Beware of the Profit Chasers
The 2010 baseball season is winding down and September can be an extremely unpredictable time. Many teams take advantage of calling up players from the minor leagues to give them some big league experience and see what they can do against the best competition in the world.Some teams are just playing out the schedule, while others have quite a bit to play for. Some local bookmakers will stop taking bets on games between two teams out of playoff contention and bettors can expect to lay a steep price in those games where a team fighting for a postseason berth is playing a team that is already looking forward to calling it quits for the year.
This is typically a time to wager selectively and to possibly cut back on the size of your wagers. This premise holds true in all sports, not just baseball.
But if you look at the daily sports service releases in the forum, you'll see the opposite usually takes place. Many services which are showing a loss for the season will start to increase their unit size, throw out Games of the Year and play more games than usual all in an effort to get even for the year, at least on paper.
Let's face it, advertising a winning season is likely to draw more customers the following year than saying that you lost. The sports services don't really have anything to lose by doing this, but you, the bettor, certainly do if you follow along.
This happens most often in football, where a service that typically rates their plays 1-5 stars can throw out a 20 star play in an effort to get in the black for the season. The following season they can boast another winning season, while most bettors who followed them lost money, as they weren't about to risk 10 times their usual bet on one game. And if the 20-star play loses, there's always a 50-star play just around the corner.
Knowing about this common tactic can save the bettor a great deal of money down the stretch.
