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Tribe catcher Yan Gomes to promote baseball in Brazil this December
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Seven Major League Baseball players were chosen to represent MLB abroad this winter, with Cleveland Indians catcher Yan Gomes returning to his native country of Brazil, December 12–15.
Gomes will visit São Paulo to participate in various community events, including leading a clinic for children in Mogi das Cruzes — where Gomes first began playing baseball. He is the first Brazilian-born player in the Major Leagues, and faced off with the first Brazilian pitcher — the White Sox right-hander Andre Rienzo — in August.
Free agent reliever Latroy Hawkins will also head to Brazil as a pitching instructor in February. Other MLB ambassadors are set to share their passion for the game with fans in the Netherlands, France, China, and South Africa.
During this past season, Gomes said that Brazil’s qualification in this year’s World Baseball Classic was a stepping stone to the sport’s bright future in the country.
“It’s tough still because it’s not a very common sport in Brazil,” Gomes said. “Being in the big leagues definitely does help a little more because people kind of listen to you more. Especially this offseason, just [going to] make a huge effort to go there and try to show my face and explain a little of the sport.”
For more information on the MLB ambassador trips, please visit MLB.com.
— TribeVibe contributor Courtney Shilling
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https://guardspost.mlblogs.com/tribe-catcher-yan-gomes-to-promote-baseball-in-brazil-this-december-142b0cbad948
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['Cleveland Guardians']
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2016-10-26 15:59:24.426000+00:00
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['Brazil', 'Cleveland Indians', 'Major League Baseball', 'MLB']
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Racism in the Era of Globalization (UPIASIA)
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M.D. Nalapat
Manipal, India — Throughout the European Union, and increasingly in the United States and Australia, immigration is being directed on racial grounds, with preference given to immigrants of European origin. This is despite the reality that an immigrant from Chennai or Hyderabad in India is far more likely to add immediate economic value to a society than migrants from Tirana, Bucharest or Sofia, to take just three examples.
Even Britain, till now a haven of race-neutral policies, has lately introduced measures directed against citizens of countries other than those with European-origin majorities. Clearly, to many Western policymakers, “globalization” is a one-way street, confined to improving Western access to other locations but hostile to a reverse flow. The blocking of a Dubai-based company from acquiring a port in the United States — even though that city is largely run by executives from Western countries — is just one of numerous examples of the phobic reaction to efforts by outside corporations to buy into Western companies.
Astonishingly, even the corporate sector has not freed itself of biases dragged over from an age in which European countries administered most of the world. Today, both India and China are witnessing growth rates that could in a generation recreate the period when India and China accounted for over half the world’s output, an age that vanished only in the early 1880s. Especially since the 17th century, what has driven Western prosperity is the unprecedented expansion of knowledge within those societies, which even today account for nine out of ten scientific patents worldwide (a small but increasing proportion of which are being contributed by researchers of Asian origin).
It is only in the past two decades that Brazil, India and China have been closing the “knowledge gap,” although the three are as yet far behind Western countries in the range and significance of their discoveries. Should they reach Western levels of performance, the global economy would be the beneficiary of the numerous improvements and additions that such research would create, in the same way as populations worldwide are sharing in the benefits of Western prowess in science and technology.
Two years ago, the reaction of the board of European steelmaker Arcelor to a takeover bid by India-born entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal gave the first hint that race could be a factor in corporate planning . Key company officials, ignoring Mittal’s record in turning around dying companies — and becoming one of the richest individuals in the world — talked of Indian “eau de cologne” versus European “perfume,” and even of the undesirability of “monkey money” (Mittal’s). Finally shareholder pressure forced them to agree to a takeover that has since boosted the now merged Arcelor-Mittal stock substantially.
The same happy trend followed the subsequent, and entirely civilized, ITata Steel’s takeover of British steelmaker Corus. Unlike Arcelor, the British firm’s directors welcomed the entry of the Indian company. Indeed, Britain has been significantly relaxed in its reaction to Indian takeovers, unlike the rest of the European Union and, surprisingly, the United States. Recently whiskey producer Whyte & Mackay was taken over by India’s UB in a friendly atmosphere, and events since have confirmed that the Indian company’s global distribution network has been a significant plus to the British company.
The subliminal racism that lurks behind the polished mahogany walls of the boardrooms of some U.S.-EU corporations came into the open a fortnight ago, when the testy response of Orient-Express CEO Paul White to Indian Hotels Vice-Chairperson Krishna Kumar became public. In his missive, White explicitly stated that an Indian connection would significantly degrade the value of the U.S. company’s brands.
As the continuing viability of U.S. Senator Barack Obama as a U.S. presidential candidate is demonstrating, such a conclusion does scant justice to the tolerant and inclusive mindset that is the most attractive feature of present-day Western society. Indeed, several Orient-Express customers come from the Middle East and South and East Asia, while a significant proportion of those of European origin have business and social links with individuals and institutions in locations other than North America, Europe and Australia. White is at least a generation off base in his implicit assumption that customers in Western countries would be turned off by a non-Western owner despite retaining the quality of service.
A similar shriek of alarm has greeted news that Britain’s faltering Jaguar and Land Rover brands are at risk of a takeover from either Tatas or the also India-based Mahindra group. While the British public and those associated with the two brands in Britain have been welcoming, the reaction of Ken Gorin, the U.S.-based chairman of the Jaguar Business Operations Council, was that he did not believe “the U.S. public was ready for ownership out of India of a luxury car.”
That a U.S.-based company is competing with major Indian companies for control of the two brands may of course be coincidental. Sadly, even the media has not been entirely without bias on this issue, with several commentaries in the United States expressing skepticism over the placement of non-Western executives in top management slots. For example, dismissive views have been expressed on Citigroup’s recent decision to appoint India-born Vikram Pandit as CEO, despite the performance of other India-born CEOs as Indira Nooyi of Pepsi and Rajat Gupta of McKinsey.
One-way streets are rare, and the involvement of non-Western corporate leaders in Western companies is an inescapable adjunct of globalization. Hopefully, the residues of racism that are surfacing will subside with time, as the new entrants have shown they can maintain high standards of quality and performance despite being born in a lower-income country.
-(Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University. ©Copyright M.D. Nalapat.)
Follow Prof. Nalapat on Social media platforms @ http://social.mdnalapat.com
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https://blog.mdnalapat.com/racism-in-the-era-of-globalization-upiasia-527a185a4b76
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['Prof. M D Nalapat']
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2016-09-28 10:54:17.427000+00:00
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['Jaguar', 'Brazil', 'Chennai', 'China', 'European Union']
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Barnes & Nobles II
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Barnes & Nobles II
Wondering around the bargain section of Barnes & Nobles is like looking at your bookshelf where the pile for “What was I thinking” or “My uncle didn’t know what to give me for xmas” books are. But there are some books that I hope I wouldn’t get even if I was very drunk or if my family despised me, like “Elvis favorite meals” or “Guide to cats: How to survive your neurotic owner”. No wonder why they are all under 5 bucks. At the “travel” bargain section — ( These sections can be perfectly organized. Not like walking into a used bookstore at the Maleta building in downtown Belo Horizonte, where you can only find a book if you ask the owner of the place. Usually an old man sitting in the back of the store. He knows every shelf by heart, since he has nothing else to look at or to look for… ) — So at that travel bargain section there was a book titled “Amazonia”. I picket it up, expecting to put it down by the second page… books like this are usually too outdated or talk more about the Spanish speaking south american countries than the Brazilian part of the amazon… even though Brazil hosts most of it. But instead, I started dazzling over pictures of cocoa trees, acai, exotic birds and indians as if I am looking at the most remote place on the planet. For someone from southeastern Brazil, it is really remote. I can count the people I know that visited the amazon forest. Most of them are foreigners, not Brazilians. Joao you are not included on the list: I remember your stories about eating turtles and tucupi. Only college classmate who ventured into the forest.
After my speech about eating acai and banana smoothies, about a parrot and a turtle that I once had, about the rubber era in the north of Brazil, as if I know much about it, I finally shut up. But only for a few minutes. After finally putting the book down the speakers played an old Samba. I was amazed even though that sound is played on every elevator ever built. By the time it started playing the song “cajuina”, I was sure I was doped by the pills I just took trying to stop a headache from becoming another migraine. Either that or the guy in charge of the counter on the CD section was. When I looked at the counter all I saw was a typical white caucasian American, as American as they come. He probably believed he was playing another CD in Spanish. Probably no, I’m absolutely sure he had no clue that was Brazilian Music, in Portuguese …he probably doesn’t even know there is a Portuguese speaking country in South America, like most. Before leaving the store I saw a CD named Acoustic Brazil on the shelf saying: Now Playing. At least it wasn’t playing only in my head, along with this entire monologue.
|
https://medium.com/letters-from-cabral/barnes-nobles-ii-7e78620704e6
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['Jennifer Cabral']
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2017-08-15 03:04:59.902000+00:00
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['Portuguese', 'South America', 'Amazon', 'Brazil', 'Notes']
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Brazil Re-elects President Dilma Rousseff
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By Betina Paglioli
At 8:30 p.m. last Sunday, Dilma Rousseff was officially re-elected as President in Brazil. She ran against Aécio Neves in the closest race the country has had since 1989: 51.64 percent of voters chose Dilma, while 48.36 percent chose Aécio, a difference of just 3 million votes. Neves got 12 states in the Federal District, while Rousseff won in 15 states.
After thanking voters and allies in her first speech,Rousseff said she doesn’t believe the elections have polarized the country; that within the contradicting ideologies brought by the race, all Brazilians were moved by the hope of a better future. She urged for more dialogue and cohesion between parties as well as citizens to lead to a more mature democracy. “This President is willing to dialogue,” she declared, her speech broadcast on a live feed. “And this is my first commitment on my second term: dialogue.”
She called her re-election a “vote of hope” from the people for an improvement on the government, and the actions already taken by it. “I want to be a much better President than I have been so far,” she said. “I want to be an even better person than I have striven to be. This feeling of prevailment must boost not only the government and myself, but the entire nation.”
Dilma vowed to peacefully and democratically lead change and popular causes. Another important discussion she stressed was a referendum on the possibility of a political reform. Her commitment against corruption was passionately argued as she promoted changes in legislation and measures to oversee government behavior. Lastly she discussed measures to maintain and stimulate the country’s economical growth.
In closing, the President claimed, “more than ever, it’s time for each and every one of us to believe in Brazil, to increase our faith in this incredible nation to which we have the privilege of belonging, and to which we have the responsibility of making more prosperous and just.”
[Image via]
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https://nyulocal.com/brazil-re-elects-president-dilma-rousseff-fa0339d86ef3
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['Nyu Local']
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2016-11-16 21:08:17.373000+00:00
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['National', 'Brasil', 'Brazil', 'Dilma Rousseff']
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Brazil’s Paradox: Social and Ecological Risk and Resilience Factors For Lesbians in Salvador, Brazil
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Brazil’s Paradox: Social and Ecological Risk and Resilience Factors For Lesbians in Salvador, Brazil
Selected Pieces from My Honors Thesis for the Department of Latin American Studies
Maya A. Taft-Morales — Tufts University, 2015
Chapter 1: An Introduction
In the spring of 2014, when I was a junior at Tufts University, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Salvador, Brazil and conduct a small research project around lesbians and their experiences in Salvador. After returning to Boston, I drew upon the research I’d conducted to write a Senior Honors Thesis, for which I earned highest honors in the spring. But a thesis is a tough read, and I wanted to make my findings accessible to a broader audience, and especially to Brazilian readers. So, I partnered with a Brazilian student at the Fletcher school, Alessandra Caria, to translate smaller portions of my thesis and post them in a way that makes the information readable. I will be posting the chapters, in both English and Portuguese, on a regular basis. If you would like a digital copy of the entire thesis, please feel free to request one!
Because we all make up the environment in which lesbian women are either supported or put at risk for negative outcomes, the findings of this research are relevant to a very wide audience. This research has the power to inform and embolden lesbian women and allies, activists and lawmakers, and anyone looking to become more educated on the experiences of young Afro-Brazilian lesbians in Salvador and the various factors that affect them.
As this is the first post of a series, I’ll start with the abstract. Following that, I’ll post narratives that provide small snapshots of six young Brazilian lesbians’ life stories. The following pieces will come from my discussion of my results, in which I analyze different factors that contribute to risk and resilience for the individuals I interviewed.
Enjoy!
Abstract:
Cultural, social, legal, and spatial aspects of Salvador, Brazil contribute to both risk and resilience for young lesbians living there. This research investigates what socio-cultural and legal environmental factors put young Brazilian lesbians at risk of negative mental health outcomes and how social and legal support contribute to their resilience in a political and cultural context that simultaneously harbors progressivism and heterosexism.
To do so, I conducted and analyzed in-depth interviews with young Afro-Brazlian lesbians from the area. The research revealed cultural heterosexism, with Christianity as a strong root, to be a macrosystemic risk factor, with parental rejection and familial silencing as a microsystemic risk factor. Subjects noted risk factors on the exosystemic level to be subtle and overt informal sanctioning in both public and commercial spaces, and absolute heteronormative dominance in high school. On the other hand, Afro-Brazilian religion, the Internet, and progressive laws educated, affirmed, and empowered subjects, proving to be a resilience factor in their macrosystem. Participants also discussed support from siblings, relatives, friends, and activist groups as microsystemic resilience factors. Lastly, private LGBT venues, periodically occupied public parks, and progressive university departments served as safe spaces and exosystemic resilience factors. This research is valuable to a wide range of people, including policy makers and enforcers, family members and friends, as well as leaders of religious and commercial spaces because they all play a role in the mental health and well being of lesbians.
The following posts will give you a glance at the lives of the six women I interviewed for my research project. Once we get to know these women, we can discuss the risk and resilience factors in a more systematic way.
*For a copy of the full thesis in English, or the portions that have been translated, feel free to contact me!
*Please share with any and all
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https://medium.com/@tmmaya.a/brazil-s-paradox-social-and-ecological-risk-and-resilience-factors-for-lesbians-in-salvador-b0b224d06175
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['Maya Taft-Morales']
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2015-11-21 23:20:10.478000+00:00
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['Mental Health', 'Brazil']
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The ROI of investing in commute
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The ROI of investing in commute
“Transportation as a benefit” pilots have made it easier for employees to get to work in South Bend, enabling 83% to work more hours and reducing absences and tardiness by 8%. Learn about the ROI of investing in commute. Voy Nov 20, 2018·6 min read
Investing in commute is proving to increase productive work hours, timeliness, and employee happiness
Investing in commute is a growing trend
For years now, there has been a growing trend to invest in solving commute. According to Sequoia Consulting Group, a leading service partner that provides people-first companies strategic benefits, HR, retirement, and insurance services, 36% of companies offer a commuter stipend, up from 33% in 2017.
In surveying more than 750 U.S.-based companies, Sequoia found that:
7% offered a corporate shuttle in 2017 with an additional 4% planning to offer one in the next 12 months (57% growth rate)
11% offered internal rideshare or carpool options with an additional 4% planning to offer one in the next 12 months (36% growth rate)
26% offered a biking program with an additional 4% planning to offer one in the next 12 months (15% growth rate)
Genesis of commute benefits
This trend originated in legislation introducing employer-provided voluntary benefits that allow employees to reduce their commuting expenses for transit, vanpooling, bicycling, and work-related parking costs by setting aside pre-tax dollars.
Meanwhile, progressive companies have taken their support much further. With the increase in congestion and air pollution, competition for talent, and long commutes impacting employees’ health and productivity, companies are investing into commuting: financially and logistically supporting their employees’ travel to and from work.
The ROI of commute benefits has historically been difficult to measure
Measuring the efficacy of these programs has always been a challenge. After all, how is one supposed to assess if offering a last mile shuttle is just a large monthly expense or a true necessity that allows you to attract and retain employees? How can you determine if the positive feedback you are getting from your ridehail program is just a, “well, duh, of course people would want free/subsidized rides to and from work,” or a differentiated benefit that enables your people to actually get to the office and work longer?
For many employers, the argument had been simple — it’s just the right thing to do and a low cost way to keep employees happy. However, other companies have asked for more data in order to warrant investment — data that hasn’t been readily accessible until recently.
Commute is no longer a company-specific problem, but a community problem
Luckily, the team at Voy recently met Santiago Garces, the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of South Bend, Indiana. He has been pioneering “Transportation as a Benefit” with local employers. With a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, South Bend’s Innovation and Technology office set out to tackle the barriers to stable employment for low income individuals and shift workers in the region.
In the past, efforts were aimed at providing skills and training to tackle stable employment. This time around, they sourced ideas from the community. The responses were consistent — transportation and childcare were what people needed. Armed with a new perspective, they got to work, rapidly prototyping what transportation as a benefit could look like.
Piloting ridehailing as a benefit with employers in South Bend
After interviewing and holding focus groups with more than 60 shift workers, 300 residents, and 50 applicants at job fairs, South Bend partnered with four large employers to offer transportation assistance via ridehailing to over 500 shift workers in food service, hotel service, housekeeping, maintenance, and elderly home care.
South Bend was able to approach exploring this new service in a manner that no employer would ever have the opportunity to do — as randomized controlled trials and iterative pilots. Can you imagine introducing a benefit at your company that is only given to a portion of your employees, with the expectation that it will iteratively change over time?
As a city tackling a gnarly challenge, South Bend had other priorities. In order to create a sustainable solution, an employer-funded “Transportation as a Benefit”, the team knew they would need to prove the business case of this benefit as a win-win for both employers and employees.
Garces explains, “our first pilots offered rideshare transportation to eight hospital employees using Uber gift cards. We later enrolled 188 participants in the Uber for Business platform, allowing us to view real-time data for 800+ rides[…]. We offered unlimited rides in our initial pilots to understand baseline behavior while experimenting with different monthly ride caps in other pilots. We tested a ‘skin-in-the-game’ model requiring employees to cover part of the ride cost and a vanpool model for vocational students going to and from the same training location.”
The pilots proved commuting benefits have impact
After 12 weeks of testing, 9 pilots, working with 500+ employees who took over 800 rides, the results were staggering:
100% of participants reported the program made it easier to get to work and were 8% less likely to be absent or late
83% were able to work more hours, with an average of one additional hour per shift
All were interested in participating again, and 92% would participate even if they paid $2 per ride
Employers reported increased scheduling flexibility, decreased overtime costs and increased client satisfaction
All four employer partners committed to providing support moving forward
Going beyond numbers that point to improved business performance and employee satisfaction, the pilots also led to success stories of true human impact. According to Garces, “one participant at risk of termination kept her job due to improved attendance and was promoted.”
Furthermore, to one of their partners, a senior in-home care provider, the benefits of this mobility offering resonated throughout the organization. Before the pilot, supervisors had found themselves stressed as caregivers regularly called in reporting they couldn’t fill a shift or be in a particular location. In these situations, supervisors would scramble to give rides to these caregivers or elect to fill the shift themselves. Armed with their new transportation benefits, employees were able to reliably take on additional shifts and the company was able to take on new, otherwise inaccessible clients.
South Bend’s pilots going forward
Commuter benefits are a quickly evolving space and South Bend already has plans for more extensive pilots. Garces shared, “our initial idea focused on a single solution of ridesharing to address the problem of unreliable transportation. As we spoke with our target population, we discovered a range of transportation needs and preferences that require a more nuanced solution. We pivoted away from the idea of ridesharing as a one-size-fits-all solution to a model that integrates services from additional transportation providers to optimize cost and ridership.”
Naturally, as technology and new modes of transportation merge with a growing involvement from employers to solve commute, commute benefits are going to evolve, standardize, and empower a more productive and happier workforce. It’s exciting to see how South Bend plans to continue to evolve their offering.
Food for thought as you reflect on your commute program
Key takeaways from South Bend’s transportation as a benefit pilots:
Commute benefits in South Bend have proven to reduce absenteeism, which can reduce overtime costs and the stress of trying to fill shifts.
