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Book Review - The Definitive Guide to Betting on Sport
by Bruce Millington
Review by Brian Friel
Buy from High Stakes Bookstore!
The Racing Post has just brought out the second in a series of "expert guides" on betting. While the first concentrated on horse racing the focus of this one is on sports betting.
The first thing to say is that the RP's scope of coverage cannot be faulted as every sport no matter how marginal its betting appeal is covered. The bigger sports such as football, golf, cricket and rugby get the lion share of the book but there are also chapters on bowls, speedway and rallying to ensure that if there is a sport you're particularly interested in its probably within the covers of the book.
There are a problems with such a broad approach. One is that at least ½ the book will be of only the most passing interest to any but the most addicted gambler or punting trainspotter. It also means that some chapters that could do with expansion suffer. Any punter that chooses to have for example 8 pages on bowls punting instead of 8 pages from Kevin Puellin needs help in my view. The diffuse nature of the chapters means there isn't really much of a unified feel to the book and the quality of the chapters written as they are by a variety of RP staffers and outside experts is very variable even within the largest section on soccer. Further bugbears would be the almost constant repetition of the "Racing Post's" name in almost every chapter and the constant reminder of past glories - the Stich / Ian Baker Finch 50/1 winners in consecutive weeks back in the early 90s is once again trotted out (Derek McGovern never stopped mentioning it in his book either). I don't dine out on anything spectacular I managed back in 1991 so I wish the RP would give it a rest on that particular hobby horse. Also a bit worrying that in the 13 years since they haven't found anything else spectacular enough to boast about.
Having said all that there are a lot of good things in the book. Kevin Puellin's chapter is a standout puncturing as it does a number of commonly accepted football betting "truths". Alex Deacon from the "Racing and Football Outlook" contributes an interesting piece on the use of ratings in sports betting while the section on non league football is also extremely interesting and for me would encourage further study in an area that I wouldn't have thought twice about previously. A revealing interview is printed with the chief football odds compiler of Coral's who if he's to be believed does a 12 hour day 6 days a week along with a team of 4 that focuses solely on football. He identifies the main areas of bookie vulnerability as those traditionally associated with as we say in Ireland "nice touches" - underrating of non league teams and first scorer odds in games where the regular strike force is out. It's a small bit disheartening to actually sit and read how much effort the "enemy" actually put into safeguarding their firms coffers from the efforts of punters to lighten them. Jeremy Chapman's always readable on golf and the snooker chapter is another good read. James Pyman who I think is generally excellent on tennis and whose articles on tennis threads my brother religiously cuts out for me back home suffers by virtue of having to work within ten pages. An excellent recent 2 page article he did on the effect of surfaces on tennis players is hacked to about 7 lines which is really not going to tell the casual punter much beyond "beware of surface changes".
At the end of the book I was left feeling slightly let down. The good chapters are far too short and the bad chapters are far too long. For the beginner I'd still definitely recommend it though. Its nicely written in the usually breezy RP style and there's a lot of betting common sense and collected wisdom on display. For the more advanced punter there's probably not a whole lot more to learn in those areas they would probably feel they specialize in already. A full book on soccer would be an interesting read and hopefully Kevin Puellin will get around to a book of his own sooner of his own rather than later.
For those that appreciate the big man McNally's tipping "prowess" he's restricted to about three lines on international friendlies - "Don't bet on them because they are not always taken seriously". Thanks Alan. And yes the words "former Bayern Munich striker" do precede his name.