Football Betting Newsletters
There are dozens of football newsletters on the market today and as with practically anything, some are quite good, while others aren't worth the paper they paper they are printed on.
The Internet has certainly changed the way newsletters are released and has made it possible for many more newsletters to appear. It still doesn't seem all that long ago that there were basically just three newsletters-the Gold Sheet, Sports Reporter and Winning Points, which were available by subscription or at newsstands.
Nowadays most newsletters are downloaded as PDF files, which is nice for subscribers, as they have several days to study the publication, as opposed to hoping the mail carrier delivered the current newsletter on Friday, instead of Saturday, or even worse, the following Monday.
Types of Newsletters
There are a number of different types of newsletters available. Some are statistically driven, while others typically concentrate on trends. Some newsletters will have opinions on every game played, while others will just give opinions on a selected number of games.
Many newsletters are simply another form of advertising for a service's phone selections, which typically cost a great deal more money than the newsletter, while other newsletters are designed to be a stand-alone product and there's no hyping of the phone selections.
Several sports services publish more than one newsletter, although the mid-week update type of newsletter appears to be dwindling in popularity.
A Look at Some Newsletters
Power Sweep
Northcoast Sports' Power Sweep is always one of the most popular newsletters around and contains some good information. The newsletter's Underdog Play of the Week is a popular feature, as is the Northcoast Line, which is where you can compare the Las Vegas line to the line the service has on most games.
Power Sweep does gives predictions on nearly every game, with the exception being the nationally televised night games. Instead of giving predictions on those games, Power Sweep tries to hawk its phone service, which is really one of the few negatives things you can say about the newsletter.
Season subscribers receive several bonuses, including the much-hyped September 5* game, so that is the best way to go.
Power Plays
The other publication put out by Northcoast Sports is Power Plays, which looks at all the games from a purely statistical method. Each game shows the predicted yards gained rushing and passing, turnovers and a projected final score.
Some of the features of Power Plays, such as News and Notes, also are in Power Sweep.
Power Plays does give a mathematical projection for each game, including the nationally televised night games.
As with Power Sweep, season subscribers receive a number of bonuses from Northcoast Sports.
Pigskin Prophesy
Pigskin Prophesy is published by Stat Attack Sports, who make some of the best sports betting software available. The newsletter will do all the work for you and is a good alternative for those who don't have the time to properly analyze the games.
Pigskin Prophesy looks at every game to be played from several different perspectives and when everything agrees, you have a play. Through the first two weeks of the 2009 football season Pigskin Prophesy had posted a stellar 13-3 record against the point spread, so they obviously know what they're doing.
It seems a shame to call Pigskin Prophesy a newsletter, as there are more than 50 pages once the season gets going and each game gives you team trends, coaching trends, predicted weather and a brief analysis whether or not the game should be a play or not.
Pigskin Prophesy isn't a tool to sell phone selections and does just fine on its own merits, so it is something definitely worth looking into.
You can download a sample issue from http://homepage.mac.com/ozarkmatt/statattacksports/solutions.html to see for yourself how good this newsletter is. You can also download the current issue onto your computer before the games are played, but won't be able to open it until a password is posted on the website Monday evening to see how the newsletter performed. (This is so that you know the newsletter wasn't changed or altered in any fashion to match the week's results.