Geographic context and employee demographics affect transportation needs. A solution that optimizes for cost and utilization needs to entail more than ridehail services.
The cost of commuting doesn’t have to belong strictly to employers or employees. Co-investment is viewed favorably by a majority of employees.
Innovation within the commuting space is happening rapidly and best practices are still being worked out.
To learn more on South Bend’s “Transportation as a Benefit” program check out their Bloomberg Mayors Challenge profile or this article in the South Bend Tribune announcing the pilot.
In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to dive into innovation in the commute space and how to holistically design commute benefits to best support your talent and business strategy. Stay tuned and join our mailing list to be the first to learn about what you can do to solve commuting.
Want to learn more about how we can help? Say hello.
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https://medium.com/@getvoy/the-roi-of-investing-in-commute-3df7254bb716
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[]
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2019-02-26 23:59:00.425000+00:00
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['Transportation', 'HR', 'Employee Benefits', 'Uber', 'Innovation']
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<your brand here> Rewards and Commoditization
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<your brand here> Rewards and Commoditization
Uber’s announcement of its new Uber Rewards program was more than a disappointment; it was downright lame, even more so as the company is one of the original “unicorns” and a pillar of the “sharing economy”.
Uber Rewards stands in stark contrast to the company’s disruptive, innovative launch and expansion, which has attracted billions of investment dollars even without disclosing details of its business performance until recently. Uber leveraged a compelling value proposition to quickly claim market leadership, largely building its business without traditional marketing and advertising. It is, in fact, a tribute to the company’s remarkable innovation that significant reputation missteps have been costly but not fatal.
So, does the Uber program live up to its innovative and disruptive brand? Ah, no, not even close. Uber Rewards is a free-to-join, spend-and-get program that awards points to customers for Uber rides and Uber Eats purchases. Rewards include $5 credits, complimentary upgrades, a flexible cancellation policy and priority airport pickups.
This approach is all but innovative, and its attempt to offer value is not only convoluted but easily replicated. According to TechCrunch, the program wasn’t rushed to market, and it wasn’t shortchanged in investment. So how did an innovative company launch such a pedestrian program? Maybe they are panicking in response to slower growth and hopes of an IPO next year?
A loyalty program is a means to an end. It’s the mechanism to get customer permission — opt-up even more than opt-in — that allows a company to better pay attention to customers and treat them accordingly (this is the rDialogue definition of loyalty marketing). rDialogue has always held steadfast the conviction that every loyalty strategy needs to be unique to the company and brand. It should be recognizable without a logo or any other form of identity. As we’ve seen more and more commoditization of loyalty “programs,” this belief has only strengthened.
By virtue of its mobile-app and operating model, Uber has customer addressability and trackability, and the company has multiple paths to communicate with customers (all traditional reasons to launch a loyalty program). Uber doesn’t need a “program,” especially in the traditional sense of a rewardsprogram.
And, that leads to one last thing… Rewards is the worst, most off-brand name for any company’s loyalty program. Sorry Starbucks, but Nike+ and Adidas Creators Club are exponentially more on-brand. As is Delta SkyMiles, Amazon Prime and Nordstrom’s new Nordy Club. Your program should be representative of your brand. It should be able to live on its own. Rewards is anti-climactic. And only one potential aspect of a loyalty “program”.
Lyft is reportedly launching its “program” later this year. (We’re here if you need us.)
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https://medium.com/@Phil_Rubin/your-brand-here-rewards-and-commoditization-fd4eef8372da
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['Phil Rubin']
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2018-11-16 19:52:38.047000+00:00
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['Loyalty', 'Uber', 'Lyft', 'Lyft Vs Uber', 'Customer Experience']
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Bigger, more flexible carpools are here!
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Bigger, more flexible carpools are here!
Carpoolers — we’ve got an exciting update!
Drivers can now pick up multiple riders at different stops along their route with little-to-no detour. Get ready to fill those empty seats, save even more on gas, and make your carpool more fun.
Riders: Easily join an existing carpool. Whenever you see a driver’s profile with a green “Available seats” badge, simply request to join and wait for confirmation.
#ProTip: Confirmed a carpool? Share the details with your friends and invite them to fill the extra seats. Just tap the share button at the top right corner of your screen.
Drivers: Once a carpool is set, additional riders can ask to join. You can accept or decline — and in the future, you’ll be able to offer rides as well. Stay tuned for that update!
#ProTip: Now when you send multiple offers, you may end up getting more riders in your carpool if they share the same route. So don’t be shy — offer those rides!
More improvements
Thank you to all our Waze Carpool veterans who took the time to share their feedback. Your insights helped us improve the overall experience. We’ve redesigned the Waze Carpool screen you see during a live ride. Now, drivers can easily see their full drive itinerary, contact their riders, and start their carpool with one tap.
Plus, more stops won’t make for a more complicated drive experience. Waze seamlessly guides drivers to every pickup and drop-off spot, and lets them mark their progress so riders stay in the loop.
Maximum savings
With more riders on board, you can save even more. Drivers can fill up to 4 seats in a carpool, and earn a bit extra with each rider — keeping in mind that prices are adjusted, so they don’t exceed the total sum of gas and wear & tear.
For riders, prices may be adjusted with each person who joins. The amount will depend on distance, but riders can get a great deal on their ride to work or school.
Ready to rev up your commute and meet a few more Wazers? Be sure to use the latest version of Waze and Waze Carpool to try a group-pool.
Happy carpooling!
|
https://medium.com/@waze/bigger-more-flexible-carpools-are-here-6236d54c54e6
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[]
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2018-11-16 18:50:56.127000+00:00
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['Waze', 'Ridesharing', 'Uber', 'Lyft']
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Sharing our data, Improving our cities
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Sharing our data, Improving our cities
Via cnet.com
“Code is the new concrete for 21st century cities and we need a digital infrastructure to share data and create safer and more sustainable streets.” -Janette Sadik-Khan, former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation and an advisor on transportation and urban issues.
Ever since the advent of rideshare services, I’ve felt that it’s improved my life. I don’t have to feel awkward getting wave-rejected as an occupied taxi whizzes past me and I can avoid shady taxi drivers from taking me on the longest route possible. Ridesharing services have done me a great service and I think it’s fair to say that they’re doing very well for themselves too. But are companies doing any good for the world? Just last year, Uber, Ford and Lyft have partnered up with a company called SharedStreets to give city mayors across the world “unparalleled access to their road traffic data” in order to help cities rethink transportation.
Cities are trying to improve urban mobility but are unable to because their street maps are inadequate to deal with the super surge of cars taking up limited space. One very valuable space is the curb. People get dropped off there, bicyclists use it, cars park on it, and trucks unload there. It’s a crucial pain point not only for pedestrians and drivers who deal with constant delays from people blocking traffic but also for many businesses because freight and logistics companies are using the curb more and more and they have no way to collaborate well with the city. Many cities don’t have their infrastructures mapped out well and even more of a problem is that they don’t have enough data to make any actionable changes.
Ridesharing companies have a huge amount of data that cities could use to make traffic efficient and safer. For this cities-companies collaboration, Uber and Lyft provided a substantial amount of trip information including fare amount, vehicle speed data, pick up, and drop off data. However, even if these companies provided data to the cities, their street level data sets are still not compatible. Not only are city mapping systems different each other (the city of Detroit has cities within that all have their own way of managing their infrastructure), they’re also different from ridesharing companies.
SharedStreets makes it possible by creating an open-source, universal map language in a simple machine readable format that everyone — the city, companies and citizens — all have access to. And because SharedStreets is a third party, non-political, and non profit, Uber and Lyft do not need to fear risking proprietary secrets such as routing algorithms and SharedStreets removes thecompany name from the trips. Regarding our privacy, SharedStreets uses data in a way that is completely unrelated to the privacy of people. This allows all data to work in everyone’s favor without jeopardizing anyone’s interest.
via SharedStreets
Both cities and companies have been using a Geometric Information System(GIS) to map street level data. However, when data is merged together, the sets do not match. SharedStreets is able to link the two sets of data together by breaking down a street into short form IDs that can be referred back to in a database.
via SharedStreets
This is important because when it links up different maps’ data sets, the SharedStreets IDs provide a common reference. The grey lines represent different data sets of the same spot and the blue line represents the SharedStreet ID reference that allow a common ground.
via SharedStreets
via SharedStreets
The millions of GPS points are clustered together and allows analysis of traffic congestion, curb usage, how long cars stay in a spot, how often vehicles are picking up and dropping. With a common map and a huge amount of data, cities now have the resources to create a roadmap for urban mobility.
My thoughts
This has been one of the largest collaborations with private companies and the government in what seems very much like an active attempt from all sides to do good. I hope that these companies involved have set an example as a way of providing social good with data, especially for the ones that have been emerging as abusers of our trust and privacy.
Sources:
https://nacto.org/2018/02/22/nacto-and-otp-launch-sharedstreets/
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https://medium.com/@chrispfchung/sharing-our-data-improving-our-cities-2760ad353d05
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['Chris Chung']
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2018-11-24 06:09:31.479000+00:00
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['Uber', 'Data Science']
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My new adventure at Uber Freight. Disclaimer: The views in this post are…
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My new adventure at Uber Freight
Disclaimer: The views in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Uber or Uber Freight.
Your Uber Freight has arrived…
This post isn’t ground breaking. It isn’t creating a new genre of posts. But it’s not going to be a self validating, the grass is actually greener post about taking a new job. Well at least I don’t think it is, but it probably will be.
I started recently at Uber, and within my first few weeks have already switched roles once from leading our product marketing team, to leading the shipper marketing team here at Uber Freight. In short, Uber is surprisingly a great place to work, and I’m excited for the opportunity ahead. But my biggest hesitation when joining Uber was what the culture of the company was going to be like. I’ve been fortunate to join a team of self selecting individuals who are willing to roll up their sleeves and dive into solving the challenges inherent with moving 80,000 pounds of freight, one truckload at a time.
Leadership
Leading Uber is a thankless job. I’ve been more attuned to it since I joined how every time Dara posts anything on Twitter, he is immediately vilified in the comments — ain’t no ratio like an official Uber tweet ratio. But from my limited experience of seeing him speak at one of our events in my first week on team, and at weekly all hands, he is the type of leader that Uber needs. He is humble, but not to the extent that he undermines the success of the team — he celebrates achievements and generously casts the spotlight on the initiatives and teams that make Uber an inspiring place to work. He is thoughtful and empathetic, and ultimately he understands that we have to win on product. Lastly, he and his leadership team believe in encouraging and enabling a workforce that is free of self-defeating cynicism.
Challenges
The brand and the business are not immune from competition. The growth rate at the company is slowing, and new forms of mobility are in early stages of explorations while these bets are formed. Brand perception is still suffering from years of aggressive, Silicon Valley bro-culture actions that have come to define the company, and unfortunately its employees.
However, I have come to see that this is a company filled with hard working, fundamentally decent and caring people who do truly believe that they are working on something that will outlive them. Painting all Uber employees with the same brush — perhaps as rabid capitalists hell bent on ignoring anything that stood between them and the next dollar (which definitely wasn’t something I ever did…) — does not reflect the diversity of experiences and backgrounds of those working here. And with regards to that diversity, it is refreshing to see leadership at all levels acknowledge that yes, we can do better, and we will do better, and here’s how.
Future
The answer to what does the future of Uber hold, I think, also answers the question: Why did I come to Uber?
In an era when companies are innovating by reconfiguring algorithms, and finding new ways to sell your data, I do believe that Uber is one of the few companies that is willing to make large bets in areas that will affect every single person on this planet — and ideally prevent us from completely destroying what’s left of our planet. You’re welcome to disagree with this, to believe only the TC articles and worst possible stories that come out from a company that has 15 million interactions with consumers every single day. And while all those stories, criticisms, and in some cases, failings, are valid representations, they do not define the culture of the company at which I currently work.
The Uber that I work at is one that is taking its mission of igniting opportunity by setting the world in motion to categories that very few traditional Silicon Valley companies would dare. Fundamentally, my job is helping create opportunities for truck drivers. Are Google, Amazon, Facebook or Apple doing that as directly as building an app with the defined purpose of helping owner-operators build sustainable, small businesses? And it’s not 100% altruistic, I get that, globally, it’s a $4 trillion industry…trillion with a T. But with that massive scale, there is an opportunity to reduce the 200 million tons of emission that the Environmental Defense Fund estimates are generated each year by underutilized trucks just in the United States.
The Uber I work at is building flying cars. No joke. Flying cars. And where everyone expects that team to deliver on their goals of building an entire infrastructure from scratch to support their goal.
Every leader at Uber believes in the mission of igniting opportunity by setting the world in motion, because our constituents aren’t shareholders, or employees, or customers. Our constituents are every single one of us — present and future — on this planet.
And if that means I just wrote a self-validating-grass-is-always-greener-I-just-drank-a-gallon-of-kool-aid™ post, then so be it.
|
https://medium.com/@nbalaraman/a-new-adventure-at-uber-freight-6dd7dcab86f
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['Nikhil Balaraman']
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2018-11-16 20:30:31.992000+00:00
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['Startup', 'Uber', 'Freight']
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Coworking Case Studies: A Breeding Ground for Tech Giants
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Coworking Case Studies: A Breeding Ground for Tech Giants
Coworking spaces offer smaller business flexibility, the opportunity to collaborate, cheaper overheads and access to top locations. They are a vital option in today’s economy for tech startups developing their products.
But are companies actually using them to become successful household names?
The short answer is a resounding yes.
Given the turbulent nature of life as a tech startup, many of the most successful products launched in recent years were born in coworking spaces such as Primalbase, WeWork, Regus or Spaces. From ridesharing to blockchain to social media, coworking spaces have incubated some of today’s biggest names — proving they are more than a last resort for cash-strapped new companies.
We took a look at the most notorious examples.
Uber
It’s almost impossible to talk about the success of co-working spaces without mentioning one of the most infamous companies in the world: Uber.
The ‘ride sharing’ giant has made headlines in their eventful nine-year history, both good and bad, and have been one of the key players in ushering in the controversial gig economy.
Although it’s almost impossible to believe now given its size, Uber began life in a coworking space.
When the team consisted of just eight people, Uber operated out of a coworking space in San Francisco, California. The space gave them the flexibility and cheaper overheads to keep going — before the likes of Google Ventures and Fidelity Ventures invested heavily, enabling the company to expand into over 250 cities.
Hootsuite
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a crowded space, with only the best ideas making it from development to market, let alone mass adoption. This takes time, and piling valuable resources into a permanent, private office space is too risky for companies starting out in a competitive space.
Hootsuite is one SaaS provider that became a resounding success. Their software allows users to manage different social media accounts in one place, a particularly useful tool for marketers.
Now valued at over $1 billion, Hootsuite started life in a coworking space in Vancouver, Canada, where it was able to hone its product, make connections and secure the funding necessary to take it to the next level.
Waves
Waves is an open-source blockchain platform building known for being ‘the world’s fastest blockchain’. In 2017, Waves partnered with Deloitte to launch the development of a legal framework for wider adoption of blockchain technologies — proof that the platform is thinking ahead to real-world adoption alongside developing the core technology itself.
Not only did Waves begin life in Primalbase’s coworking spaces, it uses them today. Waves was attracted to coworking for the same reason so many others have been in the past: flexibility and affordability. These are both due to Primalbase’s unique tokenised business model and leasing system.
Waves CEO Sasha Ivanov explained that the community spirit fostered through Primalbase’s unique business model is also a major attraction. “It facilitates collaboration a lot because you exchange ideas and meet people and share contacts,” he said. “Everyone is really enthusiastic and welcoming because of the startup nature of the different companies, and they’re real tech people so they love what they do.”
Instagram
The idea behind Instagram was simple — Facebook with only the pictures. It was an idea that led to a whopping 1 million users signing up within two months of launching, and it has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Two years later after it was founded, with only 13 employees at the company, Instagram was acquired by Facebook. Today, it may be housed in Facebook’s mega-complex in Silicon Valley, but it began life in a coworking space. The coworking space reduced the expensive risk of moving into a permanent office too early in the company’s development and can be credited with inflicting a million inane pictures into the world. And some nice ones too.
d+b !ntersection
Design company d+b !ntersection is an interesting case because its founder, Alexandra Rodriguez, initially ran the business from her own Barcelona flat. Naturally, a lot of companies start this way, unable to afford office space until the project gets off of the ground, or simply without the workforce to necessitate a shared space.
For Rodriguez, though, the decision to move into a coworking space was made because she believed they are naturally inspiring spaces. She felt that it would give her a place to meet like-minded creatives and share project ideas. The influence that being around other thriving companies can have on a business shouldn’t be underestimated, with opportunities for collaboration and inspiration abundant, and d+b !ntersection have gone from strength to strength since making the decision to move into a shared space.
Are you interested in finding out more about being in a coworking site can do for you? Send us an email at primal@primalbase.com to ask any questions you might have or to set up a tour so you can see for yourself!
|
https://medium.com/primalbase/coworking-spaces-offer-smaller-business-flexibility-and-collaboration-at-a-price-they-can-afford-a93b3d8fc97
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['Charlie Sammonds']
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2018-11-15 17:00:38.650000+00:00
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['Coworking', 'Uber', 'Startup', 'Technology']
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Why Traveling through Taxis Is Better Than Other Transport Mediums? Choose Wisely Save More
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Why Traveling through Taxis Is Better Than Other Transport Mediums? Choose Wisely Save More
People who can’t afford to purchase a personal vehicle often rely on taxis or local public transport mediums. For going from a place to another by taxi, people may consider several facts but somehow these facts could also leave them thinking more before hiring a taxi, such as why to hire a taxi, where to get one and the most important concern ‘which taxi service would be best for them’. In this blog, I’ve discussed the answers to all such questions which come in your mind while you decide on which taxi service would be best for you.
In most cases, people hire a taxi because either they don’t own a personal vehicle or they don’t know how to drive. Such people have no other option than to get taxis to reach their destinations. On the other hand, there are those who enjoy the ride. By appointing a Tunbridge Wells to Stansted taxi service in UK, you get the privilege to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride without any responsibility of driving, keeping your head straight and your eyes on the road. You can simply enjoy your journey by taking glances at the outer world and the driver will safely drop you at your destination.
Some people have difficulties in remembering certain long routes resulting they might get confused in the streets. Such people can get the benefits of hiring a taxi as mostly all the taxi services generally employ highly experienced and good drivers who know most of all the routs. In some cases, for instance, if you are getting late for your office, during such situations, you can ask them to drop you to the office through the shortest route available and the driver would do his best to drop you safely on time.
The best benefit anyone can get from any reputable taxi service is the reasonable fare. Most of the taxi services which you can appoint in advance generally cost you cheaper than any other standard or private taxis. You won’t need to worry about additional expenses such as toll and parking fee; any reputed company would not cost you more than the calculated fare according to the length of travel. This way you can enjoy the ride without any worry about extra charges. However, if you hire a Tunbridge Wells to Stansted airport taxi and back to Tunbridge, the driver may ask you to pay airport parking fee and nothing more than that.
It can also give you a major benefit if you book a taxi in advance. This way, you can save a big amount of time that you might have wasted by roaming around the streets and waiting for local taxis to pick you up. While the driver would be on his way to you, you can complete your packing and get ready as generally, these taxi services take not more than 20 minutes to reach the riders.
The facts mentioned above are a few of many other benefits of hiring a taxi. You can go online and check for different taxi service providers in your area, also ask for referrals from your friends or family to find a reliable taxi service for you.
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https://medium.com/@twblackcar/why-traveling-through-taxis-is-better-than-other-transport-mediums-choose-wisely-save-more-94bcbac00388
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['Tw Black Cars Ltd']
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2018-11-16 10:37:20.787000+00:00
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['Uber']
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The Algorithmic Anarchy of Uberland
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The Algorithmic Anarchy of Uberland
A quick review of Alex Rosenblat’s new publication — Uberland
I was lingering on Amazon to pick up my next read, when I came across, fresh off the press — “Uberland: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Rules of Work” by Alex Rosenblat, a technology ethnographer.
