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Columnist Buzz Daly: Sports Book Scene

It is almost that time of year, when a visit to the local newsstand finds us overwhelmed with football preview magazines.

We're still weeks away from baseball's All Star Game, but lots of bettors are getting antsy about football. Several bet shops in Vegas and off shore have posted lines for the first week's NFL matchups, and already props and future bets have surfaced.

Every year seems to produce new annuals published by touts. Some of these are nothing more than slick marketing vehicles for 900 services. We wouldn't mind that so much if the preview pubs just had some substance.

But so many of them are written with multiple hedges, e.g., "If the quarterback can throw fewer INTs, and the receivers stay injury-free, the offense might put up more points." We don't need to spend $7.95 for that "information".

Essentially, there are three types of preview annuals.

There are those that target bettors and are generally produced by touts, or companies that accept a plethora of tout advertising.

Then come those that target sports fans. These tend to have higher production values, better paper, sharper pictures, which this audience demands. Some are filled with fluffy stories, others are well written with a premium on good information.

The third category, of course, is fantasy magazines, which can be used by bettors to derive some worthwhile insights.

Since we, too, publish an annual magazine - and even if it isn't a preview publication - it would be disingenuous of us to critique others, so we'll refrain.

But we would like to acknowledge a perennial that was just published which makes life a little easier for bettors. Point Spread Playbook, billed as the informed player's reference.

Published for more than two decades by Al O'Donnell, PSP is loaded with information about NFL teams. Past performance charts, point spreads, totals, everything we need to review for regular season games as well as playoffs and the Super Bowl, seems to be covered.

The book is broken down by teams, and includes both statistical charts and editorial summaries.

Mercifully there is no advertising featuring 900 numbers or characters who vow to "kill your man."

It is simplistic to suggest that any single compendium of information is guaranteed to help a player beat the bookies' 11-10 edge, but this is one that can be used in a meaningful fashion.

O'Donnell's straightforward, no-nonsense approach is easy to take and is worth referencing when the season is underway.

Point Spread Playbook sells for $19.95. For more information, call 8473987508 or write PSP, 1314 Watling Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004.

Jimmy V Update. Had lunch with Jimmy Vaccaro and boy, does he have a busy football season planned. In one of his projects, he'll be chatting with bettors directly over the Internet on weekends, and will be taking on a few clients via a 900 number.

Jimmy will also be featured on "The Winning Line", broadcast over ESPN Sports Radio 920 AM in Las Vegas, 8-9 PM every Thursday during the football season. The show will also be available on the Internet at Rolling Good Times Online's AudioVegas (www.RGTonline.com), where it will be heard live and archived for a week.

The promotion for Jimmy's 900 number will be under his direct supervision, and will target serious bettors seeking legitimate help. As a professional bettor who puts up his own money on the plays he gives out, Jimmy is one of the few handicappers who never talks about credibility or integrity. He doesn't have to. He's got it in spades.

In discussing who he plans to service, Jimmy told us he is not looking for the $50 bettor. For such a player to pay the service fee, it simply makes the vig he is bucking too high, said Jimmy.

Vaccaro noted that he generally achieves a winning percentage of 57 to 58 percent which, given the amount of money he bets, adds up to a tidy little profit at the end of the season.

Tout services don't brag about winning 58 percent because that wouldn't attract the clientele they cater to. But professional bettors who win at that rate and know how to shop lines and have discipline, quietly go about their business of making money at sports betting.

Jimmy cautioned that players who succumb to unrealistic claims will probably wind up on the losing side at the end of the football season.

He will announce his plans shortly and when he does, we'll pass them along to Sports Book Scene readers.

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