I have had this book in my collection for the last 10 years. It was the first book I ever purchased on the subject, and after reading and buying 5 additional, I have to say that this is the best book on football handicapping available. It is pre-Internet, so do not expect to find info on on-line books. It covers most aspects well, and it very easy to understand. Well worth your $5.00.

This 1984 ground breaker gives the new sports bettor a fighting chance. Get this one, then track down his current works!

This is by far the best source I've encountered for tips on sports betting. Miller is a real professional sports bettor-- not one of those phonies who promise 90% locks, he understands the real nature of the game and explains it in a simple, straightforward manner perfect for novices and experts alike.

The first section of the book explains some of the basics of sports betting with a good explanation of what it takes to win. Most of the rest of the book specifically addresses betting on the NFL game and how to beat it, including a valuable money-making betting system.

There are also two chapters in the book dealing with money management, which explain how important this aspect of sports betting is. The information here dispels a number of myths regarding money management and can be applied to any sport. Of all of the great lessons in the book, these may be the most eye-opening and what makes you the most money.

If you are serious about learning about sports betting, this book is an unbeatable investment.

betting, you cant beat the action. I have above average intelligence, but I had no common sense when it came to betting. No discipline, no money management and no sense. This book was jumping out before me. the skies opening up. A hundred scratches of the head and a thousand oh yeahs. Changed my life. Follow the tenants of the book to the letter of the law. Be a fanatic and never deviate and then you just might have a opprotunity at being a winner. Without this book, there is no opprotunity. NOw being smart is as easy as bookwork. I own a comfortable life due to Lem Banker and to playing backgammon where the laws of probabilites cant be argued.

Tim Green returns with another tale of NFL corruption. This time the star player is a quarterback who has gone bad by giving into mob influence and becomes a pawn in the plot of a mob lieutenant who wants to become a heavy hitter in the big leagues. This book does a little more with developing its characters and stays true to the formula of delivering an interesting football-based scandalous plot. It delivers a good ride and a satisfying conclusion.

When I read Green's book, I was startled to realized that I could predict what was going to happen next. It was one of those bad guy/good guy books that have not a whole lot new to offer. Except the ending. I wouldn't have guessed it in a million years. It's worth reading just for that.

TITANS centers around New York Titans All-Star quarterback Hunter Logan on the event that elevated him to hero-worship: winning the Super Bowl. What his teammates and wife don't realize is that Hunter also has a slight problem. To make sure that he remains in the cash and to satisfy a urge to play chance, he makes side bets on basketball games with the help of a bookie meadiated by his friend and former teammate, Metz. Chance plays a heavier hand in Hunter's life when buddy Metz takes his latest cash bet from Hunter and places every dime on the Titans to win their latest game. The amount betted alerts Tony Rizzo, ganster and begging to be leader of his uncle's mafia family, to tail Metz and discover Hunter's involvement, then blackmail him into a points shaving racket that will involve Tony going to the owner of the Titans and exposing him to the NFL if he doesn't comply. Need more incentive, then how about killing Hunter's wife, then his daughter? What neither realizes is that Ellis Cook, FBI agent and leader of a mob task force, is trailing Tony and looking for evidence to send him to prison and close down the connecting families operating in New York. What Cook doesn't realize is that within the walls of the FBI, a traitor is spilling the developments of the impending case against Tony to his uncle, Vincent Mondolffi, one of the ruling families. The mole is easy to figure out, but the development of the story is not, and just when it looks like there is no way out, another door opens and the suspense kicks in on another level. Lengthy, yet worthy of more football-suspense stories. Good work, Mr. Green!

Whether this book would be helpful to you, the potential NFL bettor, depends largely on what kind of information you are looking for. Beat the Sports Books is primarily devoted to teaching the reader how to handicap his/her own NFL games -specifically, how to make your own lines. The author, Dan Gordon, has over 20 years of experience handicapping and betting on NFL games and gives the reader the benefit of this experience. He explains, in considerable detail and with many examples, how to calculate your own lines and power rankings and how to determine which bets are worth making. This is an in-depth course in line-making and takes concentration and persistence to fully absorb. The author also devotes one chapter to pointers for betting at different stages in the NFL season, which is simpler and might be worth considering even if you don't intend to make your own lines.

