More Shady Sports Service Tactics
When I first wrote Shady Sports Service Tactics several years ago I didn't imagine writing a sequel to it, but just when you think you've seen it all, something new comes along and tops it. These range from being somewhat minor offenses to the truly outlandish.With that said, let's taake a quick look at some of the ways sports services are trying to seperate you from your money this year.
Fake Fezziks
One of the most impressive sports handicapping feats in recent memory was Seve Fezzik winning the Hilton SuperContest two consecutive years. Defeating most of the best sports handicappers around is no easy feat, let alone to do it in back-to-back years.Fezzik's second SuperContest title made him a bit of a sports betting celebrity, and his fame didn't go unnoticed by those with few morals, including the person who decided to use Fezzik's name to open a sports service and try to pass himself off as the real deal.
If you are one of those who was fooled, don't feel too bad, as the Fezzik imposter even fooled www.covers.com, who ran an interview with the phony one. (They later got the real Fezzik for an interview.)
While the real Fezzik is struggling a bit this year in the NFL, the only place you will find his selections is LVASports.com. Any other site is a fake.
Releasing RAS Plays
Edward Golden's Right Angle Sports has become one of the most well-respected sports services around. His success hasn't gone unnoticed by fellow sports services. Golden releases his side plays early in the day and typically will release totals much closer to game time.Not surprisingly, a number of the games Right Angle Sports use as selections are also released later in the day by other sports services. Some will even send out selections right after RAS releases their plays. That may be a bit unethical, but that's not even the real problem. The real problem is that Right Angle is famous for moving the line of every game they release, but the copycats use the same line as RAS and those numbers will no longer be available.
Even customers of RAS know they have just seconds after a game is released to get the line it was released at. By the time a copycat service sends the selection to its customers, the line has already changed by several points. Not only is the customer getting second-hand selections, they are getting a spread that no longer exists.
Colaborations
We're seeing more and more websites that offer picks from a number of different handicappers, as opposed to one service having its own site. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but you'd find a strange pattern of the handicappers being evenly split when it comes to the big nationally televised games, such as the Monday night football game.Now this could be a case of the oddsmaker doing a good job and splitting the betting public, but that's unlikely. The real reason is much more likely being a case of the website trying to ensure that half of its customers are happy after the Monday night game and will likely purchase more picks in the future. It aslo gives those who received a losing selection the chance to see the winning services boasting about how they were on the winning side and hopefully that will be enough to entice them to sign-up.
