Playbook Magazine -- A Jillion Angles; 10 Years of Spreads

3 July 2004

By Howard Schwartz

Marc Lawrence's Football Handicapping Yearbook (247 pages, magazine, $8.95) has arrived at Gambler's Book Shop and it's a beauty. In addition to the magazine, purchasers get a bonus a 136-page magazine called Insiders' Football News which covers 12 major conferences and an features in-depth analysis of the top 25 college teams.

Lawrence's magazine, highly sought-after annually because it contains thousands of betting angles and 10 years of spreads and totals for each pro team (no totals for colleges), has plenty of room to keep records of each game played. It also provides charts and summaries detailing how college coaches' team performed after scoring or allowing certain numbers of points or after a win or loss straight up and against the spread.

The magazine also shows you key box score statistics from all regular season college teams and all pro teams including the Super Bowl. You can isolate how the pros did after a week off; how they performed in their first and last game of the season; overall over and under trends; how pro teams did by the month (home-away; as favorite or dog or vs. divisional teams).

The magazine is helpful for those betting the preseason; with its complete schedules (first game is Aug. 9 with Washington and Denver squaring off at Canton, OH.) and a look at each coach's record for preseason games.

Yes, Lawrence tells you the number of returnees for each team on offense and defense and number of lettermen returning overall. You can also get each college or pro teams' web sites if you want to research further.

Two other new football magazines of note are the Statfox Edge (128 pages, $6.99) and the Sporting News Pro Football Magazine (184 pages, $6.98).

The Statfox annual contains pro and college material, which includes schedules and room to keep records and four years of spreads, plus totals for both the college and pros for four seasons. This magazine has an extra no other magazine has--a one page analysis and statistics on half-time betting with a look back one year; three years and since 1992 (the best and worst teams in a variety of situations--like in road games; as favorite or dog vs. divisional opponent or in playoff games). The page includes four betting angles for half-time wagering.

For the colleges there are betting angles or trends worth noting and alerts to when the next trend or angle is likely to pop up in.

Statfox doesn't neglect pre-eason games, with a complete schedule and room for record-keeping and a cluster of exhibition game betting angles.

The Sporting News Pro Football magazine is designed for a quick preview on each team with much emphasis on fantasy league play. There are categories for fantasy leaguers to follow: Stud; Sleeper and Sumbler. Also the strength of schedule for each pro team is listed along with team rosters; player birthdates; projected depth charts; stadium and media listings along with team web sites.