62 of the book's 165 pages are appendices. Appendix 1 follows one NFL team through an entire season in order to illustrate the finer points of calculating a team's power ranking over the course of a season. The second Appendix contains a full season (1996) of bets that the author made with explanations of why he made each bet. Included are some bets that he didn't make and reasons that he passed on those. The appendices could prove to be invaluable references if you intend to get serious about NFL betting, especially betting over the long haul.

There is some information in this book that is not about handicapping. The title of the book's first chapter is: "How Pro Football Is Bet and How the Point Spread is Set". It includes explanations of different kinds of bets (spreads, over-under, parlays, parlay cards, reverses, teasers) and explanations, with examples, of how the Las Vegas Sports Consultants set their lines each week. In chapter 2, the author goes on to explain how the media can affect betting, how touts work... These chapters contain a lot of interesting information that would be useful to both serious and casual NFL bettors.

Beat the Sports Books is really dedicated to teaching you how to determine what bets to make. There isn't much advice on precisely how to place those bets beyond the author's emphasis on trying the get the early lines and shopping for a fair price on your bet. There are no lists of sports books or internet casinos or instructions in how exactly to communicate what you would like to bet once you've found one. The information in Beat the Sports Books would seem to be intended for the relatively experienced bettor.

I'll risk repeating myself here, just to be clear: Beat the Sports Books is a lesson in handicapping NFL games with an overwhelming emphasis on making your own lines. Dan Gordon provides the reader with detailed instruction in the methods that he uses to calculate lines, based on over 20 years of experience as an NFL bettor. There is relatively little advice on other methods of handicapping. If you would like to be able to calculate your own lines in order to exploit the errors of the lines the sports books use, this is the book for you!

A linebacker with a brilliant college record sees his hopes for a career in professional football totter and his team's season threatened when he is implicated in a gambling scandal. This is a believable book with a sensitive subject that is timely even today. An easy to read book that should not have gone out of print.

Apparently, Amazon.com has some sort of private agreement with the publisher, as the first review that I wrote has been censored. This "book" is without merit. Two thirds of the content is filler - useless anecdotes that won't lead to putting any money in your pocket. The money management "system" proposed by the author is statistically unsound. If you want a solid sports betting primer, pass on this title and buy "The Complete Book of Sports Betting" by Jack Moore. For more in-depth info, obtain any work written by Bob McCune other than the "Gambling Times" book.

If you're looking for "get-rich-quick" systems on sports betting, then look elsewhere (and you'll be looking for a *long* time, too!). But, for the average income gambler like myself, you'll make good use of the author's betting theories, money management and discipline guidelines. Filled with dozens of examples, John Patrick's book on one of the most popular forms of gambling explains how to manage your money and turn a profit simultaneously at this exciting game of chance. Read it, digest it and follow it. You'll be glad you did.

This is the first of John Patrick's books I have read. From other comments, you either love or hate his writing style. I think he is hilarious while also very informative. All I have to say about this book is, betting with the money management ideas he presents, I ended up positive where I have so many times previously ended up negative on the same number of wins. If you bet on sports, buy this book!

Please keep in mind this "book" is not really one per se. It is a rag-tag grouping of previously written columns by McCune and neither the book nor the columns were apparently edited as there are numerous spelling and wording errors throughout. Similar content is repeated throughout the book many times. Also the author feels the need to introduce each section with a REALLY bad poem and often goes quite off-topic in trying to establish a point related to sports betting.

This might be a decent book for somebody who is just starting out in the world of sports betting. You learn what juice is, how a local bookie might shade a hometown line etc. However all the information was written at least 10 years or more ago. As sport-betting moves into a new era, the usefulness of this dated information is questionable but it was frustrating to sit through reading.

In short, there is very little worthwhile about this book for a more advanced player with a semi-decent understanding of mathmatical probability.

I took a gamble buying this book on positive feedback from others - I lost.

Lots of ryhmes, many words in CAPITALS, even a picture of the author circa 1949 but unfortunately very little useful information on how to systematically implement winning sports betting methods.

... I have only been a sports bettor for the past 3 months and this book has changed everything for me. I used to just look at some statistics and I thought I knew what I was doing, but my winning percentage was still hovering around .500. Now that I've read this book and learned how to bet like the pros do, my winning percentage is .765! I've also learned how to manage my money and when to bet big. This is the sports betting bible, and only those that don't know about it are probably just guessing when they bet.

I will never bet on a "hunch" ever again. This book has really opened my eyes to what is possible when betting on sports.