Since we are only a few weeks away from both the NBA & NHL Playoffs coming to an end, which means that until the excitement of football gets here we will all be looking to make a profit in baseball almost exculsively...I felt that I would try and cover some of the topics that may help you do that, and dig a little deeper in baseball's numbers. For myself, I have always looked forward to betting baseball because unlike so many other sports that we wager on, MLB has always proven to reward the handicapper willing to do the most work and because there is so much data available, I have found that the key to success is actually knowing which factors do influence the outcome of a game and I hope to be able to cover many of those factors over the next few months.

First though, as I did with the RUN-LINE piece that I wrote the other day, I want to concentrate on the various types of wagers that are available to the bettor and whether or not they should be considered or not, because by lessening the potential wagers down to those which offer the bettor his best chance for success is by far where a capper needs to start. It becomes very difficult to handicapp a game if you are staring at so many various wagers for a particular game, that you are forced to come up with various courses of action based on various possible outcomes...all of which I have found to only help the books, confuse the bettor. The reason for this I believe is based on the fact that even though having the freedom to make different wagers may offer some edges if you are sharp, for the recreational player, it does the opposite.

We've all heard those bettors who say that they like the Over in the 1st half with the Dog, but they like the Fav and the Under for the whole game ??? Now I don't know about you, but if I was able to see the future that clearly, I would stick to the lottery and leave sports betting for those less gifted. Seriously though, I really have found that so many amatuers, and many of them who definately had the potential to become sharp, successful sports bettors, get all caught up on all these "exotics" and they just do not have the experience yet in analyzing correct data, sizing up line moves, or even determing if they actually have an edge over the books, to make it more difficult than it all ready is.

That is why I feel that I should try to at least cover some of the various types of bets that can be made, and more importantly, if there actually is an edge for the player, or just another way for the books to increase their hold. Most of us have been around sports betting long enough to know that you can't expect to lay -200 every day and make money, or you shouldn't parlay of tease more than 2 teams....but I have found since getting the opportunity to speak with more bettors who aren't actually professionals, that the upcoming generation of cappers have embraced these exotic bets so much more than the old school bettors who most were books themselves at one time or another. And I feel that their experience as bookmakers at one point is what has taught them that many of these type of wagers have been offered as a way to generate a bigger edge for the books when it comes to the Vig. Most of these old-school guys like myself actually spent much of their free time back then trying to come up with our own exotics to take advantage of recreational players.

These are many of the reasons that I stress, especially for those sports bettors who actually do plan on improving as handicappers and plan on using this market as an investment to try and keep it as simple as possible for a while. At the very least, until they have aquired a healthy bankroll, have shown the ability to win consistantly for a few years, and are sure that they are capable of truely knowing what an "edge" actually entails.

We have covered the RUN-LINE as I stated above, and have been able to see when a bettor should check to see if applying it may give him an edge over the Money-Line based on the probabilities of a 1run game compared to the price...and if you really try and memorize those numbers, and understand them, you will eventually be able to quickly know whether or not you should even be considering it...for my next Blog Post, I want to cover another "exotic" which has been really getting more and more popular with newer bettors...The 5 INNING BET...I will do my best to present all of the data that we have collected and I truely believe that its a must to know these figures if you are serious about winning.