Image Source: Here
Being an anti-trust lawyer, I have observed Uber largely through its pricing practices, and have been trying to dig into whether algorithms can violate antitrust laws. (I have a love-hate professional relationship with claims of “platform neutrality” and “algorithmic neutrality” — transitioning only more recently to the inevitable admission that algorithms can at best only be built upon existing societal biases)
I was tempted to pick up this book for two reasons. First, I recently read a lot of literature surrounding the nuances of the term “sharing economy”. However, I was unable to reconcile the concept with the actual business models of the most quoted examples of the sharing economy — Uber and AirBnB. Second, I wanted to feed my newfound curiosity on the impact of the new economy model on labour markets. Having recently read Temp by Louis Hyman, and discovering a revealing quote from Uber’s ex-CEO Travis Kalanick in this podcast at Recode, while explaining Uber’s motivations for investing in (or allegedly stealing IP from Google for) driverless cars, I was curious to dig deeper into the Uber way of viewing labour.
“Well, you know what the problem with my business is, is the guy in the front seat. He costs a lot of money, and if I can get rid of him, that would be a business.” - Travis Kalanick
Rosenblat cuts to the chase in the initial few pages of the book, calling Uber’s bluff — of crafty positioning and doublespeak — and confusing their position on drivers as entrepreneurs, workers or merely consumers of Uber’s technology solution. The rest of the book provides a detailed on-ground account of Uber’s story in North America from 2014 till date, in an attempt to discover how precisely Uber might just be a red-herring for a larger shift in societal perceptions about work, through this problematic proposition of viewing workers as consumers.
Through the pages, Rosenblat takes the effort of developing thoroughly detailed driver experience canvasses to amplify and provide context to the continued global press coverage surrounding the waves of controversy at Uber. All this, to get a fuller picture of the “algorithmic boss” Uber has set loose, to nudge its “employees”, while sternly maintaining that its drivers are merely “customers” of its technology.
While the book does make a point about how Uber’s example gives us insights into the future of work, and enables us to look beyond the over simplified and deterministic panaceas offered by Silicon Valley in the form of ideas like Universal Basic Income — the book serves in equal parts as a harsh critique of the “move fast and break things” philosophy that has come to dominate most of what Silicon Valley seems to view as the norm in high innovation. And that is what I liked most about the narrative — it doesn’t hold back — and reads as an overtly political account of Uber’s overtures at gaining regulatory arbitrage through its narrative of technology exceptionalism.
In the process, she covers the chaotic public affairs spins that have spread Uber in all directions, and touches upon the various reasons why Uber wins. For example, by touching upon the backdrop against which the “gig economy” idea gained mileage, and the clever leveraging of the typical “millenial way of working” image by Uber and other similar platforms, to give weight to the idea of Uber drivers being essentially entrepreneurs in line with the new norm.
Along the way she delivers some shockers, some of which gained wide media coverage, and others which even to me, were eye-openers, and would certainly give readers a lot of food for thought about the failings of extant institutions, and the ways in which even newer decentralised models could fail us in similar ways. For instance, I was indeed blind to the fact that sometimes, Google Maps’ algorithm may not send me on a route because it’s the fastest, but because it’s a route about which it doesn’t have any data. And she does have a point here. Do that to me for a free service — yes sure there are still some ethical questions. But do that in a context where you use an algorithm to provide behavioural nudges to drivers who depend on the algorithm for their livelihood, backed by potential sanctions of deactivation from the platform, all while trying to disavow yourself of the true nature of the relationship between the platform and the drivers, algorithm based decisions can have wide ramifications.
In fact the book made me validate my newfound admission that algorithms may at best reflect extant societal biases, by pointing out that in certain states in the US, if one types in a name that is statistically such that it indicates an African-American ethnicity, then Google is likely to throw up Ads for criminal justice background checks, amplifying extant racial biases.
No wonder therefore, the book had me going “wow” out loud and smirking on public transport, several times, as bystanders stared at me disapprovingly. And even though, the book didn't go as far as to convince me that Uber template is indeed the future of work, it did give me some well put together material to ponder over the ways in which technology is often pitched against existing legal frameworks, and whether jurisdictions necessarily have to serve up a “law of the horse”, just because the buggy industry says it is needed.
All in all, it’s not just a useful resource for those trying to develop an answer to the questions the book raises, it’s a must read for pretty much everyone, to get a fuller view of the way in which the new economy business model continues to evolve, in ways both ugly and innovative.
(Written as a part of the requirements for the course — History of Technology Revolution offered at Sciences Po, Paris)
|
https://medium.com/@indrajeetsircar/the-algorithmic-anarchy-of-uberland-d7498e9e75a6
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['Indrajeet Sircar']
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2018-12-10 18:04:49.247000+00:00
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['Uber', 'Sharing Economy', 'Book Review']
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Should the creation of low income jobs be considered as Social Entrepreneurship?
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Should the creation of low income jobs be considered as Social Entrepreneurship?
Research on entrepreneurship has undergone a transition from a traditional to a modern approach on entrepreneurship, which introduces more liberating ideas, other than the conventional views that classify entrepreneurial activities as a financial emancipation. Early research defined entrepreneurship as a strong-willed activity to initiate a profit-oriented business. As theory developed, researchers recognized the importance of social and societal aspects involved in entrepreneuring and started to bring entrepreneurship more in line with social and societal considerations.
However, theory on social entrepreneurship limits change potential of entrepreneurship given that it intends a particular approach of social change. Through their literature, scholars argue that social entrepreneurs and social businesses have limited change potential. When researchers or practitioners talk about social entrepreneurship, they usually talk about improving the lives of minorities or people in developing countries or green energy solutions that tackle environmental issues.
However, not only social entrepreneurs contribute to tackling social needs. A new wave of researchers argue that all entrepreneurial initiatives generate socio-economic value, and should be studied and understood accordingly. As the discussion on the change potential of entrepreneurship continues, I would like to suggest an expansion of the general understanding of social entrepreneurship.
As an illustrative case I would like to argue whether or not the creation of low jobs should be considered as social entrepreneurship, given the concern that technology could produce a social disruption by creating scarcity for this particular class within the workforce.
The emerge of technology has precipitated a similar scenario to the industrial revolution as it initiated a social disruption by increasing severely the gap between low and high income class.
Given that workers at the bottom of the labor force structure or low-wage jobs will be most immediately affected by technological displacement, researchers urge for the need to start thinking about compensating them for this social disruption caused by automation.
There is far-reaching concern that new technology will fundamentally alter the future of work by displacing traditional jobs. While some argue that technological development will generate more jobs than it destroys, others claim that that technology is destroying jobs faster than it is creating them. According to the World Economic Forum, 7 out of the 10 emerging roles by 2022 are jobs that require a high technological affiliation. These include Data analyst and Data Scientists, AI and Machine learning specialists or Big Data specialists. Among others, roles that are declining until 2022 include jobs such as Accounting and bookkeeping, Assembly and factory workers and postal service workers.
As stated by Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT, emerging technologies have made their way from science fiction movies into the mainstream economy and will encounter millions of truck drivers and call center agents around the world. In the United States, while GDP has risen in the last years, median income has not, while inequality has grown. As a result of great productivity, although technology companies offer disruptive solutions, they do not create jobs. Whatsapp only employs approximately 50 people, although it counts over one billion active monthly users.
Although controversial, Uber is a factual example of a high-tech company that has been producing low income jobs in the recent years. Uber is used in this case as it is a hot topic and up-to-date. Various other cases from the sharing economy and beyond could be used upon further research in order to illustrate the above mentioned ideas. According to Uber, in 2017, the company “contracted” around 2.7 million drivers in the world, which are low to middle income jobs depending on whether drivers choose Uber as their main source of income or as a supplementary income source. Research further suggests that total employment expanded in cities where the Uber platform was adopted and that there are no evidence of adverse employment impacts on traditional taxi drivers, as their number also increased by 10%, according to the research.
Uber is not classified as a social enterprise if we stick to definitions on social entrepreneurship suggested by researchers. To be classified as a social enterprise, theory suggests that a company needs to prioritize meeting social needs. Generally, this definition is too limiting, given the change potential of business entrepreneurs in general. Uber illustrates a case of a company that is expected to prioritize profit. The company is sensitive to economic matrices as revenues, net income or the trend of monthly active users, that it needs to monitor, to satisfy investors. Being backed by numerous investors makes Uber an economic driven company that yet has an socio-economic impact in the cities where it deploys its platform by offering a solution to the scarcity of low income jobs. The case of Uber illustrates how a company that not necessarily falls within the current definition of social entrepreneurship can have an impact where it is operating.
Given the scarcity of low income jobs in the future, as suggested by research, precipitated by emerging technologies, and the precarious definition on social entrepreneurship, the case of Uber should initiate a discussion, peculiarly among scholars, in order to expand their definition on social entrepreneurship as it limits change potential of entrepreneurs.
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https://medium.com/@dillon.berjani/should-the-creation-of-low-income-jobs-be-considered-as-social-entrepreneurship-463785478831
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['Dillon Berjani']
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2018-11-26 13:15:53.959000+00:00
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['Social Enterprise', 'Social Entrepreneurship', 'Uber', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Technology']
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Skip’s Unique Approach to Last-Mile Transit and Why I Joined as Head of Product
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Skip’s Unique Approach to Last-Mile Transit and Why I Joined as Head of Product
I am excited to announce that I’m joining Skip Scooters as its head of product.
The need for micro-mobility.
I came to Uber nearly five years ago when Black cars were still half of its trips (before carpooling, food delivery, and self-driving cars), the service was operating in 50 cities (seven percent of today’s number), and drivers had to navigate themselves to pickups and dropoffs (and riders had to verbally tell drivers where they wanted to go… crazy, right?).
Uber has truly revolutionized how we get around. But this success has an underbelly: Cities are more congested than ever, most people still need to travel in cars, which is both expensive and dangerous, and last-mile transit is still an unsolved problem. For example, there’s simply no great way to go from the Caltrain to the Mission.
Enter shared electric vehicles, like kick scooters.
Since scooters launched in SF a few weeks ago, I haven’t taken a single Uber within the city. Scooters have been fun, fast, and inexpensive compared with my alternatives — walking or ridepooling. In fact, my wife and I ran an experiment in which she took an UberPOOL Express and I took a Skip scooter from one of Uber’s offices to home. In that 2.5-mile commute, I arrived home five minutes faster and my commute was 25 percent cheaper! My wife, a self-proclaimed ridehailing fangirl, was impressed.
My commuter use case isn’t the only one for scooters… But it certainly opened my eyes to the magnitude of the opportunity. In many U.S. cities, a substantial portion of all ridehailing trips are less than three miles in distance with an average speed slower than a fast run. The available market for scooters isn’t niche, e.g. just for tourists or teenagers, it is much much larger: A substitute for walking and even taking an Uber when you shouldn’t be.
Why I Skip.
Many companies have launched shared scooter networks to capitalize on this opportunity. Why do I believe Skip has a shot to win?
Partnership with cities
Skip believes in working together with transportation departments, community groups, and neighborhoods — not in spite of them. This is important because scooters will get regulated and, in many cities, permit capped. And that’s ok: No one wants scooters littering city streets, blocking pathways, and populating metallic graveyards (for a glimpse into such a dystopia, check out China). Skip’s city-friendly approach enabled it to receive the first permitted system of its kind in the U.S. in Washington D.C. It’s also the basis behind its entry in San Francisco, a flagship regulatory market that inevitably others will follow.
Full-stack product innovation
Designing EVs for the rugged conditions of city streets is in Skip’s DNA. In 2011, CEO Sanjay Dastoor and co-founder Matt Tran built Boosted Boards, the most popular electric skateboards on the market and helped design the first portable electric vehicle to use modern EV motor and battery systems. I’m excited to partner with Sanjay and the rest of the Skip team to infuse scooter hardware with software-driven intelligence. Whether it’s safe riding tracking and parking enforcement with deep learning, mobile experiences for riders to find and navigate to their destinations, seamless task platforms for crowdsourced labor (we call them “rangers”) to charge, reposition, and repair scooters, and tools for cities to better track and optimize traffic… The scope of the products to be built here is massive.
Focus on unit economics
Finally, Skip is focused on building a real business. The demise of Jawbone earlier this year should serve as an important reminder to anyone playing in consumer products: Unit economics matter. Product innovation around automation, anti-theft, and anti-fraud is needed to bend the curve.
Let’s go!
It’s very early days for Skip (it just hit its one-year anniversary!). The team is small and scrappy, and there are major challenges to overcome in every aspect of the business. But it’s this David vs. Goliath challenge, and the opportunity to make our cities more livable and streets safer through shared EVs, that make me superpumped about this next step.
Even my wife Neha has joined the bandwagon. Date night has taken on a whole new meaning!
Our team is growing. If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch! You can find me at shalin <at> skipscooters.com.
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https://medium.com/@shamantri/skips-unique-approach-to-last-mile-transit-and-why-i-joined-as-head-of-product-1f0b9b7245c1
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['Shalin Mantri']
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2018-11-20 19:21:08.425000+00:00
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['Transportation', 'Electric Scooters', 'Scooters', 'Uber', 'Mobility']
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This is how I got 250+ free Uber rides
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This is how I got 250+ free Uber rides
Screenshot part of my trip history
Marketing is on my mind 24/7. By staying on top of all the newest developments I have learned how to use the internet not only to benefit my customers but also for my own personal gain.
Whenever someone asks me about how I got my free Uber rides and I give them a quick answer I see their eyes opening up wide. To me it’s just another everyday life hack. After realising that this is one of the stories that my friends keep telling to other people when talking about me I decided to let everyone in on the “secret”.
Trying to analyse and understand others behaviours
Like everything in life, approaching everyday things and details more analytical than others will eventually make you understand things faster and helps you rationally solving problems. I often find myself estimating weights of bags that others carry or the amounts of pixels on any screen I sit in front. I love guessing whether people will end up picking the fruits they’re staring at in the supermarket or judge if people are planning to cross the street any second based on their walking and gestures.
Same goes for understanding app mechanics or any other services we use on a daily basis and marketing in general.
Growth Hacker vs. Online Marketer
I believe there is a not very obvious but huge difference between doing Online Marketing as in creating and placing banners, picking advertising networks, coordinating agencies & crunching numbers and feeling this everlasting excitement about influencing and guiding people, understanding what’s developing their decisions and eventually finding the right tools to achieve the desired goals. Whenever I decide to market a new product or project and I don’t have my predefined set of tools that I’m going to use. Instead I want to know where the target audience is spending their time, what language they speak, how they see the world, what motivates them and what kind of emotions they’ll expect from the product we want them to buy.
Placing my Invite Code on Quora and Adwords
“Hey use this code to get a free ride!” — No, not really. You certainly thought about that or have seen others trying that. As always people want some value in return for value. Weird uh?
I started my free ride hunt by helping others on eg. Quora with their questions regarding Uber and in some cases, informed them that my code will help them making their first ride free. Other methods have been showing my invite code to people via Adwords which are actively looking for free rides on google. They end up getting what they want and use my code which makes their and my next ride free.
Here’s 2 examples 2 of my Quora answers:
https://www.quora.com/Can-you-schedule-an-Uber-ahead-of-time-How-do-you-do-this-Can-I-set-the-pickup-time-in-advance/answer/Martin-Welzl (69.8k Views)
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-reach-Uber-customer-service-Do-they-have-a-phone-number/answer/Martin-Welzl (49.7k Views)
Here’s Ubers help section regarding referring friends:
https://help.uber.com/h/720a2186-f6ee-4cfc-8645-968e08371228
Wait, is this legal?
Yes, Uber probably intended this as pure friend to friend thing, which yes, I overstepped to some degree. However, whenever you’re trying to reach new highs in online marketing I believe it’s necessary to take some calculated risks. The market is developing so fast that not all paths are perfectly pathed yet. In this case I’m actually totally playing along Ubers planned goals of getting more people to use their service and I’ve been in good contact with Uber since.
“Free”
Never forget that there is no free lunch. I invested some time into getting the machine going and honestly, I don’t know if I wouldn’t have made more money working on something else and paying for Uber the traditional way.
Do you like posts like this? Should I post more of my life hacks as a growth hacker?
P.S. My promo code to make your first ride free is “martinw45”. In case you were wondering… ;)
|
https://medium.com/@martinwelzl/this-is-how-i-got-250-free-uber-rides-644a926a7f09
|
['Martin Welzl']
|
2018-11-23 11:15:29.445000+00:00
|
['Uber', 'Transportation', 'Life Hacking', 'Lifehacks', 'Ridesharing']
|
The Crash of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry
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In the past few weeks several major players in the driverless industry said they now think it will be decades before a real self-driving vehicle is on the road. Among them was Waymo and GM. The leader of that pack is Aurora’s Chris Urmson. He not only had the same realization over 6 months ago he also said disengagements and miles mean little. With scenarios learned being what matters. (Uber has recently stated that as well. I wrote the same thing over a year ago.) There has also been a massive amount of partnerships announced recently. Something I predicted months ago. Why would companies risk sharing IP? They need to spread what they now know will be massive costs. In that very same article I also stated the bankruptcies are coming. That will occur because there is a critical reality those involved in creating these systems still do not see in spite of their incremental epiphanies. That 20–30-year time period isn’t remotely close. The real answer is that they will never get remotely close to finishing. Not much farther than the first base they are on now. The root cause of this is the approach the vast majority of the industry uses to create these systems.
· Use of Public Shadow Driving vs the use of proper simulation 99% of the time — It is a myth that you can drive and redrive, stumble and restumble on enough scenarios, enough times, to get close to building a legitimate autonomous vehicle. RAND says 500B miles at 10x a human. Toyota said a trillion miles. (To do that in 10 years would cost over $300B.) Then there are the safety issues. Those regarding handover and running accident scenarios. Handover cannot be made safe no matter what monitoring and notification system is used. That is because enough time cannot be provided to regain proper situational awareness in critical scenarios. The other issue being thousands of accident scenarios will have to be run thousands of times over to train the AI on those scenarios. That will cause thousands of needless casualties. (Waymo, Ford, Volvo and Aurora have stated handover is dangerous and should not be used. However, each still relies on it because they do not understand how to do this properly.)
· The Simulation being used in the industry has significant shortfalls — Among them being real-time and latency issues. As well as imprecise vehicle, tire and road models. These will lead to significant false confidence. Which will not be found until analogous real-world tragedies occur. (Another related issue is not using full motion simulators. Motion cues are crucial. Be that the presence or lack of them. Without them you cannot train or test properly.)
· Using a bottoms up Agile approach — Agile does not work when systems are large and complex. Not adding a top down systems integrated approach will cost a massive waste of time and money. The hardest scenarios should be worked on at the same time as the bottoms up effort. Usually when the most difficult scenarios work everything below them does as well. And often design and execution flaws are found that translate to rework at the lower end. Too much rework and you will be crippled as well. Aerospace and DoD systems engineering practices should be leveraged here.
· Not creating and using an End -State Scenario Matrix — The validators as well as the builders need to see what done and the most difficult scenarios look like now. Test cases or scenarios , especially those related to operating domains, should also be made public and/or covered by a proper third party. FAA practices should be the guide for this.
Getting back to these epiphanies. How is the investment community going to take these? Spending hundreds of million or billions of $ per year for a couple years is one thing. Now they are supposed to do that for 30 years or more? (Usually people decrease the estimation time with experience not increase them by an order of magnitude.) What happens when they learn those decades actually equals never? Or that the lives lost and the many more that will be lost were unnecessary? Including the unavoidable loss of children and families that will occur thousands of times as these systems train and test their AI on thousands of accident scenarios run thousands of times over? Will the investors, public, insurers, governments and the press think these developers and OEMs were inexperienced, withheld the truth or both? What happens then? Do they plow more money in or bail? With ~200B invested in autonomous vehicles the Nasdaq could take a huge hit when the post-realization tidal wave begins. How far will pride, ego and fear keep these folks from seeing and admitting they have been doing this wrong and have to flip the development paradigm?
