Patterson, perhaps best-known as a professional blackjack player, became a successful sports bettor after years of hard work and believed that sports betting offered the potential for more profit than blackjack.
For many years Painter was the only licensed instructor for sports betting at an American college, as he taught handicapping courses at Clark County Community College in Las Vegas.
Obviously, when these two speak about sports betting, a person should pay attention.
Introduction
Although this book was written in 1985, and some of the statistical analysis given is out of date, there is plenty of solid information packed into this 250 page book to make it must reading. The book is out of print, but can easily be found online.
The book has a brief section on money management and then goes into football, basketball, and baseball, offering sound advice on each of the three sports.
Football
Football handicapping advice makes up the majority of the book, and the authors have plenty of sound advice. Painter was one of the first handicappers to use various Yards Per Point methods in handicapping professional football and his advice here is a great introduction to the concept. There are plenty of systems given, so fans of statistical analysis will find a number of helpful tips and suggestions.
The book covers professional football and college football, as well as side bets and over/under wagers.
Basketball
There are three chapters on basketball, which cover both the NCAA and the NBA, as well as sides and totals.
At the time the book was written, the average NBA game saw 216 points being scored, so some adjustments will have to made to several of the systems, but they still are sound.
The college section goes into detail about Average Opponent Power Ratings (AOPR), a concept every bettor of college sports should be familiar with, although it carries the most weight when dealing with basketball.
Baseball
The baseball trends and angles come flying at you faster than a Nolan Ryan fastball and are a lot to comprehend in one chapter, but many of them are sound advice and make sense from a logical perspective, which is the first requirement of any sports betting system.
The two discuss rating starting pitchers, using a method quite similar to the Index Method developed by Jim Barnes, which should be required reading for all baseball bettors.
If there was just one book that I could recommend to all sports bettors, regardless of experience, this would be it. Sports Betting: A Winner's Handbook has withstood the test of time and is a true classic in the sports handicapping field.
