Originally Posted by smurgerburger View Post
I heard they were going to have a panel on contest handicappers this year but then the play money poker tournament players demanded they get a panel too and things got a little dicey.

Your comments would mean something if you had any knowledge of monitors and the history of handicappers being monitored.

For example, there was a monitor for decades called the AADSS that competed directly against "Tipsters or Gypsters?" as a way to evaluate handicappers. I tried to sign up with the AADSS 10K starting bankroll but was horrified to discover that the bankroll was "mythical" and the AADSS used play money wagers as a way to rank and evaluate handicappers. Of course, it was a worthless mess. Everybody just fired max bets to make the top 10 every week. It was a joke.

This is in contrast to serious monitors (McCusker's Tipsters or Gypsters?, Handicappers' Report Card, The Sports Monitor, The Buffalo Satellite Handicap, etc.) that provided the handicappers' records and, in the case of McCusker, multi-year records with percentages, net wins or losses, and return on investment as categories.

Dan Druff, this site's owner, posts his actual plays. You can see if he wins or loses. Monitors have always tracked services and handicappers in the same way. The Wise Guys Contest is two plays a week. Well, I've been in it for 30 years. Two plays every week of every football season for 30 years. You can't hide when your plays are public.

This whole "AP" mythos that actual plays don't matter has some marginal merit. You can win without committing to actual plays. But what the "APs" try to sell is that you can win without knowing the teams, without knowing the lines before they appear, and where the lines are likely to go. In reality, you need to (1) know the teams thoroughly, (2) know the betting public and the psychology of the betting public thoroughly, (3) know or at least suspect when particular hitters are doing things for particular reasons, and many other things. These require expertise and experience.

What bothers me about someone like smurger, and frankly mickey and other alleged advantage players on this site, is that if they knew all of the above, sure, go ahead and post whatever you want. But if you don't know anything about what monitors are reliable and have been for decades or anything about the history of sports betting, why type responses that are all snark and no brains? All you do is demonstrate that you have zero expertise and that you're happy to flaunt it.