(One other comment John Krafcik, Waymo’s CEO said recently, is that there are weather condition that these systems will never operate in. I believe this was said to lower the bar to help make the massive increase in funds needed look less onerous. While empirically true I believe that if the process I mentioned above were used you could get to a point where these systems can function better than a human in any condition the vehicle itself can handle. The vehicle should be the weak link not the AV systems. DoD aircraft fly in some pretty bad conditions. How has that been possible for over 40 years? The right engineering approach and sensors)
More info here
SAE Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Magazine-End Public Shadow Driving https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/sae/ave_201901/index.php
Common Misconceptions about Aerospace/DoD/FAA Simulation for Autonomous Vehicles https://medium.com/@imispgh/common-misconceptions-about-aerospace-dod-faa-simulation-for-autonomous-vehicles-2b3ad84b0aa1
Using the Real World is better than Proper Simulation for Autonomous Vehicle Development — NONSENSE https://medium.com/@imispgh/using-the-real-world-is-better-than-proper-simulation-for-autonomous-vehicle-development-nonsense-90cde4ccc0ce
The Hype of Geofencing for Autonomous Vehicles https://medium.com/@imispgh/the-hype-of-geofencing-for-autonomous-vehicles-bd964cb14d16
My name is Michael DeKort — I am a former system engineer, engineering and program manager for Lockheed Martin. I worked in aircraft simulation, the software engineering manager for all of NORAD, the Aegis Weapon System, and on C4ISR for DHS.
I am a member of the SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Validation & Verification Task Force and was recently asked by SAE to lead an effort to establish a new Modeling and Simulation group.
I am a stakeholder for UL4600 — Creating AV Safety Guidelines.
I have also been presented the IEEE Barus Ethics Award and am on the IEEE Artificial Intelligence & Autonomous Systems Policy Committee (AI&ASPC)
|
https://medium.com/predict/the-crash-of-the-autonomous-vehicle-industry-f71fd26c1ed0
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['Michael Dekort']
|
2019-06-11 17:53:06.518000+00:00
|
['Self Driving Cars', 'Waymo', 'Tesla', 'Uber', 'Autonomous Cars']
|
My experience at the MLconf San Francisco 2018
|
I was very excited to attend the MLconf in San Francisco in November 2018. The conference has drawn a very enthusiastic crowd of machine learning practitioners and experts from companies such as Google Brain, Uber, Facebook, Baidu, Tesla, etc. The talks centered around the wide application of the machine learning techniques and various algorithms. I am very thankful to the Women in Machine Learning and Data Science (WiMLDS) for giving me an opportunity to attend!
There were 16 excellent talks lined up plus several companies had set up the booths & deligated their Data Scientists to share their experience, in-house practices & to hire.
Since there was an online voting for the best presentation, I would like to share my thoughts and notes on the talks that were highly ranked by the audience.
1st place
Ilke Demir, a Postdoc Researcher at Facebook, had a talk titled “The Geospatial Machine Learning for Urban Development”. Ilke described how the open datasets, computer vision & machine learning can be used in a collaborative environment to gain an understanding of the urban safety, socioeconomic conditions & voting patterns, and to improve the poverty & disaster mapping.
Ilke talked in details about the DeepGlobe Satellite Image Understanding Challenge, which includes public competitions for segmentation, detection, and classification tasks on satellite images. DeepGlobe aims to use the satellite imagery to extract tracks and roads, to detect buildings, and to classify land cover. In her paper, Ilke emphasizes: “Bridging modern computer vision with remote sensing data analysis could have a critical impact to the way we understand our environment and lead to major breakthroughs in global urban planning or climate change research”.
Ilke also mentioned another challenge she has been involved in: millions of people are disconnected from basic services due to lack of adequate addressing. Her research proposes an automatic generative algorithm to create street addresses from satellite imagery.
2nd place
Mike Tamir, Head of Data Science at UBER ATG talked about “How to use Deep Learning to solve the “Fake News Problem”.
Mike had explored the root problem of the fake news, they use emotional content to impact the cognitive function by engaging people emotionally. However, how we decide what is the fact and the truth and how, in the battle with the fake news, not to get into the deep censorship? He used deep-learning, neural networks, and NLP to train his algorithm to rate the article on several scales (sensational, opinion, journalism, agenda driven, etc) and providing the reader with the reasoning behind it.
You can actually try checking any news on Mike’s website by inserting the URL of the article. FakerFact is an Artificial Intelligence tool built to help understand more about what we read. It was trained on millions of documents including journalism and scientific journal articles, satire articles, narrative fiction, opinion pieces, blogs, politically leaning news and even hate speech examples.
3rd place
Franziska Bell, Data Science Director on the Platform Team at Uber talked about Natural Language (NL) use cases at Uber (Youtube video). She portrayed the Uber as a customer-centered company which uses NLP & Machine Learning in the strive for improving the Uber customer care. Her team has developed COTA, Customer Obsession Ticket Assistant, which enables quick and efficient issue resolution for more than 90% of the inbound support tickets.
Another way that Uber leverages ML and NLP techniques is by improving driver communication through One-Click Chat, Uber’s smart reply system. The system anticipates responses to common rider messages to make it easier for driver-partners to reply to in-app messages.
It was a great conference and I am very thankful to all organizers, sponsors, and experts who made the MLConf possible!
|
https://medium.com/@larushkalmy/my-experience-at-the-mlconf-san-francisco-2018-a670e971162b
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[]
|
2019-08-08 23:09:56.624000+00:00
|
['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Uber', 'Facebook']
|
The Uber and Lyft question Parksen solves
|
Just recently, Uber and Lyft both started on news because of the traffic and parking issues that they created in downtown Plymouth in the USA. It has raised safety concerns as well as cost and future transportation optimization. When the businesses are going well with Uber and Lyft, the downside of it shows.
Moreover, Uber and Lyft drivers can be seen stopped on a street and looking at their GPS to figure out where they are supposed to pick up their customers. This causes traffic jams on the street, and might endanger drivers and passengers lives.
Another issue that caused indirectly by the Uber and Lyft services, is that some motorists would use city’s parking decks or surface-level parking spaces, then leave their vehicles overnight by catching an Uber or Lyft ride home.
Uber, Lift and other similar providers need a solution like Parksen
PARKSEN’S SOLUTION HELP TO DROP PARKING ISSUES
Parksen’s solution could solve these parking issues for both Uber, Lyft and other competitors. First of all, with our platform solution, we could help to find out parking spaces that are not being used yet, and inform the ride-hailing services businesses to utilize it. So, instead of being stuck in the downtown areas, the professional drivers could easily find space to park and have appointments with their clients.
Second, Parksen could also help the motorcyclists to find better parking spaces for themselves. The reason they park their vehicles in the parking spaces overnight, is because they don’t want to drive under the influence or tiered after a long day. It’s better to do so. On the other hand drivers have to find parking spaces around the restaurant and bar area. Moreover local governments have to learn it and provide extended solutions, that we at Parksen help design and solve.
Some of the cities prohibits vehicles in the city parking spaces from 3 to 5 a.m., but if the drivers notify the police department in advance, there is still possibility to park overnight. What a smart parking app like Parksen could do to solve this issue is to creatively think for the government how to manage the overnight parking.
With the smart app and our backend platform, Parksen will be able to bridge the needs of municipalities with the business owners, Uber and Lyft drivers as well as all other drivers. This way we make our parking smarter, our cities better and fully connecting all services in a bundle that benefits everyone.
|
https://medium.com/@parksen/the-uber-and-lyft-question-parksen-solves-3549e22ae9c6
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[]
|
2018-12-06 10:17:42.105000+00:00
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['Uber', 'Smart', 'Smart Parking', 'Smart Cities', 'Shared Economy']
|
TFL Check Spots, Get Prepare Yourself
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TFL Check Spots, Get Prepare Yourself
Complete the legal requirements
It is necessary for every person who is on the road to complete all the legal requirements required by the higher authorities. it’s not only make your face but also provides the great facilitation for your needs. we are well aware about the teams that are specially organised to Inspect vehicles about the private hire drivers to complete the legal requirements. It’s time to be organized by the people that deals with the private cars or having the services for PCO Vehicle Hire London.
Private hire regulations
Private higher inspectors complete the legislation and the regulations requirements in that can be helpful and make sure the people have legalized their vehicles in the proper way. because every person that is on the road needs to fulfil their requirements through the proper documentation process. Because after making hard earned shift is to be fined or have your car’s private hire licence revoked. You must have the complete car documentation, like this certificate of insurance, schedule of insurance including the permissions. drivers need to complete the documentation regarding the driving licence and PCO badge.
Daily checks
Complete the daily requirements mostly included tyre checks, lights, cleanliness of your vehicles and the other minute work that can save lot of your time. because A stitch in time saves nine. All these factors make the great contribution for yourself and you will experience the best results in your profession. Because completing all the legal requirements will make your more responsible citizen as compared to those who don’t actually complete their requirements. Daily checks have many benefits that can save yourself form the chaos. It makes yourself enough handy to do the things in the best way in which you complete the legal requirements and all the other things as well.
Timely maintenance and fitness certificate
Timely maintenance is the important part of your life through which you can have the multiple benefits. Because in this way, you can increase the life of your vehicles. As you get the fitness certificate for your vehicle then you find it more comfortable for you to handle the things in the best way. Make all these things beneficial because you will certainly get the appreciations form the organizations for which you work.
These are instructions are valuable for the drivers through which you can make the things flawless for you. It’s our duty to complete all the legal requirements and to educate the others to follow the footsteps that can have the advantages for us.
|
https://medium.com/@pacehireuk/tfl-check-spots-get-prepare-yourself-91cb5613903
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['Jackie James']
|
2018-11-15 09:05:12.384000+00:00
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['Uber']
|
Uber: How A $120-billion Valuation Affects Incentives, Habits and Even Your Mood?
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Uber: How A $120-billion Valuation Affects Incentives, Habits and Even Your Mood?
Has your Uber driver missed a turn? Surprisingly, what might seem to be a simple mistake could be related to your autumn depression, economic growth, capital markets, and the job of product managers. LATOKEN Follow Nov 16, 2018 · 5 min read
by Dil on Unsplash
[Written by Valentin Preobrazhenskiy, Founder and CEO of LATOKEN]
Missing a turn… sure, it can happen to everyone. Just a simple accident. But was it an accident when taxi drivers took longer routes to steal your money in the absence of Uber’s fixed fares? What about the insanely high prices of the “airport taxi mafia” in the days when no app was able to connect you with drivers from outside the airport territory?
Maybe the Uber driver’s mistakes are not a mere accident. Maybe there’s a systematic reason why local taxi apps poach qualified drivers and clients from global players.
In the last few weeks, US banks have told Uber — the world renowned peer-to-peer ridesharing company — that it could become a $120 billion enterprise if it goes public. Some venture capitalists agree with this estimation; some do not. The disagreement comes down to a single factor: the role of local ride-hailing companies, currently a huge threat to Uber’s global expansion.
Once traded at the stock exchange, Uber’s stock price could weigh in investors’ fears regarding the company’s ability to fight local competitors. Following this line of thought, if bears would push the stock price lower, Uber’s management might be forced to cut down expenses. The money that Uber would not get due to a negative sentiment in the market could pass to companies offering a brighter future. If small/mid-sized companies get access to investment in the capital market, they would get enough resources to put up fights with big players in terms of product development and labor force.
Transmission of Incentives
This is how the transmission of incentives work, reallocating resources from the capital market to the product, labor, religion, and even the marriage market. A transmission that pushes over 7.2 billion people to do something beneficial for humanity, ultimately increasing chances of survival.
The transmission of incentives has played a major role in the development of the world economy, taking the economic growth rate from 0.01% up to 3.00% in the past century.
The development of the capital market is easily comparable to the human mind and it is unique ability to predict the future, and send stimuli to our muscles to prevent us from dying.
Scottish economist Adam Smith referred to the transmission of incentives as the “invisible hand”. Two centuries later, Nobel Prize laureate Douglass North started to connect incentive structures with neurobiology.
Depression and emotional downshifting are related to our neural circuits, which are constantly adapting to the structure of incentives. Investors have the power to accelerate changes in that structure by reallocating money, time, and energy to guarantee better future uses.
By backing Uber as a project years ago, investors were also killing thousands of cab companies, changing values, and breaking the time-tested habits of taxi drivers. Many taxi drivers might have experienced a state of depression — in other words, the destruction of no longer useful neural connections in favor of a new incentive structure. However, many of them were able to put themselves together and adapt to a new market.
Old bad habits, such as grabbing you by the arm to offer you a ride, driving you in circles, or trying to cheat you on price were eliminated by simply implementing programmed fares.
This article is also a result of the transmission of incentives. The capital market gave me resources to create a product — an exchange that enhances capital market efficiency.
Let The People Decide
So perhaps Uber is burning people’s money, time, and energy while offering less benefit for the future, whereas Grab or Gett are providing more for the world.
We can find out — perhaps with your help — by placing Uber on our exchange. Then investors, who anticipate such an outcome of events, will play to lower Uber’s share price and boost Grab and Gett.
Assets traded in stock exchanges account for only a fifth of a total of $500 trillion of assets. Prices, allocation of resources, and incentives are less accurate for illiquid assets.
But there is a way to increase liquidity for private companies like Uber, real estate projects, and other traditional assets worth nearly $200 trillions. New technologies offer a unique chance to automate bureaucratic procedures behind the figures you see in your online banking.
Those same technologies can provide access to 3.5 billion people to the financial system without banks involvement.
Nowadays, everyone with an Internet connection can easily access global payment systems. This is exactly why the number of participants in the financial system will jump from about 4 to 5 billion people faster than expected only a few decades ago.
We and the financial system face the challenge of expanding the liquid asset market from $100 to $300 trillion, while increasing the number of traders and participants in the financial system by 1 billion.
Despite not being an easy challenge, it is one possible to win. Coinbase, one of the companies already contributing with solutions, has been recently valued at $8 billion. Nasdaq is starting to master blockchain technology, but don’t expect them to learn how to work with end users in the short term.
For more information about LATOKEN, contact us:
|
https://blog.latoken.com/uber-how-a-120-billion-valuation-affects-incentives-habits-and-even-your-mood-8666e2df570e
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[]
|
2018-11-23 15:18:56.752000+00:00
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['Uber', 'Psychology', 'Technology', 'Apps', 'Blockchain']
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The Complete Guide to Bonus Bets
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What Are Bonus Bets?
Today, foreign operators and even startups have flooded the bookmarking industry by storm. The bonus bethas become part of the punting landscape. You get the bonus bet for signing up, signing in, having a bet, not having a bet, and also contacting the customer service.
You also get a bonus bet for when your horse runs second or when your team loses by a kick. You also get one when your multi bombs out. For the bookies, this is a simple business because the chances of you to stake with them is higher than with other dozen options.
Whether they have to give you the bonus, you will still be back to use nonetheless, whether they flog you with more offers or not. Even when your bonus beta actually wins, they have turnover requirements on the winnings that restrict you getting the cash and being done with.
In some cases, you even have to stake the winnings more times before you can withdraw the money. They are also always ahead of you when it comes to the betting slots by putting minimum prices for the turnover bets.
Bonus bets seem to look like free money. However, that’s not always the case because the odds of your average mug turning into real cash in your pocket is very low. However, the beauty of bonus bets is the fact that you won’t risk any of your capital.
With bonus bets, instead of hoping that the bet comes in, you can use your edge to cover both a bet and still guarantee yourself of a positive result.
How Do Bonus Bets Work?
Compared to free but stakes bonus stakes are returned. When a free bet you placed wins, you may receive he winnings, but you won’t acquire the free bet stake. With a bonus bet, the bonus stake is returned along with your winnings when you place a bet on something, and it wins.
However good that sounds, there is a catch! Before you can withdraw the bonuses, they have to be rolled over a number of times. This is referred to as the wagering or rollover requirement. Only after you meet the wagering or rollover requirement or when you lose all your bookmarker funds into the exchange account will the rollover be complete.
Bookmakers use the bonus bet money to attract customers and always to offer promotions when you join or when conditions like losing money are met. The bonus bets are meant to encourage betting. However, the ultimate goal here is to turn the bonus money into real cash.
So the real question is, how you can make most of your bonus bet which is the bookmarker welcome bonus. When you sign in you, receive a free bet or a deposit bonus. On most betting sites, you can’t withdraw the bonus until you bet the entire amount of the bonus at a set minimum odds and a number of times.
How to Use the Bonus Bets Effectively
How Can You Convert Your Bonus into Real Money
Most people will tell you that creating a sure bet from the bookmaker bonus is one of the surest ways to win the bet. So how can you convert the bonus bet?
Have an Account with a Betting Exchange
Opening an account with a betting exchange (e.g. Betfair) will allow you to act in the role as that of your bookmarker. You will not only be able to place the bets yourself, but you will also lay bets. Choose a betting exchange you prefer.
Once you select your betting exchange consider the amount of commission you will have to be paying on the exchange bets. To be on a safer time, go for the lowest commission rates.
Place a Surebet with Your Bookmaker
In theory, the sport you choose doesn’t really matter, however, place a bet with your bookmarker on a major football league like the Premier League.
Make the Opposite Bet with Your Betting Exchange
Once you place the bet with your bookmaker, put the opposite of the bet using your betting exchange. For example, if you bet on Liverpool to win in an upcoming Premier League game with a bookmaker, bet against Liverpool with your betting exchange account.
Just as a bookmaker does, you will be able to lay a bet with another customer. The advantage of placing a bet with a major league or a major sporting event is because you can be assured the ability to lay your bet on the betting exchange of your preference.
You may not find someone willing to take your lay bet on your betting exchange if you choose an obscure tournament or league. Even worse, the particular tournament or league may not even any listed markets on the exchange.
You may also need to offer slightly higher odd on your betting exchange that the odds you get with your bookmarker for the bet. The closer your betting exchange odds are to the bookmarker’s betting odds, the better for your winning odds.
Bonus Bet Example: Arsenal vs. Liverpool
Let’s assume that you have opened an account your preferred sporting account and you have deposited a certain amount of money like $100. This means that you are expected to get a 100% bonus, an extra $100. You are paying $100 in, but now you have $200 to play with.
Bonus Small Print
As we said, you can’t cash out the bonus immediately. The number of times you must bet your bonus before withdrawing it as cash is different from bookmaker to a bookmaker. There are those that demand a single bet. This means that you need to bet the total of your bonus only once. There are also those that require you to bet your bonus a number of times.
The fewer times you bet your bonus, the better. If you bet your bonus upwards more than five times, it will have a massive impact on the total amount you will withdraw as cash after you bonus bet is complete. Whether or not you are betting conservatively, every round of betting you are risking your bonus, and you will also allow the bookmarker commission to eat into your bonus.
This is the reason why most bookmakers set 1.50 odds as the minimum.
So, if your betting exchange demands that you need to bet the total of your bonus three times, it means that you require a total bet of $600. Since you can bet below 1.50 odds, the risk of losing all the bonus will be much higher in the traditional way.
If you need help with staking be sure to check out our staking guide in our blogs section
Select Your Bet
Using our prior example, betting on Arsenal home win against Liverpool.
Say the odds of Arsenal are winning the match are at 1.75. Should Arsenal win, you may have a profit of $150 if you bet all your deposit plus bonus on those odds, the total return will be $350? Remember, bet the opposite on your betting exchange.
Betting the opposite would mean that you lay bet against Arsenal. Remember, you want your liability to be the same as the amount that you can profit from the bookmarker’s Arsenal bet. So in this case, $150($350 return — $200 bet stake).
