Shady Sports Service Tactics
For the most part, sports gamblers think of sports services in the same category of used car salesmen, lawyers, and politicians. That may be a little harsh, as there are a number of honest sports services out there, but there are plenty of dishonest ones, as well. There's a reason the name "scandicappers" is well known among sports bettors.
Most sports services will make the majority of their money during football season, while some handicappers, such as Phil Steele, do nothing but handicap football.
With so much money up for grabs during football season, the dishonest sports services turn up the pressure and are even more likely to shade the truth and push the envelope. Here, we'll look at a few of the things dishonest sports services do to try and separate you from your money.
Double Dealing Games
There are actually two methods of double dealing games, although the popularity of receiving picks online has greatly decreased the second method.
There are plenty of sports services who are actually owned by one individual and operate under different names. A typical tactic is to have one service release one side on a big game, such as the Monday night game, while another service owned by the same person will release the other side. That way the sports service owner can guarantee half of the bettors will be happy when the game is over.
The second method of double dealing games is for one service to give half of its customers one side of a game and the other half the opposite team. This was a common practice in the 1980s and 1990s, when which side of a game a bettor received was largely determined by where they resided.
It's harder to do now, as a number of sports service selections find their way to the Internet or sports service subscribers will post to online forms, making it likely that the service would be caught giving out both sides of the same game.
Forum Shills
Sports service forum shills usually take on two distinctive personalities. There are those who simply inform forum readers anytime a sports service has a good day, while the other type is much more dishonest.
The forum poster who lets everybody know when a sports service had a winning day is essentially harmless and isn't doing anything untruthful. Naturally, these types of forum posters are nowhere to be found when the service they are shilling for has a losing day and forum readers will quickly pick up on their method of operation.
The other type of forum shill is much more troublesome, as they're dishonest and are essentially trying to con people out of their money.
This person will come into a forum making false claims about how well a service is doing and will typically post "releases" after the games are over, with the sports service naturally having the correct side. Many times this type of shill will create two or more posting accounts and converse with each other about how well the service is doing and the other forum persona is supposed to act as somebody to verify the other poster's claims.
This type of shill is easily spotted if you know what you are looking for, but unfortunately there are plenty of forum posters who do not and end up getting conned out of their money.
The easiest way to spot this type of shill is to look at the poster's past posting history and if the majority of their posts are about one particular sports service, it should be a warning signal that something is wrong. Also look at the plays these posters release. If a majority of them are released after the games are over and those seem to win at an unbelievable ratio, you should stay far away.
Disposable Services
Another type of sports service, if you want to call it that, is merely a person who will use a disposable e-mail address from Hotmail Yahoo, G-Mail, etc., and claim to be a sports service. The "service" will post a game in the forums and if it wins, will quickly be back to talk about how great they have been doing. Naturally, all of these claims will be unverified.
If the game losses, all the person running the "service" has to do is create a different e-mail address and come back the following week to try the same thing.
Many sports service tactics, such as downright dishonesty are fairly well known by sports bettors, but the services and crooks are constantly changing their methods. It certainly pays to try and keep up with them.
