If you have bet on sports multiple times, you know that this activity is not just about luck. It is a field where various aspects converge, and for someone to be super successful, he must master the basic concepts of this arena, then statistics, psychology, and many other nuanced things. Hence, knowledge is power, and even though most people nowadays prefer to attain info by watching videos, books still hold a magic charm and do a far better job of keeping individuals immersed in their content, as they serve as a treasure trove of wisdom elaborated via the written word.
When you read a book, you do not have to wait for a new chapter to drop to clarify something that has piqued your interest. No, you can just flip to the content you are curious about and devour it. Most things about a specific topic get covered neatly. Thus, below, we present five books that primarily novices should read before quitting their day job to devote themselves to sports gambling.
The Logic of Sports Betting – Ed Miller & Matthew Davidow
If you pop open Amazon.com and go to the page that lists the best-selling sports gambling books, the number one and two spots should get occupied by The Logic of Sports Betting in audio and paperback form. According to its authors, Ed Miller, an MIT graduate and a renowned poker author, and Matthew Davidow, an established sports modeler, gamblers should treat their betting hobby as a form of investing. In this, what some call a groundbreaking book, published in 2019, its authors go through the importance of mathematical reasoning when one selects to wager on sports. They state that, like in financial markets, in betting, participants’ decisions should get driven by the odds, probabilities, and expected value. Through applying discipline analysis and critical thinking, gamblers should be able to attain long-term profitability.
The paperback version of The Logic of Sports Betting is two hundred and thirty-seven pages long, covering the fundamental principles of wagering on sports. These include many topics we have written about on GOSUBETTING, like factors influencing line movement and how bookies set their odds. After this book finishes with these subjects, it moves to the complexities of probability and statistics and then goes into tactics like the Kelly Criterion and proportional betting. For total newbies, this is essential reading. And if they do not want to pay the $17.99 for the paperback edition, where all this gets packaged in a concise form. They can go through our library of Bitcoin Betting Guides. As noted, we have explained most of this content on our site.
The Everything Guide to Sports Betting – Josh Appelbaum
Here we have another highly-rated work on our favorite entertainment form, which also came out in 2019 and whose full title is – The Everything Guide to Sports Betting: From Pro Football to College Basketball, Systems and Strategies for Winning Money. From what we know, this is the only book Josh Appelbaum, an ex-Sports Insights member and ardent Boston sports fan/tipster, has written.
It is two hundred and eighty-eight pages long. And like the first discussed publication, it goes over many of the same things, supplying an adequate foundation for anyone curious about getting their feet wet with betting. Yet, it also has handy tricks for veteran gamblers.
Again, we have explained many of the things detailed here, but if you want to have them in one physical book on your shelf, this is not a bad choice. Just do not expect anything revolutionary out of it. It merely serves as an alternative to The Logic of Sports Betting. So, if that choice does not catch your eye, look into buying this book.
Statistical Sports Models in Excel – Andrew Mack
Andrew Mack is a quantitative retail trader and a sharp sports bettor. He is the man behind Mack Analytics and Statistical Sports Models in Excel, a piece of work for making smarter wagers. For some time, Macks’ volumes 1 & 2 of Statistical Sports Models in Excel maintained on Amazon Bestsellers sports betting list, and he has written another book on this pastime, The Limits of Efficiency, which has not done nearly as well.
Standing at one hundred and sixty-two pages, this is not a heavy read, making what many think of as an arcane and challenging subject matter accessible to laypeople. Mack does more than a fine job supplying bettors with a suite of workable stat models. These, without a doubt, will be of tremendous assistance to anyone taking sports wagering seriously. Please be aware that if you do not have previous knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Then, you may struggle with some of the content here. But, once you get a grasp of the things deciphered, you should have more than a decent basis for sports betting modeling.
For the uninformed, that is using statistical and machine learning techniques to analyze sports data. The end goal is, naturally, for one to accurately predict game outcomes. It entails collecting historical data, selecting relevant features, building, and training models, validating their performance, and making predictions.
Squares and Sharps, Suckers and Sharks: The Science, Psychology & Philosophy of Gambling – Joseph Buchdahl
Moving away a bit from the essential concepts of this practice and the math for success, we take a quick detour to look at the human mind and why so many of us get drawn to this activity. It goes without saying that putting effort into understanding what makes us want to bet or revealing the motivations to engage in this financially risky behavior will lead us to make wiser decisions regarding how we choose to approach this activity. At least, be more aware of why we are doing what we are doing and where we are going wrong.
Joseph Buchdahl is a Trinity College, Cambridge University science graduate who has had a love for betting that spans over three decades. He has authored four books on this topic, and the other three are How to Find a Black Cat in a Coal Celler, the Monte Carlo Bust, and Fixed Odds Sports Betting. The latter deals with risk management and statistical forecasting and is well worth reading. In this piece, Buchdahl’s third one provides various hypotheses on why betting is so popular and why people do it. Without question, this is a well-researched book, with data presented in an articulate and understandable manner. It deals not only with gambling, how it relates to investing, and the importance of probability but also mixes in even some philosophy. So, check it out if that sounds like your jam.
Predictive Methods for Football and Betting Markets – Enrique Dóal Pérez Frías
What we have here is a little-known work available in paperback and ebook format that hit Amazon in January 2023. We often analyze the football/soccer betting markets of all the crypto sportsbooks we analyze. We do this for good reason because this sport sees the most betting action worldwide, and here, football wagering analyst Enrique Dóal Pérez Frías, who is trying to develop his YouTube channel, explains all the variables relevant to predicting match results.
If you want to know more about football/soccer analytics, this is a nice read that is informative enough to give you a strong base for predictive analytics in this field. We love that it has a robust collection of detailed explanations, stories, and methods in action. It has detailed research to support all claims/conclusions and informs you how to assess teams before a match. We recommend it wholeheartedly.
