Betting Angle Books Abound at GBC as Grid Season Nears

27 July 2005

By Howard Schwartz

For those who believe that history will repeat or that certain teams dominate others like clockwork, we have books for you. Books which focus on "domination" characteristics or consistency attract a certain segment of the betting public as the football season nears. Here are some of those books and what they offer in what format. Each is available at Gambler's Book Club (Gambler's Book Shop) in Las Vegas.

The 2005 College Football Notebook (133 pages, paperbound, $34.95). This is the 27th year for this popular book by Bob Frederick of Las Vegas. It contains 278 winning trends with at least 70 percent efficiency over the years.

The strength of this book is that it offers you the angle and shows you, year-by-year, in some cases going back to the 1970s, how a team performed against another team. For example, you can see Alabama is 15-5 against Mississippi since 1977. This is against the line. The book shows the line, where the game was played and when the next match-up takes place in 2005. In this case Alabama will travel to Mississippi on Oct. 15.

In some instance Frederick prepares the bettor for the upcoming season with some solid rationale and analysis. "Look for improvement from Alabama this year especially with a soft non-league schedule."

The 2005 College Trend & Schedule Book (106 pages, paperbound $32.95) and the NFL Trend & Schedule Book (82 pages, paperbound, $32.95), each contain hundreds of angles (the pro version has angles for betting totals), with room to keep records week by week and which key each week's play to angles.

Baylor for example loves to face SMU. They are 9-1 in their last 10 meetings against the spread and next face each other Sept. 3 at SMU.

Maryland is 6-0 against Wake Forest in their last six meetings. On Sept. 24 Maryland visits Wake Forest.

The pro version has pre-season betting angles -- more than 150 0f them based on the last 10 years of play. Many are keyed to wagering on totals.

There are on average a dozen betting angles for the regular season for each pro team, including those for totals betting, with room to keep records on every pro game to be played during 2005.

The book also lists "fast starters vs. slow starters" since 1995, how teams did in Sunday and Monday night games against the spread on a summary basis (Buffalo is a terrible 0-5 against the line in their last five Monday night appearances) and how teams performed after a bye week.

Jim Feist's 2005 Football Workbook (318 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $.39.95) is a fine time-saver since it gives you room to keep records on both college AND pro team throughout the season, tells you if the game is conference, divisional, etc. and summarizes how a team did home and away and as a favorite or dog against all 2005 opponents for the past 10 years. Then it shows you how each 2005 opponent did showing the line and the totals number. For example against the Rams, who they are meeting for the first time since 2002, the Dallas Cowboys were 12-point dogs in that game and ended up winning 13-10. Dallas will meet the Raiders Oct. 2 for the first time since 2001. Wonder how they fared in the three previous meetings since 1995? The book shows you the results, the spread and if the games went over or under. Thus, instead of looking back every season, year by year, you can see it summarized in a specific section.

The book contains the results of every regular season and post-season game since 1995, with totals for the pro section.

The college section has a similar format. Here you can see how close big rivalries are each year or how they've opened up against each other in recent years, getting away from defensive battles.