What are the best sports betting resources?

[DaveShoelace]

Hi all,

Doing some research for a side project I'm working on. Trying to get a handle on what are considered the most popular mainstream sports betting advice/training websites are? Obviously I already know about Betting Emporium, but what are the ones with the widest reach for the average punter? Not the bookmakers or sites like oddschecker, the places where people discuss and get advice on making bets. So the 2+2 and cardrunners of sports betting.

Obviously I'm not a massive expert on sports betting, but off the top of my head these came to mind:

Betfair forum
Racing Post
SportingLife
Punters Lounge

And that's all I can think of. Help a brother out please Blonde.

[Marky147]

Sporting Life doesn't have a forum, but their pundits are very good, imo.

I don't read it often, but the Betfair forum is good if you want a laugh. It has some good reading, but it's far outweighed by the trolls.

[doubleup]

Any list would have to include Oddschecker - you can almost get free betting on Soccer if you take the best prices on your fancies every week.

[horseplayer]

Being serious

Tips for Tikay is as good a resource as anyone could get, especially for free

Betfair forum was useful 10 years ago but is now full of trolls and people who haven't discovered twitter with the odd good egg remaining

[gherkin]

Blogabet has a lot of clued up people on it but needless to say (since anyone can post there) it also has a hell of a lot of rubbish.  Filter out the 2% who know what they are on about and it's very valuable

[redarmi]

Would echo what Horsey says.  TfT is the only place I have ever been online that feels like it is worth putting effort into and despite the odd tiff everyone generally gets on well and respects others opinion.  There used to be an email group called SmartSig (stood for Systems, methods and rational thinking special interest group) which I was a member of and I seem to remember Chompy being a member too that was pretty good for a while but it has pretty much degenerated into the moderator just bashing and trolling bookies now.  I think the problem with most sportsbetting sites is that they rely on bookmaker affiliate deals for income and that in turn means finding losing punters so they aren't really that interested in the sharper end of the spectrum.  I'm obviously slightly biased as I write for them but I think one of the great things about Betting Emporium is that you don't just get tips you get insight too and Neil in particular makes a real effort to educate the audience.  You should be able to read a lot of the BE stuff and if you pay attention you can find your own winners in other events.

[tikay]

Suppose I am a bit one-eyed Barry, but yes, TfT is quite something.

Follow Fred blind, & anyone will have made close to 3% profit over 4,000+ bets. But more than that, a whole bunch of Pro sports bettors give their advice for free on any betting subject.

The thread is not beholden to any Sponsors, either.

Not bad "for free".

[arbboy]

It is very unique TFT. I have never done twitter/fb/blogs etc in the past but even though I give my information away for 'free' so to speak I know the information I get back in return on subjects I have missed/know nothing about is so reliable I can get involved and have a maximum bet with confidence that I am not being sent the wrong way so to speak to allow the poster to get on the other side easier. There is no ramping on here. Given I have probably had close to 10000 bets in 2014 already my biggest bet of the year came from this thread and involved how hot it would be weather wise.  Without TFT I wouldn't have even known about the bet existing.

The vast majority of people actually know each other in real life or know people who do know them.  Long may it continue. It's just a shame we can't block the lol traders in the ivory tower hq's from accessing the info somehow. Has anyone ever seen TFT recommended elsewhere on the net as a must read free information site?

[baldock92]

TFT is useful, I only use it for small punts but overall seems fairly profitable

[vegaslover]

A few sites have small betting sections such as skypoker apat etc.
Years ago I used to use the betfair forum and basically lay whatever was rec'ed as a bet..lol

Would imagine a lot of punters still use the tips sections in the racing pages of the newspapers

Anyone use gambling.rec back in the day??

[DungBeetle]

The Betfair tennis forum used to be good about a decade ago with quite a bit of insight, but the last few years it's dominated by a bunch of people who are on a single big thread 24 hours a day and use it as their only social outlet.

[Longines]

Anyone use gambling.rec back in the day??

Proper old school. I read rec.gambling.poker for quite a while before forums took off. Reading some of the strategy threads from ~15 years ago is an eye opener.

[Chompy]

SmartSig, I remember then Redarmi but was never part of the group. Think I did an article or interview for them once? It's all a blur.

Betfair forum was lol when I last used to go on there, maybe five years ago? Yikes! Fun for fishing but not much else.

[DungBeetle]

Yeah it was about 10 years ago when it was decent, and even then only for some sports.  The football forum has always been full of people just arguing.

[Nakor]

A couple of lads in my office swear by OLBG.com (they punt at a very recreational level and seem to use it for sports they have little personal insight into).
I never could get past the fact that the site is horrible, but it does seem to have a decent level of traffic.

Have no view on the "value" or success of the tips though.