The best way to enter the amount you want as your ‘Backer’s Stake’ is to enter the amount until the liability equals the same amount you stand to win or profit from your bookmaker bet. In this case, if you lay Arsenal at 1.776 odds, the maximum liability is $150. This means that it’s the amount you might lose with the bookmarker if Arsenal wins.
What if Arsenal Draws or Loses?
Bookmaker
Balance
Net Profit
Points
Account A
$100 + ($100 bonus)
$0
-$100
Account B
$150
$343.52
$193.52
Total
$250 + ($100 bonus)
$343.52
$93.52
In this case, you have no cash left in Account A. Instead, you now have more money in your Account B, so efficiently you have transferred most of your Account A bonus ($100) to your Account B ($93.52). And you can cash out the money anytime.
What if Arsenal Wins?
Bookmaker
Balance
Net Profit
Points
Account A
$100 + ($100 bonus)
$250 + ($100 bonus)
$150
Account B
$150
$0
-$150
Total
$250 + ($100 bonus)
$250 + ($100 bonus)
$0
Even if this is the least desirable outcome, it’s not a disaster. Even though you lost your $200 with Account B, you made a $200 profit on your Account A so essentially you broke even, and there was no harm done.
If you are up for it, you can repeat the 3 step process with another bonus bet until the bonus finally ends up in your Account B account, or you meet the wagering requirement for Account A and can withdraw your bonus from there.
Stick to The Same Pattern
You can always repeat the routine with every bonus bet as long as you keep in mind that the lay bet with your betting exchange needs to be pretty close to your bookmaker’s odds. Anything other than that is a waste of money.
You also need to make sure your maximum possible loss with your betting exchange needs to match the amount you may profit from the bet you place with the bookmaker.
Low Odds or High Odds?
There is never really a right or wrong answer in this case because the two options have their own pros and cons.
When the odds are low, the advantage is that it may not eat into your bonus bet as much as the high odds. However, the disadvantage that there is an increased chance of a complete rollover because of a winning streak.
When the odds are high, there is a high chance of losing your bonus straight into your exchange account. The downside is it may eat into your bonus bet more than the low odds would and if your bet wins you’ll have more funds tied up at your bookmaker.
This means that it’s only a matter of your personal preference. It’s incredible when you place a bonus bet at high odds, and it loses because your lay bets will win and you’ll have managed to transfer your bonus straight into your exchange account in a single bet.
It may be less unlikely to get a losing bet at very low odds. However, some cases could happen. The best preference would be to see a bet with tight odds that you think will not come in.
Standard Lay Method
There is a reason people are comfortable using the standard lay method, it’s a more natural method for beginners, and it’s also the same method most qualifying bets use. You can use the ‘Free Bet- Stake returned’ setting or a ‘Qualifying Bet’ setting. Even though the display the results differently, they have the same for both sets.
Use the qualifying bet when placing back and laying your bets to qualify for a free bet. If you are looking to extract profit from a bonus, use a free bet. The risk-free bet allows you to calculate the lay stake for a bonus bet.
Underlay Method
When it comes to laying the bonus rollover bets, the underlying method could be the best option. The charm of this technique is that if your bonus bet does win, you will retain the entire value of your bonus. So without sacrificing your $100 bonus, you will be $200 of the way through the rollover condition
If your bonus bet does lose, you will have lost slightly more of the bonus. However, the good news is that your profit will move straight into your exchange account and you don’t need to rollover any more funds.
In this case, if Arsenal wins, you’ll have retained your full bonus plus profit. However, you will need to place another $1000 worth of bets before you can withdraw your bonus. This means if Arsenal doesn’t win, you will have successfully transferred the remaining amount of your bonus straight into your exchange account.
If the match results in a draw 0–0, placing your initial bonus rollover bet on Arsenal would have worked out very successfully indeed. That’s all there is to it, as long as you always read the terms thoroughly and you’ll crack it.
Utilize the Free Bet Strategy
There is a reason people place free bets at very high odds. This is because when you receive a free bet, your primary goal should be to extract your profit. Most of the free bets mean that you only receive the winnings back but not the free bet stake
For example, if you have a $10 free bet that wins at 3.00 odds, then you will win $20 cash and the $10 free bet stake won’t be returned.
However, you can maximize your extracted profit by placing your free bets at high odds, which will account for the fact that the free bet stake isn’t returned.
What You Have To Keep In Mind
The good thing about this bonus bets trick is that you will be able to save a considerable portion of the bonus with minimal or almost no risk. It is wise to keep in mind that there could be instances where things could go wrong.
For instance, there is a chance of making an error when you are entering your bonus bets. This means that you should triple check to make sure the entries are all right. For example, you could accidentally bet on Arsenal win with both accounts. You could also place a bet of more money than you wanted even with a risk-free bonus transfer.
Some bookmakers have different rules for repayments in the instances where the games are canceled. Betting on football leagues is much better because cancellations are rare and therefore the rules tend to be very consistent.
However, in tennis, things are different. This is why you need to be very familiar with the specific rules of the bookmakers before placing your bonus bets to avoid any surprises.
Conclusion
It is always crucial to always note the exchange liability figures. The exchange liability is the amount you stand to lose from your betting account in the event that your lay bet loses. It is clear that the higher the odds, the more cash you need in your betting account to place the lay bet.
There may be occasions where you won’t quite have enough exchange funds to go for the highest and most profitable option. There is no mistake in placing the bets on outcomes that have smaller exchange liability; you will still make a more modest profit.
Laying your outcomes on your betting platforms is the key to successfully getting and cashing out your bonus bet. When you lay, you are betting on something that’s not to happen. For instance, if you were to lay on Manchester United in the 2017/18 Premier League, you are not betting on it not to win, you will only lose your stake if Manchester United did win.
In the bookmaking world, you can effectively lay across other bookies if you don’t want to be restricted to one account. For example, in a Win-Draw-Win game, you can use your bonus bet on a single option and then cover the other two on different platforms.
You can read the full article via BetterBets
|
https://medium.com/@support_16046/the-complete-guide-to-bonus-bets-e6e973658a4e
|
['Virgil Townsend']
|
2017-12-23 01:56:57.626000+00:00
|
['Football', 'Betting', 'Betting Tips', 'Csgo', 'Sports Betting']
|
Raycom Media Camellia Bowl
|
The final bowl this Saturday night is the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in Alabama. It features two teams from not too far away, in Middle Tennessee and Arkansas St.
The line on this game opened Arkansas St -3.5 and 62.5 (most widely available lines). And really, they haven’t moved much. The hook is gone and Ark St -3 is widely available, while the total has come down a touch as 60.5 is the current total.
In previous previews, like this one for the New Mexico Bowl, its worked best to start the handicapping process by looking at what kind of points the teams should be expected to score and allow based on the opponents they have played through out the year. The comparison for these two teams looks like this:
This chart explains that there is value on the Arkansas St line despite where the line is moving. The line should be Arkansas St -9.5. Much like the injury concerns that were described in the Oregon-Boise bowl matchup, here, injury concerns mar this line. MTST has a dynamic quarterback (at least for the Group of 5 conferences), Brent Stockstill, who has spent much of the season injured. If you isolate just the last four games on MTST’s schedule though, you’ll see a 3–1 record where they scored over 30 points each time. Those kind of numbers don’t work with the projections above.
What about yards per play? Well, that metric is going to suffer from the same kind of mis-leading results.
Even despite the injury concerns for MTST’s qb, this measurement still shows value on MTST. Confused yet?
These efficiency stats don’t show a huge disparity either, especially considering the quarterback issue. If anything that should point even more in MTST’s favour.
Ark. St definitely has the advantage in defensive stats. Can Stockstill over come that?
This total has been coming down and the bet here is that Ark St is going to get their 30 points and MTST is going to outperform their metrics with Stockstill under centre. First total of the bowl season….
ArkSt/MTST o60.5,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/raycom-media-camellia-bowl-a59b9cc82013
|
[]
|
2017-12-16 21:26:34.421000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Patriots vs Dolphins Free Monday Night Football Pick, 12–11–2017
|
Free NFL Spread Pick by Chris Coleman of ATS Experts
New England Patriots (10–2) vs Miami Dolphins (5–7)
Date: December 11th, 2017
Game Time: 8:30 pm
NFL Odds: Dolphins +11, 48
A pair of AFC East teams squares off on Monday Night Football in South Beath when the New England Patriots travel south to take on the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots are (8–4 ATS) and (6–0 SU) on the road while the Dolphins are (4–6–2 ATS) and (3–3 SU) at home.
The Patriots are looking to wrap up their 9th straight AFC East title but they will have to do it without Rob Gronkowski. Gronk was suspended for a late hit on Buffalo rookie cornerback Tre’Davious White last week but the Patriots won the game 23–3. The Patriots defense was the story in this game, holding the Bills to just 85 passing yards.
On the season, New England is averaging 413.2 yards per game (1st), 292.6 passing yards (1st) and 120.6 rushing yards (9th). They are allowing 375.7 yards per game (28th), 254.9 passing yards (29th) and 120.8 rushing yards (26th) with just 18.6 points per game allowed (9th).
Tom Brady has 11 touchdown passes and one interception in his last four games versus Miami.
On the other side of this matchup is the Miami Dolphins who have had a disappointing season, but finally got back onto the winning track in their last game. The offense got clicking, and the defense stepped up against a very bad Broncos offense and that led to a 35–9 victory. Prior to their win vs Denver, they had lost five games in a row, mostly because of the defensive struggles.
Miami has struggled under the bright lights this season, losing all three prime-time matchups and getting outscored 112–45.
Once again, the question is whether or not any team can beat New England? Sure, this is a division game and the Patriots will be without Gronk but it’s next man up for this team. I just don’t see how Miami can cover even this large of a spread at home? Brady didn’t have a good performance last week in Buffalo so I fully expect him to bounce back. I’ll lay the -11 points and back the Patriots en route to another AFC East division title.
Patriots vs Dolphins Pick: Patriots -11
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/patriots-vs-dolphins-free-monday-night-football-pick-12-11-2017-b9e2b8700a0c
|
['Ats Experts', 'Sports Professionals Network']
|
2017-12-11 14:02:37.348000+00:00
|
['NFL', 'New England Patriots', 'Miami Dolphins', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
|
How to Bet Away Your Christmas Money
|
How to Bet Away Your Christmas Money
Addendum — Soccer ELO: The Rebuild, Part 3.5
Let’s say I received $100 in Christmas money from my family. What better way to say thanks than to throw it all away at the betting house on Boxing Day?!?!
Okay, invest it all away at the betting house.
Investments, in a way, are just like bets. They each have a certain expected level of return and within them hold an expected level of risk. The only difference, of course, is that betting houses are notoriously (or at least explicitly) more volatile.
DISCLAIMER: I AM NEITHER AN INVESTING NOR A BETTING PROFESSIONAL. I DON’T KNOW IF THERE’S A LICENCE TO GIVE OUT THIS ADVICE AND IF THERE IS, I DON’T HAVE IT. YOU ARE BETTING ON YOUR OWN VOLITION AND I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR FINANCIAL DECISIONS.
If we assume Boxing Day ELO and Bovada Odds (from part 3) are independently distributed, we can develop the following model based on the expected level of risk (standard deviation) and expected return (expected value):
Expected Return is the weighted average return from the market given all the results (i.e., an odds-inflated win and the loss of your bet, weighted by the ELO probability). Standard Deviation on Returns measures the fluctuation of each outcome from the expected return, weighted by its ELO probability. Here’s the Investopedia article I used as a refresher. It’s good.
Obviously, we want to maximize return and minimize risk. By mapping it out on the graph above, one can clearly see that the results make the shape of a wave on the chart. The border of this wave is called the efficient frontier, the maximum point for returns at a given level of risk and for risk at a given level of returns. Investors can decide which level of return fits their risk appetite.
This also cancels out some of the dumber value bets I wrote about in the last part. Hey, I never said I was perfect.
Betting on the Border
So if we’re betting on this efficient frontier, trying to minimize the most risk on this quadrant, and eschewing the over-complicated matrix algebra associated with finding optimal asset allocations of 30 values (my finance class stopped at two assets), we have the following bets upon which I’m willing to throw down my hard-begged-for $100:
$30: Watford Win
$30: Burnley Win
$20: Chelsea Win
$10: Draw Manchester United/Sunderland
$10: Liverpool Win
It seems the odds have changed slightly, per the betting slip:
Draw between MUFC and Sunderland.
But as I’ve decided to stay on the convex crest of the efficient frontier, aka the betting tsunami, and aside from rooting for David Moyes to make it out of the Nissan factory, I’ll keep to a risk-timid appetite. Just for starters.
Full Table below if you’d like to try and make your own decisions (this is off of the 22 December odds, however). Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!
EDIT: Assessing Results
Let’s just casually ignore that these matches happened months ago for now.
My five bets performed as follows:
```Watford 1–1 Palace: Bet Watford, $30 LOSS
MUFC 3–1 Sunderland: Bet Draw, $10 LOSS
Chelsea 3–0 Bournemouth: Bet Chelsea, $27.27 WIN
Burnley 1–0 Middlesbrough: Bet Burnley, $87 WIN
Liverpool 4–1 Stoke City: Bet Liverpool, $12.67 WIN
Total Win: $87 + 27.27 + 12.67 = $121.94
Total Loss: -$30 -$10 = -$40
Total Value = $81.94```
While the expected portfolio value is down from the $100 I started, the volatile standard deviation allowed me to realize a 20%+ return on investment.
^ This sentence, on its own merits, should explain why no one should ever treat sports betting like an investment. But a win is a win!
|
https://medium.com/@mattbarger/how-to-bet-away-your-christmas-money-c5f8f2a8c6ed
|
['Matt Barger']
|
2018-07-12 13:59:14.411000+00:00
|
['Soccer', 'Football', 'Premier League', 'Sports Betting', 'Analytics']
|
Sun Bowl (post fact)
|
Sun Bowl (post fact)
The second bowl on Friday is the Sun Bowl between North Carolina St and Arizona St.
The line on this game opened NCST -5 and it has entered the biggest key number and landed on NCST -7.
What to make of these two teams? NCST was supposed to be a really good team pre-season but, they of course disappointed as usual. ASU has fired their coach and hired…. Herm Edwards? Yet, the fired head coach is staying on to coach this game. Figure that out.
As far as comparing stats, there is not a whole lot to separate the teams. Starting with expected points scored and expected points allowed, you’ll see that NCST should be favored but, probably not by 7 points.
The margin on yards per play is not large. It looks like the line is about right, and much like expected points, there is probably a tiny bit of value on ASU.
Both spread projections look like there is a little ASU value, what about efficiency stats? Well, the teams are largely the same.
On third down these teams are essentially the same. In the red zone, they are polar opposites. On defense, while NCST stops teams more frequently Texas AM looks like they get to the qb a little bit more.
There is not a lot to choose from here. Most people in this case would take the 7 points with the dog. But, with ASU’s weird coaching situation how can you do that? Wait and see if NCST shows up to play and maybe grab them live if they get below a td. Or watch the hockey game.
No play,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/sun-bowl-post-fact-e07b4c042637
|
[]
|
2017-12-29 20:51:11.926000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Christmas Day NBA Fantasy Preview
|
One of the best days of basketball returns, Christmas Day! 5 ripping games, lets get into it.
Best plays
Eric Bledsoe ($5.6K on DK)- Love an underpriced bledsoe here. Miami, despite being a strong defensive team, often leak points to guards, plus Bledsoe looked great in his first Pelicans game. Love him here.
Projected points- 31
Bam Adebayo ($7.8k on DK)- The 7 TOs in game 1 keep Bams price down here, but what I love about the turnovers is it shows how much they’re running things through him. Butler is questionable too, so if he’s out, give Bam another bump up.
Projected score- 45
Maxi Kleber ($3.5K on DK)- At close to the minimum, Kleber is always a great play with Porzingis out. Should play 25+ minutes again and at this low salary is a must have for me.
Projected score- 21
My player pool
Paul Millsap ($4.9K on DK)- Was very nearly in the must plays for me. Looks like he still has his 30 minute a night role and can easily return value at this low buying point. Projected score- 28
Jaylen Brown ($7K on DK)- Another guy in most of my line ups. Should be a very up tempo game V the nets, which always bodes well for fantasy output. Projected score- 38
Goran Dragic ($5.3K on DK)- This is a great matchup for fantasy V the pelicans, in what should be a high scoring affair. Like Bam, give him a bump if Jimmy is out too. Projected score- 29
Luka Doncic ($10.7K on DK)- Like on Thursday, my two big dollar guys will be Luka and Giannis. Despite being a strong team, Luka tends to put up huge numbers V the lakers and I look for him to do that again here.
Projected score- 60
Tyler Herro ($5.6K on DK)- Continuing with this Heat Pels matchup. Another guys who benefits from this high tempo game.
Projected score- 30
Dorian Finney Smith ($4.8K on DK)- Should get plenty of minutes as usual at at this price point is worth a play for me.
Projected score- 24
Donte Divencenzo ($4.7K on DK)- Loved him coming into the season and was really impressed with his first game and role on the team.
Projected score- 24
Giannis ($10.9K on DK)- As mentioned before, Giannis and Doncic are where I’m spending my money tonight. Think one of the two will be the top scoring player on the slate.
Projected score- 60
Jeff Teague ($4.2K on DK)- Has a nice role with Kemba out and whilst I will only have him in a few lineups, he’s a decent value play.
Projected score- 22
Khris Middleton and Jimmy Butler- Butler as mentioned comes in questionable, but I think both of these guys can be worth it, both in good matchups.
Good luck and enjoy the fantastic games the NBA has put on for Christmas Day!
|
https://medium.com/fantasy-basketball-daily/christmas-day-nba-fantasy-preview-eac58ed8c259
|
['Jayden Desmond']
|
2020-12-25 10:05:52.251000+00:00
|
['NBA', 'DraftKings', 'Fantasy Sports', 'Basketball', 'Sports Betting']
|
Independence Bowl
|
Independence Bowl
The first bowl on a busy Wednesday for bowl season is the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. The combatants are Southern Mississippi and Florida St.
The line for this game opened FSU -14.5 and has ticked up to -15 and back down this morning to -14.5. The total has dropped from 50.5 to 49.
FSU has been a hard team to read this year as they lost their star qb and basically their season in the opening game of the year against Alabama. It sure seems like they never recovered, going 3–6, until reeling off 3 straight wins to end the year (including a hastily scheduled make-up game with ULM to qualify for the post-season). So, their stats, at last offensively, have to be taken with a grain of salt as they were never playing with what they envisioned.
The first comparison, as always to set the line, is the expected points scored and expected points allowed.
This shows that both teams struggle to score based on what their opponents usually give up, S.Miss 1 point less and FSU almost 3 points less. FSU however, does a great job of limiting their opponents, giving up 6.5 points less than they could be expected to. The bottom line though, is that this line, based on these numbers, should be a pick’em.
Yards per play also shows massive value on S.Mississippi. 17 points of value is the highest yet during the bowl season (this metric was great through the first 10 or 12 bowls but, as anyone who was reading yesterday knows, it was not helpful at all. All three favorites gave up massive value in yards per play and all covered pretty handidly).
Defensive and efficiency stats have been put together into one graphic here because none of them show any real difference between the teams except red zone defense. S.Miss has a decent 7% advantage at stopping teams in the red zone — the rest of the stats are almost identical.
There is huge disparity in strength of schedule, in fact, the biggest one that will be seen in bowl season, #11 vs #116. So, that makes it really hard to discern anything from these stats. As far as how motivated these teams will be to attend this bowl, you would have to imagine S.Mississippi is excited. True, its their third straight season being invited to a mid-tier bowl but, they won three straight games to end the season and while they went 0–2 against Power 5 schools this year they kept both games close (losing 24–17 to Kentucky and 24–10 to Tennessee on the road). Additionally, they beat Kentucky last year, in Kentucky. They should be pumped for the task of beating a Power 5 school in a bowl game. C-USA schools are 4–4 in bowl season but, this is only shot anyone has had a Power 5 school.
