A sports handicapper is seen as an expert at predicting the results of any sporting match. Or at least, he is believed to be so. Bettors in the sports gambling world would look to the advice of a successful handicapper before they place their bet. As a bettor, and with so many sports handicappers out there, just how do you know which to trust your money and your bet with? To draw interest from bettors, sports handicappers pull all sorts of publicity stunts to get noticed. Some of these publicity stunts are too good to even be realistic. You will need to be careful about whose advice to take.

The best sports handicapper will promise you easy money if you follow his plays and pay him his asking price. They exaggerate their description for their games, and emerge with different contradictory, therefore confusing rating systems. If you've been around, you might have heard some handicapper boast that his total for this month is 80% lifetime?

Naturally, to gain approval and sale, these handicappers make their twist and turn their statistics in any direction to make themselves look appealing. Simply put, they outright lie about their performance. In the good old days, there was no Internet to be relied on for fast transmission of information such as score updates. Handicappers back in the day used scorephones, which were sponsored by some publicists who ironically weren't popular for their authenticity. Needless to say, there are a very long wait before the scores were out.

However, even if some do lie about their performance, many people still give them a hot shot. Not the greatest idea if you ask me, since it doesn't really help in the evaluation of a handicapper's abilities. It also doesn't make use of organized and realistic statistical information that is much needed in making sound judgment, as far as betting is concerned.

The best tip that is also the easiest to understand is the same thing you hear on the disclaimer portion of a commercial for a mutual fund, and that is Past performance is no guarantee of future results. This means that no matter how much these sports handicappers boast of their previous successes, there really is no telling whether they'd be successful of not. Not if this past success is their only measure of their ability. It's important to understand the fundamentals behind sports betting. The lines are very much in the favor in the book. Patience, money management, and the right system are critical for excellence in the sports betting markets. Also, focus on getting a good sportsbook that offers reduced lines.

Jon is a professional sports investor. He uses a sports betting system which has allowed him to leave his 9-5 job and have a free lifestyle. To learn more about how you can to make money from sports investing, visit my website at http://www.thesportsinvestor.net. If you have any questions email me.