Right Angle Sports

What do Steve Fezzik, Dave Cokin, Russ Hawkins (MajorWager.com), and Wade (Doc's) all have in common? Each will vouch for the integrity of Edward Golden and Right Angle Sports, which is a rarity in this industry.
Golden came from a family where gambling was common and it was natural he followed suit.
"I was taken to Vegas and the racetrack many times when I was young," he said. "My brother and I took up an interest in sports betting, and I was handicapping and placing bets well before turning 16. I started posting plays on the old AOL message boards in 1995 and 1996 and started Right Angle Sports shortly thereafter."

Right Angle Sports isn't afraid to shy away from the most popular sports, which may hurt a bit in the sales department, but has paid nice dividends for its customers over the years.
"Our general philosophy is to focus on sports and teams that do not get lots of media attention," Golden said. "We do not handicap the NFL, MLB, or NBA. Even in college sports we tend to invest most time on the smaller conferences.
"We not only handicap sides, but also invest a great deal of time in the less common over/under totals which we have had extraordinary success with."

Golden isn't afraid about spending as much time as possible looking for any edge he can find.
"We watch games on TV, online, and in person, listen to audio, scan message boards and blogs, and research local news articles, box scores, and stats to the point that we have as much intimate knowledge as possible on teams, players, and coaches," he said. "We then use that knowledge to identify quality betting opportunities and pass those on to our subscribers. Our primary focus has been on college football and college basketball, until 2008 when we also started to handicap the WNBA."

RAS has been online since 1996, with the first website being launched in 1997. RAS has produced a 57.43-percent win rate in college basketball (500+ plays) over the past 3 years and a 55.34-percent win rate in college football (150+ plays) over the past 3 years.
"Most other handicappers handicap several sports, and focus their marketing on the sport they performed best at while masking their overall performance," Golden said. "During the calendar year we never handicap more than one sport simultaneously. With us, what you see is what you get."

Many sports services will claim that college basketball is the easiest sport to beat, but Right Angle Sports has proved that over the last decade, as their record attests.
"College basketball is by far our favorite sport to handicap," Golden said. "With so many teams and games to choose from, it is easily the best sport to gain an advantage on over the oddsmakers. It is next to impossible for one person, or even a small group of people, to track the daily progress of so many teams, players, and coaches. The result of this is consistently weaker lines than you will see in all other major sports."

One of the things Golden strives for is integrity and you won't find him shading the point spread in his favor like so many sports services tend to do.
"We go out of our way to post and grade with conservative widely available lines at time of release," Golden said. "For example, if we like the favorite and six books have -3.5 and four books have -3, we will always use the -3.5. This is typically uncommon in our industry."
Golden also promises excellent customer service, stating phone calls and e-mails are answered quickly and friendly.

Easily one of RAS' strong points is its price, which is certainly reasonable and actually among the lower-costing services around. "Despite recent growth in popularity and success, our subscription rates remain well below industry averages," Golden said.
Golden is certainly correct, as the company's 2007-08 college basketball package was just $949 for both sides and totals for the entire season. Some other services charge that for just one month and don't have near the results.

One of the things I personally like about RAS is the money management system they recommend. Far too many sports services have 10- and 20-unit plays, which will eventually lead to disaster.
"We use a strict unit system ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 unit per play," Golden said. "We believe one unit should be an average sized bet, not three units, four units, or five units as others use to inflate their net unit counts. We are very selective and do not force or release plays for marketing purposes ever. No game of the years, game of the months, locks, or guaranteed plays."

Naturally, I couldn't let Golden escape without passing on some knowledge to readers and asked him what the biggest problems most sports bettors faced.

"Beginning bettors typically do not understand just how difficult it is to win long term," he said. "They often expect unrealistic win rates while failing to realize (or accept) that even the best struggle to hit 55-percent against widely available lines.
"Most beginners also are not equipped with the discipline and/or knowledge needed to practice sound money management, which in many cases is more important to the success of a bettor than the ability to pick winners.
"Advanced bettors are currently plagued by the unfavorable legal climate in the U.S. It is now more difficult than it once was to get money to and from offshore sportsbooks. This makes it tougher to shop for lines and bet larger amounts on sports with smaller limits. The lines and betting markets themselves are getting sharper and more competitive."

Right Angle Sports is a solid choice for those of you looking for a sports service. The company certainly has a long, proven track record, but more importantly is well-regarded throughout the industry.

I receive plenty of inquiries from sports services who would like to mentioned on the site and most of them are not the type of services I would recommend to readers.

I didn't have any reservations about giving a good recommendation to Right Angle Sports, however, as nobody has anything but good things to say about Golden and his company. Even his competitors in the industry acknowledge his honesty and his ability to come out ahead of the game. That speaks volumes for the company right there.