Just kidding. I was bored the other day and went through a schedule book from last season and was amazed at all the locks, blowouts and inside information games that I discovered. First I laughed to myself that they were making these outrageous claims in a schedule book that is produced a months in advance. Than I realized how it was not funny that there are people out there who fall for this nonsense. What nonsense am I referring too? Here is sampling of what I found throughout this magazine:

4 Big Locks, a HUGE parlay, 5 BIG winners, NFC Game of the Year, 5 BIG winners (again), Million Dollar Lock of the Year, AFC Game of the Year, Huge Lock Game of the Year, 500,000 star NFC lock of the year, NFC Lock of the Year, Blowout Game of the Month, Mountain West Game of the Year. For the Chiefs game they claim the following: "This is a monster game and I have the winner direct from the locker room. My inside contacts guarantee an easy
win." 500 star College Super Lock (not just a lock, but a super lock) 3 Team Parlay of the Year , $1,000,000 Parlay of the Year (wow, a million), 100,000 Star Parlay of the Year, 100,000, damn, another 100,000 Star TV Game of the Year, yet another 100,000 Star Parlay, Billion dollar parlay (are they serious? A  billion dollar parlay? That is a lot of zeros!) , Score of the Year Game (what the hell is that?), NFL Lock of the Year, NFL Lock Special, Monday Night Lock Parlay, SEC Power Play, College Shocker, NFC Central, Game of the Year, Monday Night Parlay of the Year, 100,000 Star NFL Game of the Year, College Total of the Year and finally their Parlay of the Year.

There is nothing wrong with having a GOY or a big game based off all the stars aligning, BUT to have BILLION UNIT plays is just a mixture of shady and cheesy. This is why I have to give kudos to RJ for coming up with the 1-3 dimes system to avoid this kind of stuff that has put a stain on our industry.

I still can remember my friend calling Kevin Duffys line and losing 4 out of 5 bets following his selections. The next day on the scorephone Duffy is ranting how his Underdog Play won outright making no reference to the other four plays that tanked. The sad thing is back in those days we thought Kevin Duffy was the greatest handicapper ever because it seemed (at least on his scorephone) he never lost. His favorite plays lead from the start and finished with a blowout win and the underdogs always won outright.

Even though touts seem to get a bad wrap based on the scamdicappers that fleeced unsuspecting gamblers in the 80s and 90s, there are many solid handicappers out there. A scorephone or an ad in the USA Today is not an official place to be documented. Being in the business all these years, I can say the group at Pregame Pros are probably the most reputable group in the business.

One of the time tested sayings that remains 100% accurate today is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you look at the Hilton Contest where 1000s of amateur and professional handicappers enter, the winner ends up being just above 60%. If you are going to go with a handicapping service make sure to do your research and not believe some scorephone or a scam artist calling you with his cant lose game. That is why listening to Marco each and every day to stay on top of the business is important in my opinion.

Whether it is Ethan Law or Vegas Runner, we have a solid group of people here at Pregame Pros. Many of our guys were gamblers or movers (in Vegas Runner's case) FIRST and than turned into professional handicapping services. Don't let all the bullshit from the 80's and 90's cost you money by not getting on board with reputable and honest handicappers.