Florida St on the other hand underwent a rough season, as previously mentioned losing their star qb in the opener. They went 6–6 and had to run the table on the last three games to do so. Those last three games might be what some FSU backers today will point to as to why they are taking FSU. But, those wins included a DII school, a Florida Gators team that had obviously quit on the season and a make-up game against a 4–7 Sun Belt team that you can guess didn’t want to be there. Will their players be motivated to win this for their interim coach? Will they be motivated for new in-coming coach Willie Taggart? Will they care about playing in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, something they could not have expected in August? All super hard questions to answer. A hot take might be, that they won’t care. Look at this injury report….
Look at all those injuries. And look at how many of them have just “left” the team. They include star defensive end Josh Sweat and star defensive back Derwin James. A full one third of the yards FSU created tackling for a loss is sitting this game out due to injury or draft preparation.
The hope here is S.Miss cares more and remembers they don’t have to win, they just can’t lose by more than two td’s. Not faking punts from inside their own 20 like the Huskies last night will be a big head-start. Also, freshman replacement qb James Blackman throws interceptions like candy canes a Christmas parade so, he should help keep S.Mississippi in it.
S.Miss +14.5,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/independence-bowl-cc8a06e52a8c
|
[]
|
2017-12-27 16:15:38.523000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs Texas A&M Aggies: Free Belk Bowl Pick, 12–29–2017
|
Wake Forest Demon Deacons (7–5) vs Texas A&M Aggies (7–5)
Date: December 29th, 2017
Game Time: 1:00 pm
NCAAF Odds: Texas A&M +3, 65.5
Free Bowl Pick by ATS Expert Carmine Luzetti
The ACC and SEC will clash Friday in the 2017 Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC as the Wake Forest Demon Deacons take on the Texas A&M Aggies. Both teams were 7–5 on the season but they both were good against the number: WF (8–3–1 ATS) / A&M (7–4–1 ATS). Oddsmakers have the Demon Deacons as -3 point favorites with the Total set at 65.5 at the time of this writing.
The Demon Deacons won their first four games but then lost their next three against quality ACC teams in Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. The final five games got the fan base excited for next year posting a 3–2 record with wins over Louisville, Syracuse, and NC State. A big reason for the Demon Deacons success this season was their senior signal-caller, John Wolford. Wolford earned second-team All-ACC recognition after leading the conference in passer rating (157.5), tying for first in touchdown passes (25) while throwing just six interceptions. Wolford and company should be able to make some things happen through the air against a Texas A&M defense that ranks near the bottom of the SEC (10th) against the pass.
The Texas A&M Aggies will be coached Jeff Banks for their Bowl with Kevin Sumlin gone and Jimbo Fisher set to take over the program after the game. The Aggies grew impatient with Sumlin as they have not surpassed 8 wins since the 2013–14 season, which was the last time they won a bowl game. A&M has a history of starting off the season winning football games but losing traction when they enter the heart of the SEC schedule down the stretch.
Thanks to injuries, Texas A&M has used three different quarterbacks this season. The Aggies are 65th in the FBS in passing offense with 230.6 yards per game and stand 74th in rushing with 159 yards per contest. Texas A&M is 43rd in the FBS in scoring offense with 31.1 points per contest and 81st in scoring defense as they allow 28.7 points per game.
As with any bowl game, the biggest question is which team wants it more? A&M may be playing for Jimbo Fisher and the future but the same can be said for Wake as a dark horse ACC team in 2018. The edge at quarterback goes to John Wolford at Wake and the Demon Deacons are 4–0 ATS in their last 4 bowl games. I just don’t know which team we will see from the Aggies and it’s typically tough for teams and players to play in a bowl game after their head coach is fired. I think Wake Forest has more motivation to win this game and they are playing closer to home in Charlotte which should equate to more fan support.
Free Belk Bowl Pick: Wake Forest -3
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/wake-forest-demon-deacons-vs-texas-a-m-aggies-free-belk-bowl-pick-12-29-2017-e7c069083d88
|
['Ats Experts', 'Sports Professionals Network']
|
2017-12-29 13:00:49.783000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'College Football', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling', 'NCAAF']
|
Pin Stripe Bowl
|
Let’s first start with an apology and explanation. The last write up, for the Independence Bowl taking place right now, showed and discussed a line of +14.5 for S.Miss that was already +13.5 by the time the article was published. This is the first time that has happened and it is obviously not the intent to give out advice based on stale lines. These write ups take about 30–45 minutes to turn the stats and notes into a polished presentation. The number dropped in that 30 minutes. Lesson learned, will double check before publishing moving forward.
The next bowl today is the Pin Stripe Bowl. This year features a return participant in Boston College Eagles. They are facing their third straight Big Ten bowl opponent in the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The lines for this game have not really moved. They opened Iowa -3 with a total of 46.5. That 3 is still available while the total has dropped to 45.
These teams are a fairly close match and run very similar styles. The stats bear this out.
The expected points scored and allowed show that both teams do a great job of allowing far less than could be expected but, Iowa has the advantage in scoring more than expected. These numbers produce an expected spread of Iowa -6.
Looking at yards per play shows that the teams are almost even and that doesn’t bode well for BC as usually this metric leans heavily to the underdog.
According to this Iowa should be a -2.5 favorite, meaning there is only a half point of value on BC; just not that much for a three point dog.
The efficiency and defensive metrics don’t leave any room between the two teams either. No metric has more than a 5 point difference. Its hard to imagine either team pulling away here. Both teams also have a great ability to stop the explosive play on defense, ranking inside the top 40. Additionally, both have top 20 rated schedules furthering the similarities.
As far as motivation, Boston College should be pretty psyched to be here. They had their 4th winning season in Coach Addazio’s 5 seasons. This is the their 4th bowl and despite losing their first two under Addazio (one in OT to Penn St), they beat Maryland last year and should be pumped to defeat another Big Ten foe. BC won 5 of their last 6 games this season and scored more than 35 points in all five wins.
Iowa meanwhile has been to five straight bowls… and been blown out in all five. Its pretty hard to back a team as a favorite that has lost five straight bowl games AND lost to Purdue at home a month ago. Did Iowa peak after authoring one of the college football season’s biggest upsets vs Ohio St? The bet here is yes.
BC +3, -115,
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/pin-stripe-bowl-f2ba51d7a3ae
|
[]
|
2017-12-27 19:41:41.818000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl
|
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl
The bowl with everyone’s favorite name. Originally this bowl in St. Pete’s was the magicJack Bowl. While that name seems awesome it was certainly superseded by the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl. And that name was honestly good enough. Unbelievably that sponsorship has been upstaged again, this time by the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla moniker. This one may be impossible to beat as Gasparilla was really, truly a pirate. And how can you top that?
The line for this bowl opened Temple -7 with a total of 56. The line has stayed steady at Temple -7 but, the total has shifted up a bit to 57.5. While these teams have never faced, the CUSA and AAC conferences have some bowl history, even this year. The AAC is now 0–5, after Wednesday nights win by La Tech, versus CUSA teams in bowl games. Maybe a function of style? Or maybe a function of the AAC sending its lesser teams to these bowls and CUSA sending their best?
Let’s start, as always by looking at the expected points to be scored versus the expected points to be allowed for these two teams:
This chart explains that Temple is scoring a lot less than they should be expected to versus their schedule and FIU is giving up a lot more points than they should be expected to versus their schedule. As a whole these numbers show that these two teams are essentially equal. This comparison method suggests a fair spread would actually be FIU -1, pointing to huge value on the Golden Panthers.
The yards per play metric doesn’t do Temple any favours either.
This metric again shows that there is not much between the two teams and that the spread should be closer to Temple -1.5. That means there is about 5.5 points of value on FIU. As pointed out yesterday in the Frisco Bowl preview teams with that kind of YPP value have, not only all covered as dogs but, have all actually won outright; La Tech continued that trend with a smoke show last night (although the game never went over the total despite FIFTY TWO [52] points at the half!!!!!!!!!!, so apologies there to anyone who bet that).
Digger a little deeper and looking at the red zone and 3rd down numbers doesn’t really change the picture for the Temple Owls.
These teams have super close 3rd down numbers on both offense and defense, in fact they are almost exactly the same. Where these is a huge disparity is in red zone offense. When FIU gets inside the 20 yard line… they score (2nd best percentage in the country). FIU also has a small advantage in holding their opponents off the board as well, 77% to 81%.
The last set of numbers these previews have generally looked at are kind of messy in this match-up. There is no discernible line of thinking.
Temple sacks the qb at a much better rate yet FIU is much more proficient at getting in to the backfield and tackling for a loss. This is probably caused by Temple having two star defensive lineman who sack the qb a ton but, a defense as a whole who can’t get into the backfield — Temple is one of only three teams in the country to have multiple players in the top 30 in sacks (USC and TCU would be the others). If FIU can slow down those two monsters they may be able to win the field possession battle.
While the numbers game sure points heavily to FIU there are some intangibles to consider. One is injury concerns. FIU will probably be without WR Thomas Owens and he could be the best player (to his team) to miss a bowl so far this year. He was their leading receiver by a mile (887 yards receiving and 6 TDs, the next best player on their roster had 294 and 3) and it is hard to not want to downgrade their amazing red zone stats in his absence. Another point to consider against FIU is that they played one of the worst schedules in the nation and this match-up actually gives us the biggest strength of schedule disparity of the bowl season so far, 77 to 118.
As far as motivation goes, neither coaching staff is going anywhere as they are both in their first season. Both teams should be fairly excited to be here: despite this being Temple’s fourth minor bowl in a row, they did have to go 3–1 down the stretch and under-go a qb change to qualify for the post-season, while FIU, although they were already qualified at 6–4, won their last two games in a smashingly decisive way scoring 41 and 63 points on their way to an 8–4 record. Butch Davis should have these kids riled right up as they are in position to set the school record for wins and this will be the schools first bowl since 2011.
A lot of things are pointing at FIU and while they may not win, they should keep it close despite the massive difference in schedule strength.
FIU +7,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/bad-boy-mowers-gasparilla-bowl-7e2dead3a56a
|
[]
|
2017-12-21 15:14:07.014000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Dollar General Bowl
|
Dollar General Bowl
The Dollar General Bowl is the last of three bowls on Saturday. It features Toledo and Appalachian State.
The line for this game opened Toledo -8 with a line of 62.5. The total hasn’t really moved, its ticked down to 61.5. The spread has dropped through a pretty key number and now sits at -6.5.
The stats for this game show two pretty similar teams.
Both teams are going to score but, the spread should be closer to Toledo -4. This is in line with the market being driven down to -6.5.
Yards per play show 3.5 points of value on App St. This is the kind of number to be looking for if the bet is going to be on the dog. Teams with that kind of value have been undefeated in this bowl season (other than FIU, who suffered a qb injury on the third play of the game).
When it comes to some of the deeper stats, these teams continue to look almost identical.
Looking at the defensive stats adds to the value on App St that showed up in the yards per play.
App St has pretty healthy advantage in sack rate and tackling for a loss.
This bowl game is truly an oddity. It is a re-match of a bowl game last year! These two teams played in the Camellia Bowl where App St prevailed 31–28. This is the third straight year for App St in a bowl and it’s hard to say how pumped they will be for this match-up. Toledo on the other should be motivated to avenge last years bowl loss. Additionally, Toledo is coming off a pretty good season where they went 11–2 and won the MAC title.
Too hard to pick a winner here. The motivation should push Toledo but, the stats kind of point to App St. The total looks appealing though. Toledo scored over 30 points ten times this season, while App St went over 30 points 6 times. Here’s hopping these teams light it up like Manchester City and the DeSilva Magician did today.
App St/Toledo o61.5,
Good Luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/dollar-general-bowl-7208c5dfd7c4
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[]
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2017-12-23 23:57:00.645000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Seattle Seahawks vs Dallas Cowboys Free NFL Spread Pick, 12–24–2017
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Seattle Seahawks vs Dallas Cowboys Free NFL Spread Pick, 12–24–2017
Free NFL Pick by Frank Moone of King Sports Picks
Seattle Seahawks (8–6) vs Dallas Cowboys (8–6)
NFL: Sunday, December 24, 4:25 PM EST
Line: Cowboys -5, O/U 47
Last Meeting: 11/1/15 SEA 13 DAL 12
Trends:
Seahawks are 9–3–1 ATS in their last 13 games following a SU loss
Cowboys are 1–5 ATS vs. a team with a winning record
Underdog is 4–0 ATS in their last 4 meetings
At the beginning of the season, this matchup would have been circled as one of the top NFL games to watch in 2017. Circumstances have shifted a bit and while we’re not watching this game to see which team gets the #1 seed in the NFC, but these teams are fighting for a playoff spot. The Seattle Seahawks travel to AT&T Stadium to take on the Dallas Cowboys. Both teams enter this contest with an 8–6 record and both teams are in dire need of a win.
After beating Philadelphia three weeks ago in an impressive, dominant win over the top team in the NFC the Seahawks have tapered off the last two weeks. Seattle has lost two straight games to the Jaguars and Rams, two very good playoff bound teams but they were run out of their building last week vs the Rams.
Dallas will get a shot in the arm as they welcome back All-Pro running back, Ezekiel Elliott fresh off his six-game suspension. If Dallas can seize control on the ground in the first couple of offensive series than it figures to be a nice first game back for Elliott and another long afternoon for Seattle’s defense. Dak Prescott has had his ups and downs since ‘Zeke’s departure but the pressure will be lessened if the Cowboys can establish the run game. Dallas has won three straight games vs three non-playoff contenders, however, two of the three wins were convincing enough to prove they could win out and clinch a wild card.
Offensive line play figures to be a significant factor in this one, as the Seahawks need to keep Russell Wilson upright and find some way to run the ball. Meanwhile, the Cowboys may be without their All-Pro left tackle, Tyron Smith. Considering the Cowboys are getting Elliott back with fresh legs and not off an injury will be a big boost for this offense. This team was built around the run and you can bet they will give Elliott as many reps as he can handle. I expect this to be a close game with both teams fighting for their playoff lives. Take the Seahawks and points.
Seahawks vs Cowboys FREE Pick: Seahawks +5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/seattle-seahawks-vs-dallas-cowboys-free-nfl-spread-pick-12-24-2017-f8dc096c6b69
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['Vc Sports Monitor']
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2017-12-24 12:01:52.474000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Dallas Cowboys', 'Seattle Seahawks', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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Birmingham Bowl
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Birmingham Bowl
Saturday marks a day of less than remarkable bowl match-ups. The first one is the Birmingham Bowl pitting the USF Bulls against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The line on this bowl opened USF -2, moved up to -3 and trending back down on game day. -2 is widely available and some -1.5 is starting to appear. The total is also moving on game day; it opened 67 and moved down to 65.5 but, has bounced back to 66 this morning.
The expected points scored and expected points allowed is usually the best place to start as it gives an idea of how the teams performed against such different competition, giving us a base line to start comparing them.
This shows a lot of love for USF. This is by far the biggest spread this method has produced in the bowls so far. It is also the biggest discrepancy in comparison to the bookmakers lines in the bowl season to this point.
The yards per play comparison also backs up the love for USF.
This is the first time there’s been a favorite with a yards per play advantage big enough to show value on them. And 4 points is no small amount of value.
Digging a little deeper shows that the offensive and defensive numbers don’t help the case for Texas Tech that much at all either.
USF has a decent advantage when it comes to stopping teams on 3rd down. And USF scores a ton more in the red zone.
The defensive metrics also weigh heavily in USF’s favour. These are massive differences. Everything is pointing USF’s way.
The Bahamas Bowl preview had a very similar feel. A lot of things favored Ohio but, the motivation felt like it would be heavily in UAB’s corner. That turned out to be spectacularly wrong. The situation with the strength of schedule is kind of similar though — UAB had the worst schedule in the nation and in this case USF is coming in with the 90th ranked schedule while TTU has the 30th ranked schedule. That is just such a huge difference that it throws a lot of the statistical advantages into question. And while USF had a disappointing end to the season and maybe didn’t see this bowl in their future, Texas Tech had to come back in the 4th quarter of their last game to get to 6 wins and earn this invite. Whatever the opinion is of Texas Tech’s coach in the media, it would seem the players want him there are willing to play for him.
There are a ton of bowl games and this time of year every Johnny, Jimmy and Joe wants to bet on every single one of them. But, if you’re a Jimmy in Florida today, its probably best to sit this one out and go to the dogtrack instead.
No play,
Good luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/birmingham-bowl-d2508d4e5897
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[]
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2017-12-23 16:26:40.621000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Basic Tips on Making Great Profits by Sports Bet
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Sports having a bet or sports gambling whichever way you want to call it, has been round probable seeing that the start of organized expert sports activities. And there is a purpose why people are so keen approximately betting on sports. That’s as it can pay.
Do you need to earn a few first-rate earnings whilst getting concerned in something you’re very captivated with? Whatever your recreation is, be it soccer, basketball or baseball; making a bet on sports can deliver to your cash you never concept you could earn just by means of following your favorite team!
But I must remind you that it isn’t always easy. It isn’t always an easy walk in the park as they frequently say. Betting on sports calls for extra than instinct or intestine sense (and consider, maximum bettors depend on these every time they vicinity their bets!). Perhaps chiefly, you actually need to be passionate about it, especially on the sports of your desire. You will, must sincerely study the sport, analyze the inner stuff, recognize each cog that makes your specific game run nicely. Only by having such bold information can you gain real gain over the alternative bettors.
Now I even have prepared a short but powerful listing of tips that I constantly hand out to anyone who wants to get started on betting on sports. These are really pretty primary hints and recommendations however will prove to be sufficient for any novice.
1. Bet only on groups and sports which you love. Whether you need to wager on shall we embrace the NFL or NCAA, anything your league of preference can be, the crucial component is you select a crew and sports activities you are very passionate of. Passion is the key right here, and I don’t suppose I can overemphasize it sufficient. When you’re obsessed on a crew, you will be keen and greater creative on getting to know more about them, their stats and cutting-edge situations. Knowledge about your team and sports is vital on each wager that you may make.
2. Stick to what works for you. Every guess and each sport has some of making a bet structures or routines. Even each bettor has his personal device on every occasion he bets. Through time, you’ll examine and perhaps create your own system. When you in the end have a prevailing way, stick to it. You can deviate from it every occasionally however the essential element is that with major bets, you need to always follow your own attempted and tested approaches.
3. You should make your self a professional to your game. Not just with data, you need to study the fine details, the regulations and guidelines, the entirety that makes your game tick. You ought to know a fantastic cope with each participant of your team. Is the celebrity player presently in perfect playing condition? What is the general morale of the group? Is the teach on the verge of having fired? These are bits and pieces of information which might be vital in helping you to make the proper decisions each time you are betting on sports.
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https://medium.com/@t20iplindia2/basic-tips-on-making-great-profits-by-sports-bet-a08f5ad5c75c
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[]
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2020-12-31 07:26:29.473000+00:00
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['Sportsbetting']
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Artificial intelligence in iGaming & Betting industry
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Why is this important?
Hi,
My name is Aleksandar Aleksandrov and I am the founder of Football Chat AI. It’s a mobile app for predicting football scores using machine learning.
I am the sole developer of the scores betting predicting algorithm and have overseen the full project growth and acquisition of new users.
My work consists mostly analyzing the history data and see how that impacts the future prediction of a game score. To do this I use charting, drawing learning curves or sometimes simple just trying and measuring how things are.
Couple of weeks ago I attended a panel discussion in Sofia about how much AI will impact on gaming technology, and what can we possibly do using AI. Here is what I have managed to record on this panel discussion and what I wanted to share with you:
Why is artificial intelligence important for iGaming?
AI is very important for iGaming. Any industry where you have lots of history data that is relevant to a future outcome and can be used to predict the future outcome using Machine Learning and AI.
