Here's the latest installment of "Fezzik Fridays", where LVASports.com's handicapping guru tackles a different one of your sports-betting-related questions each week, for the duration of the football season.
There are three strong choices: hockey, NBA, or college basketball.
This is the time of the year that specialists really clean up. The reason is that the oddsmakers and bettors are all still focused on football. We're two months into the season, power ratings on football teams are easily established, and pointspreads are actually easy to make, even in the NFL. Compare a week's Monday lines against game-day Sundays and you won't see many big moves -- the lines are right.
Contrast that with college basketball, where totals will move 10, 15, even 20 points from their openers on some games. All it takes is a run-and-gun team to suddenly implement a Princeton-style offense, and you have the stone cold nuts on an under bet … provided you get the information before others do. Even the NBA has wild line moves this time of year. In hockey key injuries and goaltender changes that go largely unnoticed in the marketplace can have a big effect on a game and may not be reflected in the lines till late, if at all.
Of course, you have to work hard to dig this information out and take advantage. Deciding to specialize and having (or making) the time to do what the bookies can't is where you get the edge. Caveat: While all of these non-football sports are good ones to focus on, I strongly recommend you choose only one. Attempting to stay up on all sports will spread you too thin, and your results will surely be compromised.
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