Sports Betting Handicappers

Handicappers are professed experts who are willing to give the average bettor access to their sports betting expertise, often--and usually--for a fee. Handicappers can potentially be great assets when it comes to picking winners but each bettor ultimately places the bet alone at the window. Knowing how much faith to put in a particular handicapper's opinion is the key to benefiting from his or her picks.

Consider the Rule of Large Numbers: If you took 100,000 people and told half of them to bet on one team and half the other in a particular game, you would have 50,000 people who think you might know what you're doing. Repeat this trick a few times and you'll have 12,500 who think you're a guru, 6250 willing to sign over their life savings and 3125 who think you're a witch.

Picks and Pans

As the above scenario demonstrates, one of the pitfalls of picking a picker is knowing if your picker is really any good, or is simply getting by on savvy marketing techniques, luck or deceptive practices. The best way to minimize your exposure, as always, is to do your research. One of the best attributes of the Internet is its ability to offer quick and meaningful feedback on products and services.

So take some time and let your cursor do the walking through sports betting review sites and message boards. Talk to fellow bettors whom you trust, and track the results of a few handicappers over a series of weeks while betting little or nothing on their picks. The best handicappers are honest about the limitations of their craft and will concede that all you need to be ahead is to be right 51 percent of the time.