We are currently already seeing lots of startups and companies that are working hard to give the betting companies this tools at their disposal. Using this tools they can give better odds in their favor and earn more money. On the other hand there are none that give this information to the users. That is why we have created Football Chat AI, the first app that will give the users the prediction power at their disposal, which is now free for a limited time only and can be downloaded from:
Play Store: FootballchatAI
App Store: FootballchatAI
The Artificial Intelligence will have an impact on the risk management systems? it will be positive or negative?
It will be different. I can’t say will it be positive or negative, but I am certain things will change. AI is something that is coming and the early adopters will reap the most benefits. So at first I think we will see a trend of improved risk management systems which would bring even more stable systems and more money to the betting shops.
But after that people will start using their own AI systems which in the end will come down to a place of balance, something similar to what we have now.
Artificial Intelligence would attract more players?
Definitively. Imagine a sport betting app that tells the betting users:
“Our AI thinks that this team might play a poor game today based on rainy weather, place your bet now and reap the benefits.”
That will surely drive more bets. On the other hand a lot of people currently are not betting because they think they have to be football experts to bet. But if they have an AI friend who suggests what to bet on that would certainly help them. In the end the bet will still be theirs but they will have a lot more info on what to bet on.
Can an Artificial Intelligence improve the betting chances of a user?
Yes it can. The interesting thing about the Ai is that it can get a user to really close to making a winning bet even if he doesn’t know anything about that league. Like past games, shots on target, and so on. We have found that using the AI a user can almost always get to a point where he can win the bet or get really close and lose by only one game. That kind of quality is something that would make the users play even more and eventually win.
Artificial Intelligence in gambling will be accepted on the future?
I think it will become standard in 5 years from now. But it will not be in the form we all imagine it. It will mostly be as it is now, a lot of little Machine Learning tools are showing all over the industry. Currently there are lots of companies and they are investing and improving the Risk Management, Betting Odds.
In 5 years from now I believe we will have a gambling chat assistant friend who will suggest what to bet on, similar to Siri. This is something we have envisioned for Football Chat AI as well. Right now we give predictions on who will be the winner of a particular game, and make a user selection of the games. But soon the AI will pick the full ticket for the users.
Prior to Football Chat, I have worked for several companies on developing their web and mobile solutions. My specialities are in mobile development using Ionic and Cordova. Before that I was the founder of ilovethismusic.com a website for searching music based on keywords.
I hold a Bachelor's degree on Internet and Mobile technologies from Univerzitet ‘Sv. Kiril i Metodij’ from Skopje.
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https://medium.com/@scorechat/what-is-football-chat-ai-and-who-we-are-65e3ee84ebf8
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['Football Score Chat']
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2018-03-22 14:42:37.605000+00:00
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['Artificial Intelligence', 'Football', 'Apps', 'Betting Tips', 'Sports Betting']
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Forget Bitcoin. Stop Gambling and Start Trading Today!
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Forget Bitcoin. Stop Gambling and Start Trading Today!
Bitcoin is a hot topic these days. The cryptocurrency that previously held almost no value whatsoever is now the most valuable digital commodity on Earth. With 1 bitcoin priced at nearly £13,000, it’s quite understandable why people want to invest in it. And as we speak, bitcoin value just keeps rising.
But Bitcoin is also very volatile.
What this means is you never know if the price is going up or down. It’s impossible to tell with certainty what would happen to bitcoin’s value in the next few minutes, hours, or days.
Yes, you do have the potential to make a windfall profit, or in simple words a lot of money in a short time. But then again, you equally have the potential to lose all you invested. The Bitcoin bubble is due to burst any time soon, and if that happens, every Bitcoin investor will go home with a huge frown.
Now you may be thinking, “is there an alternative?” Good news for you is yes, there is one.
Trading in greyhound racing does not carry as much risk as Bitcoin does.
It’s actually a technical matter, just like any other sport. There are stats to watch out for in each greyhound, for example. Each race’s outcome is affected by current weather conditions, track conditions, and others. Knowing how all these stats affect each race will allow you to make better choices. In turn, you’ll win more of your bets.
Once you master these winning strategies, you can win consistently in any race.
This will give you a lot more earning potential than investing in Bitcoin. Moreover, it carries much less risk. So if you’re concerned about where you put your money into, greyhound racing is certainly a good alternative.
And with a proven, well-researched system to help you, the more you shouldn’t worry. The Two Trap Greyhound System will equip you to win in the races each time, every time. With these consistent wins, your dream of making money from greyhound racing will finally come true.
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https://medium.com/@peterbrighttheone/forget-bitcoin-stop-gambling-and-start-trading-today-541e18d194fb
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['Peter Bright Mybiztips']
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2017-12-17 05:34:57.703000+00:00
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['Bitcoin', 'Sports Betting']
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Sports Betting from Your Phone — Mobile Bookmakers
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Sports Betting from Your Phone — Mobile Bookmakers
To place a bet from a portable gadget, you can use one of three main methods.
Log in from a mobile device to the regular desktop version of the bookmaker’s website. On the one hand, this is the easiest way to get into the bookmaker’s office. However, not all devices support the correct operation of all sports betting and online casino functions and services.
Go to the mobile version of the site. Most bookmakers have a mini-version of the site designed specifically for tablets and smartphones. Such sites work much faster than the desktop version, consume fewer resources, and at the same time allow you to use most of the functions of the main resource of the bookmaker’s office.
Install the mobile application. Many bookmakers develop applications for popular mobile operating systems. Please note that each system may require a separate program: an Android application will not run on iOS and vice versa.
Some bookmakers develop applications for all popular systems: Windows Mobile, Android, iOS. Others are limited to Apple or Android products, offering other users to use the mobile version of the portal.
Working with a mobile application
You can download the mobile sports APP (먹튀검증) on the official website of the bookmaker. Before installing any application, you must complete a number of procedures:
Go to the browser settings and go to the “Security. Open the “Administration” tab and check the box next to the “Unknown sources” group. After that, it becomes possible to install programs that are downloaded from the sites of bookmakers. The changes made must be confirmed by clicking the “Yes” button in the dialog box.
After that, you can install the application.
After installation, registration is performed, if it was not done earlier. When registering, you must fill out a standard questionnaire — indicate your last name, first name, contact information, select the game currency.
On the main page, you can select the tabs “Line”, “Live”, “Toto”, “Cyber football”, etc. If you would like to place your bet before the start of the match, see the offers in line. If you plan to bet in real-time, the “Live” section is at your service. Further — the standard procedure: the choice of sports discipline, tournament, match. A suitable outcome is chosen in the painting. Next, you need to enter the amount and complete the placement of the bet.
Benefits of Phone Betting
The main advantage of sports betting from a mobile phone is the ability to place bets anytime and anywhere: in a traffic jam, on a bus, in a canteen during lunch. Mobile sites and applications are especially popular among fans of real-time betting: you can sit in the stadium, watch the match, draw conclusions and place bets.
With the help of a mobile application or website, you can register at a bookmaker’s office, analyze a line, and place bets. Some bookmakers provide their customers with the ability to replenish their accounts from a mobile phone. Others are developing applications focused not only on mobile betting but also on other entertainment: virtual casinos, financial trading, etc.
The functionality of mobile applications and websites is slightly inferior to the desktop versions. At the same time, mini-sites surpass stationary versions in terms of speed, convenience, etc. And their content is quite enough for the vast majority of beginners and experienced players who rarely use all possible functions.
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https://medium.com/@ibuzzing/sports-betting-from-your-phone-mobile-bookmakers-d9e700fa5a41
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['Deepak Gupta']
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2020-12-25 15:46:53.075000+00:00
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['Sports Betting']
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Side-Hustle exploration: $18.8k bet on greyhounds
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If your anything like me, you’re always looking for a side hustle and you always have been! In this particular post I want to explore ‘wagering’ as a side hustle idea with the reader.
‘Gambling’ is something that’s always had a big influence on me and been pretty ingrained in my life. My late Dad’s passion was Harness Racing. He always owned a couple of race-horses at a time which meant I was around the ‘trots’ a decent amount in my childhood and we always lived on large properties in Mundijong and Serpentine (Western Australia) to accommodate them! As a side note I feel very fortunate to have grown up on these big properties where there was always plenty of space to run around and animals to interact with.
In terms of my introduction to gambling I’m not sure exactly how old I was (my guess would be ~8) but some of my fondest childhood memories are spending Friday nights at home with Dad where we would fire up Channel Access 31 and watch the Friday Night Glocuster Park trots in front of the fireplace. Dad would draw us both up a hypothetical $10k on a piece of paper and we would place paper bets on each race taking the odds given on the screen, recording results, and seeing who would end up richer (or broke) by the end of the night.
This was a lot of fun as we were both competitive, there often had to be a ludicrous bet placed on the last race for the person behind to try and win, and of course I remember taking Dad to the cleaners every week (maybe this is just selective memory).
As another side memory whenever we actually physically went to Glocuster Park Dad had taught me how to fill out the bet slips and would hand me cash before certain races, verbalise what bet he wanted placed and send me across the park to the TAB to get the action on while he continued drinking beers by the track with his mates. I think this was a bit of a party trick to show off to his friends as in no world should an 8 year old be able to get a bet on (definitely wouldn’t work nowadays!) but it worked at almost a 100% frequency and I loved it :)
Anyway before I side-track too much the point I wanted to make is my Dad never directly taught me how to be a ‘winning’ punter but I think these lessons in participation growing up were massively influential for me in terms of having a creative, sensible and analytical mind when it came to money. Even just very little and simple lessons like not putting the full 10k paper bankroll on race 1, and that there’s a reason a horse might be paying something lucrative like 60 to 1 etc.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m big on poker and have been for a number of years and while that activity is something I’ve put a decent amount of time and effort into over those years I don’t really bet on sports/greyhounds/horses and it isn’t something I’ve studied, so this might be an interesting look into someone who has had a ‘dabble’ only (a mere mortal!) in this arena. I think it could be interesting as most of this kind of ‘content’ I imagine would come from full blown horse betting professionals so it could be a more relatable perspective.
The story and the stats
I explored Greyhounds/Horse Race betting as serious side hustle from 13/06/2019 until 24/07/2019.
I made a total of 126 wagers during this time for a total $18,818.25 in bets placed and returned $24,079 for a net profit of $5260.75 throughout the period (see stats and graphs below). I should note that there is about ~$1300 of subscription costs not included in the below stats which means true profit is closer to about $4,000 over the 6 weeks.
How’s it done?
In terms of ‘complexity’ it’s somewhat simple when it comes to a side hustle. My strategy was to sign up for tipping services and simply just follow their advice to a tee. The services will tell you how much to put on (usually discussed in units of bankroll), what price you need to obtain the action on, and maybe even suggest which bookmaker to place the bet with.
I probably shouldn’t downplay the ‘complexity’ too much as there are a few important points -
You need to research the services and go through the results before you ultimately choose which ones to sign up to… all service providers are pretty transparent with their results (or at least should be/seem to be) and have all the data neatly available on how their specific tips are doing. For example something that I think to look out for is, I’ve come across services which may be in sustained downswings (consistently losing) over a long period of time but still might be receiving public sign ups as the service is correctly referred to as a ‘lifetime winner’. There’s nothing cloak and dagger about this, the results and data is there to openly and transparently read, you just have to take a deep look and make your own interpretations of it. You need to be in a position to act swiftly when the tips are sent to you… It’s actually quite fascinating to see but when the tips get sent out you can watch the market move and the prices drop almost straight away (within a minute). Therefore, you need to be able to act on the tips almost immediately when they are sent. Having the ‘right’ tip isn’t enough. The best service I was signed up to would alert customers at what time tips would be coming through which was great as you could get yourself prepared. You need to keep emotions in check. For this side hustle to work you need to trust and follow the services suggestions to a tee. Most relevant — the amount of units to risk and what price you need to obtain. Your emotions may influence you to ignore these suggestions in a number of ways but might include wanting to risk a bigger amount of units for a bigger return, or still wanting to get action on even if you’ve missed the required price etc. Simply ‘following instructions’ might seem like the simplest thing noted here but maintaining rationality to do so can be more challenging than it sounds. You need to be signed up at multiple bookmakers and have multiple accounts funded. Getting the right price as has been mentioned is one of the most important aspects for these services to be profitable over the long term. Naturally, prices on any specific market will be different across the bookmakers and you need to be able to get on at the bookmaker which has the best price available. When this is combined with point 2 mentioned above, not only is it important to have the account open where you can get the best price but for it to be funded to allow for the required swift action. You need to separate punting roll. While your suggested ‘start bank’ will be flexible and person/situation dependent it’s important that this roll is completely separate to any other of your life bankrolls and that you only have the suggested % or units of bankroll on per bet. Tipsters don’t win every bet they win over large sample sizes, therefore your bankroll needs to be both isolated and in good enough health to not only sustain the inevitable downswing or bad run but still be around to be able to participate and experience the inevitable upswing/good run. I will touch on this more below, but bookmakers will ban or restrict winning accounts (disgusting I know). Therefore, to do this ‘successfully’ and over a longer period of time you need to have some sort of strategy in place to delay detection. For eg if the tipping service is suggesting you ‘load up’ on a certain tip you are best to spread this bet across a few accounts as putting all of the big bet in 1 slip will no doubt increase likelihood of raising some sort of ‘flag’ on your account. Also if you’re only placing bets in some sort of ‘specialist’ or niche domain this will increase likelihood of swifter detection by the bookmaker so might be worthwhile to throw in a couple of small random ‘dummy’ bets on something random here and there. Bookmakers will keep you open if they think they’ll get their money back, they’ll close you down if they think they won’t (or lose more to you).
Why did I stop after July 24?
There are a few reasons why I stopped with this ‘dabble’ after 24/07/19.
Firstly, I was in a downswing. My betting tracker has my peak profit during the period at $7333.75 so with a final profit of $5260.75 this indicates a ~$2.1k downswing. If you factor in the flow of subscription costs too the true downswing might actually be somewhere in the region of ~$2.6k. Having played poker for almost a decade I’m accustomed to the ‘swings’ but regardless of how stoic you might become a losing period still never feels good no matter how significant or insignificant the amounts. I guess you don’t usually step away during an upswing…
Secondly, I didn’t like the feelings it was giving me. When it comes to playing poker I very rarely if ever feel like I’m behaving in a ‘compulsive’ way. During this 6 week period there are definitely times when I felt this way as I’d be ‘sweating’ the results of races, or feeling some sort of adrenaline dump when I no longer had the action on etc. I’m not 100% sure why this is the case, my best guess would maybe be because the study and decision-making aspect is ‘outsourced’ which can’t be done in a poker game… And maybe lacking this understanding of the tipster’s process increases the feeling of ‘chance’ taking away the grasp you might have of things such as odds/percentages/frequencies etc when playing poker. Nonetheless they weren’t the most pleasant feeling to recognise.
To further add to these odd feelings as mentioned above bookmakers will ban or restrict you once you’re identified as a winning or strategic punter. This is an interesting experience in itself. Part of it makes me feel pretty chuffed that a bookmaker no longer wants my action, part of it makes me feel a little daft as you realise you didn’t have successful strategy implementation of point 6 above, but a small aspect of it also makes you feel a bit like public number 1 and that you’ve done something wrong. I guess the bookmakers maybe have a clever psychological way of wording the emails making you feel like you’ve been scolded by your year 4 primary school teacher and that you now have to serve the recess and lunch detention.
Lastly there’s no value add — Participating in this activity has no societal value add therefore difficult to feel some sort of ‘fulfilment’ or ‘meaning’ through participation.
Conclusion — Would I suggest this as a side hustle?
I would score this 4/10 as a side hustle. It doesn’t score higher than this as it’s not a positive sum endeavour. Sure, the argument can be made that profits from the activity can then be distributed in some sort of valuable way but for me it doesn’t change the fact that the activity in itself isn’t positive sum.
You’re now probably shouting at me saying ‘but poker isn’t positive sum’, and I agree it most certainly isn’t but I think poker has massive benefits to the individual as a competitive domain and I go through some of those positives in my 3rd post. I’m hesitant to make the comparison as it gets a pretty polarised response from the poker community, but I think poker can almost be thought of as similar to playing a sport. (a mental one at that)
Poker for me would score higher than 4 for these reasons but not as high as a profitable positive sum endeavour would.
I still score wagering at 4 as if you can get your head around the intricacies mentioned above there is profit to be made, and although it’s zero sum I’ll never feel any sort of ill feelings whatsoever taking money from a bookmaker!
In closing I don’t promote ‘gambling’ and think the entrepreneur can find a better side hustle. Please don’t read this, lose money gambling and then blame me — I’m suggesting you find something else. ‘Wagering’ isn’t currently integrated into my time but it’s not something I’ve closed the door on either moving forward. It would be a tricky point to find but maybe I can find the right ‘balance’ in the activity where it takes a negligible amount of time (still keeping time free for more ‘fulfilling’ or ‘meaningful’ activities), being small enough to not elicit some of the feelings I’ve described above, and yet large enough for financial returns to be sufficiently lucrative to still participate. Maybe there can also be more thought placed into where and how profits are used/distributed to garner some sort of ‘meaning’ from participating. We’ll see.
|
https://medium.com/@patrickc0nn0lly/side-hustle-exploration-18-8k-bet-on-greyhounds-over-6-weeks-7e1efa1b3d74
|
['Patrick Connolly']
|
2020-12-20 00:06:02.444000+00:00
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['Side Hustle', 'Gambling', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Sports Betting']
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Dollar General Bowl: Appalachian State Mountaineers vs Toledo Rockets, 12–23–2017
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Dollar General Bowl: Appalachian State Mountaineers vs Toledo Rockets, 12–23–2017
Free College Football Spread Pick by David Luang of King Sports Picks
Appalachian State Mountaineers (8–4 SU, 5–7 ATS) vs Toledo Rockets (11–2 SU, 7–6 ATS)
Dollar General Bowl: Saturday, December 23rd, 7:00 PM EST
Line: Toledo -6.5, 61
The 2017 Dollar General Bowl features the Appalachian State Mountaineers vs the Toledo Rockets. The Mountaineers finished their season with an overall record of 8–4 which included a share of the Sun Belt Title while the Rockets had a successful season after finishing with an overall record of 11–2, which included winning the MAC Championship. Appalachian State knocked off Toledo in Montgomery, Alabama, claiming a three-point victory in the Camellia Bowl last season. Is the revenge factor a play with Toledo laying -6.5 points?
Despite winning eight games this season, the Mountaineers suffered back-to-back losses to very bad teams, UMass and Louisiana-Monroe. They managed to win their final three games of the season. On the season, Appalachian State is averaging 33.4 ppg on 438.3 total yards per game led by senior QB Tyler Lamb (27 TD, 6 ints). Last season vs Toledo, Lamb rushed for 126 yards and passed for 119 yards while accounting for two touchdowns. If they win this season, it will be because of their defense. On the season, Appalachian State is holding their opponents to an average of 21.9 ppg on 358.8 total yards per game. They will be facing an explosive Toledo offense led by QB Logan Woodside.
Logan Woodside had another remarkable season, throwing for 3800 yards 28 TD’s to 5 interceptions. Woodside threw for 247 yards and two scores in his last meeting with the Mountaineers and this will be his last game under center for the Rockets. Woodside isn’t the only star on this Toledo team, Terry Swanson rushed for over 1300 yards to go along with 14 touchdowns and Diontae Johnson had over 1250 yards receiving with 13 touchdowns. Defensively, Toledo has been inconsistent. The team’s rushing defense struggled in several games this year, especially in double-digit losses to Miami (FL) and Ohio. But the defense also did a stellar job of shutting down the offenses of Western Michigan and Central Michigan.
The Mountaineers are 4–1 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS win but just 2–5 ATS in their last 7 games after scoring more than 40 points in their previous game. Appalachian State was not the same team on the road (3–3) as they were at home (5–1) and they averaged just 26 PPG on the road this season, a touchdown less. The Rockets are 4–1–1 ATS in their last 6 vs. Sun Belt but just 1–4 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games. Toledo was (7–0) at home and (4–2) away and the Rockets averaged 38.5 PPG on the road this season, which included putting up 30 points on a solid Miami defense.
