in sports soothsaying. An endless supply of coffee is indispensable apparatus as well. Also make sure that your insurance company covers marriage counseling.

Are you still with me? If so, you are ready to be a Wise Guy.

Do handicappers and high rollers really have "inside information"? In reality it depends on how loose your definition of "inside information" is. Didn't Bill Clinton utter that same line or something to that effect?

Anyway, Wise Guys and the few legitimate handicappers out there do have the time, resources and knowledge of where and how to find useful information and data that 99 accurate breakdown of how a game ended.

For college, the Sportnetwork.com logs the sequence of scores that they sent, so one can get a decent idea of heartrending endings, especially when cross-referencing with the game recaps.

This also applies but with different criterion in baseballChow much the bullpen was used etc, but that is for a future article. Many sites give pitch-by-pitch breakdowns as provided by Stats Inc.

In the NBA especially and this occurs more often than one thinks, I just get giddy when I read that a few players thought their upcoming opponent ran the score up or was shown up by a gratuitous windmill slam dunk or something to that effect. This is especially true if the team that feels they were shown up was on the road in the referenced game and is playing home in the upcoming game.

Also certain beat writers especially in the NFL and college football can be outstanding giving accurate unit versus unit breakdowns. But Wise Guys have the experience to distinguish as to who the heck knows what they are talking about and who is blowing smoke

I regret that Sportingnews.com for several years was a must-visit for college football as they broke down literally every Division I game. However they have reduced that feature. Sadly I guess the budget limited the quantity down to the marquee games and quite frankly the quality seemed to go with it.

They also were one of the best sites scrutinizing the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I noticed that ESPN Insider picked up the slack during the 2003-04 bowl season. The gambler can only hope they have the updated write-ups for the Big Dance match-ups that Sportingnews.com had.

As mentioned in previous articles, one of the big keys to handicapping games is spotting deceptive final scores in handicapping or how and why teams really lost. That is why any true handicapper must own a satellite dish. I won't leave home without it. Well I guess that's why I don't leave home. It is also invaluable as far as scouting mismatches in personnel match-ups.

Sports gaming posting boards are good vehicles for gamblers to share information.

In a perfect world the best sites would be not be moderated but in places like the sports gambling newsgroup and other sites flaming takes precedence over content and forces valuable contributors to go to the refereed sites.

Much like distinguishing from amongst the good beat writers and the unqualified scribes, one must differentiate between the posting board participants who provide quality and accurate insight and those who cannot.

Utilizing the best databases is essential to triumphant prognostication. There are many out there, both free and pay sites.

Computer Sports World is best for baseball, Covers.com for both the NBA and college hoops. With 10-16 game schedules for college football and the NFL one must as we have stated have the ability to look beyond the mere data. Not ignore it mind you but an aberrational game here and there can dilute the statistical significance of football raw numbers.

Feist's site has some good databases but Covers and others made them obsolete. Chalk Gaming, which like StatFox, is now syndicated at OffshoreInsiders.com has quality information and for those who very much like to ride hot teams, they can rank teams in different categories over the last five or ten games.

There, you now know the trade secrets. All you need to do is invest 35 hours a day, 10 days a week, 60 weeks a year. America's greatest sports service the Dream Team at GodsTips, anchor of OffshoreInsiders.com has done it successfully for years and so can you.