Education is an expensive thing. I'm not sure who came up with that one, but he was right on the money. Learning about sports handicapping can really be expensive. You lose the money you sent to the handicapper and then you lose what you bet on the games. The unfortunate fact is that you can count on both hands the number of good, honest handicapping services you can choose from. That's a terrible indictment of the industry I'm in, but if you've read my “General Information” section here on the site, you already know that I got into this crazy business because I was cheated EVERY time I signed up with a service. That was almost thirty years ago- and it's worse now than it was then!
Sports bettors WANT to believe there are sure things in the betting world. Fixed games. Inside information. Officials and players on the payroll. Everyone wants to win every game. Even if you accept that fact that you won't win every game, it's really easy to get a little desperate when you're down and you've lost money you shouldn't have wagered. You're in a hole and you need someone to bail you out. It's the perfect environment for the scamdicappers! Add to that the fact that in a lot of places, it's pretty difficult, if not impossible, to get any help after you've been cheated. Unless you're playing in Nevada, you can't go to the police and say, "I need your help. I've just been cheated while I was participating in an illegal activity. I would love it if the sports handicapping business could be regulated just as the vast majority of businesses are. That's probably never going to happen. If it did, 90% of the handicapping services out there would be out of business. In the meantime, understanding how the industry works is your best defense. That, and a little common sense! You'll shake your head reading this section, but EVERYTHING YOU'LL READ HERE IS TRUE!
There are a lot of scams out there that you can fall victim to because you didn't have the information, experience or knowledge needed to avoid them. Using a service where they don't use their real name or give you an actual street address for their office isn't one of them. C'mon guys, do you really think there is a handicapper whose real name is “Bobby Cash”? Or “Sam Wins”? If a service won't use their real name and all they give you is an 800 number and a P.O. Box for an address, that should raise a lot of red flags before you even get to any information about their service.
WHAT MAKES THE RAINMAN ANY DIFFERENT? Yes, I go by The Rainman. A nickname that came from my last name, Rainey, and from the fact that years ago when the Rain Man movie was out, I did impersonations of the Rain Man on the golf course and they started calling me Rainman. It stuck. But, everyone knows my real name- John Rainey. My home phone is listed in Memphis- it's in the book, and my office address is on the Home Page of the website along with my cell number. Call me crazy, but if you're not out to cheat anyone, you shouldn't be afraid of your customers knowing who you are and where you work.
Let's get this one out of the way early. The easiest way to have your outlandish (and totally untrue) win rate validated is to have an independent, honest company monitor your plays and then make the results known to the public. Nothing to it! Many years ago, a pretty smart service (I never said these guys are stupid) came up with the idea of having companies monitor their results and make them available to anyone who wanted to call them or check on-line. All it took was a new 800 number, a company name and a new website. The monitoring industry was born! Problem was, it was owned by the same bogus services you should be trying to avoid. You don't know that the monitor is owned by the handicapping service, so when you call to verify the record and they tell you how good the service is, you think it proves the service is really outstanding. Then, they took it a step farther.
Customers starting asking everyone why they weren't monitored. So the monitoring service offered other handicapping services the following deal. For 250 a week, you could turn your plays in to them, they would keep track of them and post your record after Monday Night Football for everyone to see. You could advertise that you were monitored and give their phone number and website for verification. For 600 a week, you could turn your plays in Tuesday morning, AFTER all the games had been played. Pretty sweet, huh? Almost as good as the pre-season magazines you get in the mail telling you who the Number One phone service is and who the Number One sportsbook is.
The only problem is that the same people who publish the magazines also OWN THE SERVICE AND THE SPORTSBOOK! It's public knowledge that a couple of years ago, one of the best known handicappers in the country was tried and convicted for his ownership in an offshore sportsbook. So, you need to understand that this guy was making big money selling his service and then he was making big money when his customers lost on his plays! Maybe just a little conflict of interest?
I'm sure there are legitimate monitoring services out there. I'm also sure that I don't know which ones they are.
WHAT MAKES THE RAINMAN ANY DIFFERENT? I host one of the most popular sports radio shows in the Mid-South every weekday from 1pm to 3pm on Sports 56, WHBQ, AM560 here in Memphis. It's a live call-in show where we encourage listeners to call in and be a part of the show. Much of the show is devoted to handicapping, particularly during the football season. My record and how I'm doing in general is often the topic of conversation. If I lied about my record for a weekend, the callers would crucify me on the air. Ever notice how all the other handicapping shows you hear each week are recorded and simply broadcast by the station in your area? You don't get a chance to call in and talk live to the handicapper. You just get to listen. They can say whatever they want to say with no fear of anyone calling them on it. There's a reason they do it that way- they don't want you to be able to call in live.
Let's get this straight. There is no such thing as a lock game. There is no inside information. Games aren't fixed. There are no players on the payroll- yes, it has happened a few times, but there are services out there who will tell you it happens every week. There are no Officials on the payroll or Officials who have a grudge against a certain team. A good salesman can make you believe all those things if you let him, but that's all he is- a salesman, not a handicapper.
If you look at a lot of betting publications, have you ever wondered just exactly how a service knows that on a particularly week in, say, October, they'll have their SEC Game of the Year? Realizing that all betting publications go to press weeks before the game, how does a service know that a particular game will be their Game of the Year without knowing what the weather will be, or who might be injured, or suspended, or sick, or any number of other circumstances that will affect the game? The answer is very simple- THEY DON'T. They're just counting on you not to ask any silly questions and to believe whatever B.S. they give you on the phone about the quarterback who's mad at his coach and is going to deliberately throw a couple of interceptions.
I once ask a handicapper how he could possibly have more than ONE Game of the year. He said that each week actually started a new, different 52 week period, so it was a different year. The Lock of the week or the Game of the year or any other special promotions like them are just that- promotions.
WHAT MAKES THE RAINMAN ANY DIFFERENT? This one's pretty simple- I've never had a Game Of The Anything. Not the week, month, conference, or year. We take each gameday as it comes- one day at a time.