This Blog is about sports betting books
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Sports Betting Book Buyers Beware
I'll admit to being a bit spoiled when it comes to books written about sports betting. I was fortunate enough to have grown up at a time when people like Jim Barnes, Mike Lee, Ernie Kaufman, Huey Mahl, and Jim Jasper were writing frequently and those are some of the sharpest minds the sports betting fraternity has seen in quite some time.
I'm still on the lookout for decent sports gambling books, and while one may occasionally find something worthwhile, such as King Yao's Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting, but for the most part, there is little out there.
Naturally, as one who is always on the lookout for new sports betting books, I always check the new arrivals at Gambler's Book Club, as well as other online bookstores, such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
The offerings at Gambler's Book Club can generally be counted on to provide some value for readers, but that isn't always the case when you buy from the other online booksellers.
And making it more difficult for perspective buyers is that plenty of these essentially worthless books on sports betting are given high ratings from "readers."
But buyers should use caution when looking at these ratings, as many come from the authors themselves or friends of the author under assumed names.
On Amazon, the best way to check out a rating is to look at the "See all my reviews" link and look to see what other books this person has reviewed. If the book being reviewed is the only one listed it should raise a red flag, as should a reviewer who only reviews the works of a selected author or group of authors, who all just happen to publish books through the same self-publishing company.
Amazon has also added a new feature which is called Amazon Verified Purchase, which means the book reviewer actually purchased the book from Amazon, so you can feel much more at ease in trusting these reviews.
As I update this article on June 3, 2010, I'm currently looking at one book on sports betting titled GA is For Bitches that has 13 reviews. There are 11 of them that give the book five stars and two of them give the book two stars. There are also two reviews which happen to carry the Amazon Verified Purchase tag. Which two do you think they are? That's right, the two two-star reviews are the only ones that you can be sure of as having actually purchased the book.
A further review of the other 11 reviewers show that the reviewers are awfully impressed with the author of the book, going as far to give his other books on such topics as Microsoft Silverlight, South African travel, human resources, arthritis and poker all five stars.
There are several other authors these reviewers think are fantastic, giving all of their books five stars regardless if the book is on SEO, planning weddings, being a new teacher, astrology, comedy writing or drug rehab.
If you're not beginning to see a common theme here, you definitely should.
Days Gone By
In the old days books were all printed by publishing companies, so you could be sure that books were copy-edited, proofread, and checked for quality. That's the primary reason that the vast majority of worthwhile sports betting books are the older ones.
It's different today in that there are self-publishing companies who will essentially print anything they're sent, regardless if contains anything worth reading or not. The publishing companies aren't concerned with the content. For them it's simply a matter of getting the book to press and printing copies when requested.
Even the most poorly written sports gambling book does have some value, even if it's to prove that it's possible to turn money into nothing.
But if you would like to get a bit more value for your money, do a little research before plunking down your hard-earned cash on a sports betting book and don't be afraid to buy something that's a bit dated. In all probability you'll find some good information that is still relevant and get some good ideas that you can incorporate into your handicapping process.
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