This should be another competitive ball game but I don’t see this Mountaineers offense keeping pace with Toledo. This could be tight leading into the 4th quarter but I expect Toledo to pull away with the win and cover the -6.5 point spread.
Dollar General Bowl Prediction: Toledo -6.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/dollar-general-bowl-appalachian-state-mountaineers-vs-toledo-rockets-12-23-2017-7ad11b239efe
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['Vc Sports Monitor']
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2017-12-23 12:26:21.026000+00:00
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['Sports', 'College Football', 'Toledo', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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NFL POINT MARGIN JACKPOTS
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Leg 3
Green Bay Packers @ Carolina Panthers
Aaron Rodgers is back! The return of one of the NFL’s best ever couldn’t have come any sooner for a Packers team clinging to Playoff hopes by their fingertips. Stories out of Green Bay this week have suggested Rodgers is looking even better in practice than he looked before the broken collarbone he suffered in losing to the Vikings in week 6. Rodgers ability to shake of any rustiness coupled with a leaky defense makes this Packers team hard to predict. Talking of hard to predict, the Panthers are the most enigmatic team in the league due to their seemingly total reliance on star QB Cam Newton. This team lives and dies by Newton’s week to week performances, which remain up and down as they have done since being drafted number 1 overall. ‘The Captain’ expects Carolina’s game-plan to be based around short passes to rookie first-round pick Christian McCaffrey complimented by the combination of Jonathan Stewart and Newton on the ground. One of the toughest games of the season to pick, this is a ‘coin-toss’ game, which is why ‘El Capitan’ has covered marginal wins for both teams.
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https://medium.com/el-capitan-tipsta/nfl-point-margin-jackpots-46d0fd181d9a
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['El Capitan Tipster']
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2017-12-17 18:08:24.781000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Betting', 'Betting Tips', 'Sports Betting', 'Predictions']
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Football Thoughts: Scramble the Jets!
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Football Thoughts: Scramble the Jets!
The Jets’ season has been underwhelming to say the least. Todd Bowels, by all considerations is a good head coach that has the sad reality of being ladened with a bad QB. High quality in coaching can only do so much when presented with the QB play of a Ryan Fitzpatrick, a journeyman who had the season of his life last year, parlaying it into a huge contract this year. Much like the Cutler mistake, I think Fitzpatrick will demonstrate himself to be just as inept at the QB position, eventually leading to his demise. This leads the Jets to, for now, none other than Bryce Petty, a QB who played his college years at Baylor. Now many may say that Petty is not that good, and maybe even worse than Fitz. This is a fair statement if looking at some of the stats. But the fact that is that most of the stats are from preseason, when he would play clean-up, without any starting receivers. Given the chance to play with receivers who can actually catch the ball, he will shine. This skill and ability was on display last weekend as he mounted a comeback against the 49ers. Bryce Petty is obviously not Brady or Rodgers, but he IS good enough to win this game. The Jets team will rally around Petty, and they will show up on a Saturday night, on the main stage under the spotlight of national television. On the other side, there is Miami. This team is a winning football team, and their record reflects that quite obviously. However, if you had watched all of the games they had some lucky bounces and QB play by Tannehill. Now Tannehill is out and Moore is in. They will not be able to manufacture the same luck needed to pull out a victory on Saturday night. Yes, Miami has a good front 4 and they will disrupt Petty. This will be a low scoring game, but in the end the Jets will fly off with the victory.
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https://medium.com/@jules.rafilovich/football-thoughts-scramble-the-jets-f2bdc168c631
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['Jules Rafilovich']
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2016-12-16 21:16:21.811000+00:00
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['Sports', 'NFL', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling', 'New York Jets']
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Military Bowl Preview and Prediction: Virginia Cavaliers vs. Navy Midshipmen, 12–27–2017
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Free College Football Spread Prediction by Greg Michaels
Virginia Cavaliers vs Navy Midshipmen
Thursday, December 28th, 1:30 pm EST
NCAAF Odds: Navy -1.5, 52
Virginia Cavaliers
The Virginia Cavaliers will take on the Navy Midshipmen in the 2017 Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD. Virginia finished the season with a (6–6) record and (6–6) against the spread. UVA is trying to win it’s first bowl game since they beat Navy in the 2005 Military Bowl.
The Cavaliers have three potential NFL Draft targets and all three will be suiting up on Thursday. QB Kurt Benkert, safety Quin Blanding and LB Micah Kiser all are projected to get selected from the 3rd to 5th rounds.
Virginia got off to a great start to the season going 5–1 through the first 6 games which included a win over Boise State in Boise. However, the Cavaliers lost 5 of their last 6 games to finish the season which includes losing the last three straight games.
Virginia is a pass heavy offense, led by QB Kurt Benkert, which ranked 43rd in the nation averaging 257 passing yards per game. UVA also features one of the top rated passing defenses in the country which allowed only 179 YPG.
Virginia Betting Trends
2–7–1 ATS in their last 10 games after allowing more than 200 rushing yards in their previous game
2–8 ATS in their last 10 games after rushing for less than 100 yards in their previous game
Navy Midshipmen
Navy enters the 2017 Military Bowl losers in 6 of the last 7 ball games. Navy has played some good teams down the stretch which included losses to Army, Houston, Notre Dame, Temple, UCF and Memphis. All six teams have or will played in bowl games this season. It will be interesting to see how Navy responds coming off their tough one point loss to Army.
The Midshipmen’s unique offensive system is well known across the college football landscape, but most teams have trouble slowing down the Midshipmen’s productive triple-option attack. Through 12 games, Navy has averaged 426.8 yards per game, good for 42nd in the nation. Of course, its strength is running the football, which they rank 2nd in the nation averaging 343 yards per game.
Midshipmen Betting Trends
Midshipmen are 4–0 ATS in their last 4 bowl games
Midshipmen are 7–2–1 ATS in their last 10 games following a ATS loss
Military Bowl Betting Prediction
Neither team finished the season they way they anticipated after they both started the season (5–1). Two keys to this game will be Navy’s ability to defend the passing game and Virginia’s ability to stop the triple-option. Navy is playing a home game where they were 4–2 SU on the season while Virginia was 2–3 Away from Charlottesville. I can see Navy’s rushing attack wearing down this UVA defense over the course of a game and I expect this to be the difference with long, sustained drives that eat up the clock and wear down the defenders. Look for Navy to cover the spread in a tight game.
Virginia vs Navy Prediction: Navy -1.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/military-bowl-preview-and-prediction-virginia-cavaliers-vs-navy-midshipmen-12-27-2017-a4014a4602e
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['Greg Michaels']
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2017-12-28 12:42:58+00:00
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['Sports', 'Navy', 'Sports Betting']
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Boca Raton Bowl
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Boca Raton Bowl
One of the best parts of Bowl season is that the spotlight gets shone on college football with stand-alone games on random Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday nights. This Tuesday night is one of the those nights, when the spot light will be shining on two college football teams that otherwise wouldn’t be noticed by the majority of football fans.
This years Boca Raton Bowl features the Akron Zips versus the Florida Atlantic Owls. The line for this game opened FAU -22 with a total of 61.5. The total has floated up to 64 as of Sunday night and the spread has tickled 22.5 before dropping back to 22. The natural instinct for most people, to be sure,is to have action on this game (because its a stand-alone) and the natural instinct is probably to hammer the Owls because they’ve been rolling and the spread is more than three touchdowns. This article is going to spend 1,000 words trying to temper that instinct.
The Boca Raton Bowl has been held three times. And none of them have been particularly close; all three were in fact blow outs. But, only the first one in 2014 would have seen a favorite cover three touchdowns. Furthermore, one of the participants this year is a MAC team. And everyone knows how bad MAC teams have been in bowls lately; they haven’t had a wining record in bowl games since 2011 and before 2011 you’d have to go back to 2003 to find another winning year. To put a finer point on it, MAC teams went 0–6 straight up last year in bowl games. But, no one’s here to bet moneyline’s with a 22 point favorite. We’re here to talk spreads and despite that gross 0–6 record last year, MAC teams went 4–2 against the spread. MAC teams went 4–4 against the spread in 2015 bowl games and 3–2 in 2015 bowl games. So, while the Boca Raton Bowl does have blowouts, they aren’t by 22 points and while MAC teams generally suck at winning bowl games they’re 11–8 ATS the last three years.
There are some stats to back up the idea of Akron being competitive in this game. In past previews this year, like this one about Army and Navy, or this one about WKU and Georgia State, the best way to start the breakdown has been to look at expected points scored and expected points allowed to try and generate a potential spread. It looks like this:
This explains that FAU is going to generally score 11 points more than their opponents generally give up and Akron generally scores 6 points less than their opponents generally give up. Defensively, both teams generally perform about how they are expected to, giving up slightly less than their opponents are expected to score. According to this, FAU is going to blow them out… but, by 18 or 19, not 22. Would it surprise anyone to see FAU win by 21; allowing Akron to cover but, still win going away?
A further way to check on the size of the disparity between these two teams is to look at their yards per play differential.
These numbers are even more in favour of Akron. This is the biggest yards per play advantage yet in the six bowl games that have been played. Army had a 3.5 advantage, they won outright as a dog. Georgia State had a 6 point advantage, they won outright as a dog. Boise had an 8 point advantage, they won outright as a dog. Marshall had a 6 point advantage, they won outright as a dog. Middle Tennessee had a 3.5 advantage, they won outright as a dog. Akron has a 9!! point advantage.
One place FAU does seem to have a distinct advantage is in the red zone.
These teams seem pretty similar when it comes to stopping teams and in moving the chains. However, once in the red zone, it looks like Akron can get turned away while FAU pounds it home like the best teams in college football — they are #11 in the nation at 92.31%.
Another place FAU may be able to enforce its will is in the field position battle. It appears that the Owls might be able to enjoy some good field position, their defense setting up their offense, if they can continue getting into the back field.
FAU has a big advantage in sacking the quarterback and a big advantage in getting to the ball carrier in the backfield. If that holds true here Akron could be punting from their own territory on the regular.
One last big advantage for FAU, and the one most Owls backers will point to, is their ability to score quick.
This is a big disparity. FAU is one of the most explosive teams in the country while Akron is one of the least explosive. If the Owls get out to a big lead early it could get ugly. Really ugly.
Now that the stats are out of the way, it’s time to circle back to the “intangible”. While Akron carries some MAC baggage into this match-up, they also carry some Conference Championship loser baggage as well. What’s worse than fighting tooth and nail, with a bunch of back-up quarterbacks, to get to a conference championship game (their third ever) and then get blown out? The final score of 45–28 in the loss to Toledo was even flattering — it was 38–7 heading into the 4th quarter when Toledo took their foot off the gas. Will Akron be up for this game? The counter to being flat from losing a Conference Championship game is that this is only Akron’s third ever bowl game appearance. And its in Florida. In December. That’s a hell of a lot better than being in Ohio. A final thing to throw a wrench into the outlook on Akron, is their qb situation. After having Kato Nelson come in and save their season, winning the last two games of the year, Akron fielded four different people throwing passes vs Toledo. Who starts the bowl game? If its Nelson, that could help in the explosiveness department, if its not, you can expect a slow start to the offense.
On the other side of the field is…. Lane Kiffin. Despite all the stats that may point to Akron, everyone knows this dude wants to light it up. That explosiveness advantage, matched with Kiffin’s desire to make a splash has to be helping keep this line above three touchdowns. Further to the Kiffin factor is that these players and this program as a whole should be pumped; this was FAU’s first winning season since 2007 (they went 6–6 in 2008 and needed a bowl win to get to seven), this was also FAU’s first C-USA Championship. This really was a good first season for Lane. Now the bad. Despite many trips to the post-season in a variety of roles, Kiffin is 0–2 as a head coach in bowl games. And while the players should be pumped to be in a bowl game for the first time… they don’t actually get to go anywhere. The Boca Raton Bowl is being held in FAU’s home stadium. Direct quote from Kiffin, “Competitively speaking, it’s a home-field advantage. The only downside is for the players, that they don’t get to go somewhere else.”
This is a lot of words to say… wait for an in-play option. There’s too much contrasting stuff going on here. This method worked in the Las Vegas Bowl, where there was concerns about how motivated Oregon would be and sure enough Oregon never showed up and staying way turned into the best option. There really wasn’t a great explanation in the Las Vegas Bowl write-up of what an in-play option would look like but, the overview is there just wasn’t a time to get in on Oregon. Oregon started with the ball and immediately went 3 and out. Boise responded with a 14 play touchdown scoring drive. Oregon came right back with 4 plays and a punt. There was just nothing in the first two drives to inspire any confidence in betting Oregon. Boise’s second drive ended with an interception in the Oregon endzone and maybe it looks like a live bet option for Oregon… but, three plays later they fumbled the ball and suddenly its 14–0 Boise. Nothing there makes someone want to bet Oregon. This time let’s try laying out some scenarios. For the Boca Raton Bowl, a live bettor would be looking for three scenarios if FAU is the pick. The first would be Akron starts with the ball; they have a sustained drive but, FAU doesn’t look like swiss cheese. As Akron is driving the live line should drop to -21 as they cross mid-field. If Akron scores the live line should drop through the key number and sit somewhere around another dead number like -18.5 or -19. As FAU responds the live line should start to climb back up as the Owls cross mid-field. If they’re moving the ball and look engaged (meaning no incomplete passes, the qb is not getting rushed in the pocket, the running back isn’t get hit in the backfield) then try and hit FAU under -21 because maybe they can run it up. The second scenario would be if FAU starts with the ball. If they punt or turn the ball over, Akron is probably going to start with the ball at about -21. And then its following the previous outline; as Akron drives the line should dip and settle at -18 if they take the lead, as more time is off the clock in this scenario. The third scenario would be if FAU starts with the ball and Kiffin has them rolling. The live line will climb as they drive and reach -24 as they dig into Akron territory If FAU is the side, hit them before they score first because the line will be -27 and maybe a hook afterwards. Conversely, if the stats and exposition above shine a light on Akron, then wait for the inevitable FAU score. As just mentioned, if Akron is available at 27.5 or higher and what they’ve shown early makes them look more motivated than FAU then hit that.
No play pre-game,
Good luck.
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/boca-raton-bowl-d503684e00d8
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[]
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2017-12-18 13:38:49.067000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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DXL Frisco Bowl
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Welcome to the inaugural Frisco Bowl. The Miami Beach Bowl has moved this year to Frisco (Dallas) Texas. And in the very first addition the Frisco Bowl gets a quasi-home team. The combatants in this bowl are the SMU Mustangs and the La Tech Bulldogs. SMU is based in Dallas and it’s about a 30 minute drive from campus to Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
The line for this game opened SMU -5 with a total of 70. There has not been a lot of movement here as the line; it ticked down to 4.5 over the weekend and dropped further, to 4, on Tuesday night. 4 is a pretty key number so, it should take quite a bit of pressure to move it further. The total is widely available at 71 right now.
These teams are former WAC rivals, and La Tech has owned the “rivalry”, winning three and losing one. The one loss was a tight 3 point affair, the three wins for La Tech were all pretty serious smackdowns. The results probably aren’t that relevant considering they all took place prior to 2005. In fact, this year there is not a lot to separate these teams, including distance. Time to dive right into the stats:
This breakdown is an attempt to predict how many points each team will score and how many points each team will give up by trying to normalize the vastly different schedules each team plays. This is done by averaging out what their opponents score and give up and seeing how much La Tech and SMU outperform or underperform those averages. It appears La Tech can be expected to score and allow pretty much what they are expected to, 1.6 points either way. SMU has far more variance. Scoring 8 points more than they should be expected to but, also giving up 5 points more than they should be expected to. This produces an expected line of SMU -3.5, showing slight value on La Tech.
The other way these previews have tried to produce an expected spread is through YPP. This metric usually leans heavily to the dog and that needs to be taken into account when comparing these.
This shows that these two teams have exactly the same ratio, just at different levels. They both allow more yards per play than they are producing. When teams are this close together, the value shows on the underdog. Other than Akron on Tuesday night (man, was that bad), all the dogs in this bowl season that have shown at least 3.5 points of value in this metric have covered the spread (and won outright).
Furthering the idea that these two teams are pretty closely matched is their 3rd down and red zone numbers.
They are almost exactly the same on 3rd down’s, whether on offense or defense. One spot of possible advantage is La Tech being more successful at halting scoring drives in the red zone than SMU. Much like the YPP advantage, red zone defense can be a pretty big indicator of who is going to win. As pointed out in the Akron and FAU preview, and just mentioned above, teams with at least 3.5 points of value based on YPP are 5–1 so far in bowl games. When it comes to red zone defense teams with a double digit advantage are 4–0 this bowl season (Army/Navy, Troy/N.Texas, WKU/GeoSt, Marshall/CSU). La Tech’s advantage is almost 9 points.
Something that contradicts the red zone defense advantage is the sack rate and tackle for loss rate of SMU. The advantages for SMU are pretty significant. They are going to get into the backfield of La Tech at least a few times for sure.
A good take away from this graph though is the Points allowed per drive. These two teams are giving up over two points per drive. That is not good. And something else that points to these two teams not being good at keeping points off the board is the explosiveness metric.
Not only do these two teams give up over two points per drive on average… they have good offense explosiveness and terrible defense coverage of explosiveness. There could be some huge plays in this game.
Now that stats are out of the way, time to dive into some motivation angles. La Tech had to win out to even qualify for a bowl. They have to be pumped to be in a bowl, even if its their fourth one in a row. While their strength of schedule does not rank high, they played some tough teams relatively speaking. Their non-con schedule contained two SEC teams (and they played competitvely), while their conference schedule contained all the tough match-ups CUSA could offer — WKU, North Texas, FAU, and a surprising UAB team. And while this may be almost a home game for SMU, La Tech is only 4 hours away. There will be plenty of Bulldogs in attendance to be sure. As for SMU, this is their first bowl since 2012 so, we’re popping the cherry here for every guy on this team. Usually one would think teams want to travel to a unique destination for a bowl game but, Lane Kiffin and FAU may have put that theory to bed on Tuesday night. SMU also comes in with a new coach. New coaches usually don’t coach a bowl game right after being hired but, its seems like Sonny Dykes wants this one (he used to coach at La Tech!). SMU also has some wide receivers that you may have heard of. They should both want to put on a show for the plethora of NFL scouts who should be in attendance.
This match-up is really going to be a contrast of offense; La Tech is going to run the ball like crazy and SMU is going to air it out. There is ample opportunity for big plays and both teams have defenses that allow chain moving drives. As they say at the ball park, Let’s play two!
La Tech +4
LaTech/SMU o71
Good Luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/dxl-frisco-bowl-67084a017f2b
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[]
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2017-12-20 14:46:01.691000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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R & L Carrier New Orleans Bowl
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R & L Carrier New Orleans Bowl
It’s Bowl Season!
This is hopefully every college football fan’s favorite time of year, our very own advent calendar; a present almost every day. The first bowl for the 2017 season is the R & L Carrier New Orleans Bowl featuring two former Sun Belt rivals, North Texas Mean Green and the Troy Trojans.
Handicapping bowls is one of the most intriguing parts of sports betting. As mentioned previously in the Army — Navy preview, link, you should be capping the underlying stats for each team plus the “spot” and now, add motivation. It’s always tricky as this means digging into coach movement, players coming back from injury, what kind of bowl the team has been awarded and as of last year, star players who are declaring for the draft deciding to just skip irrelevant bowls.
The lines for this bowl opened Troy -5.5 with a total of 61 (most widely available openers). These lines have since moved to Troy -7, total 62. Most people looking at this game might, at face value, think it’s going to be a shoot-out considering North Texas running attack and Troy’s fun offense. However, this total offers very little value based on each team’s expected points scored and expected points allowed. So, look to the spread for a bet on this game. One method of trying to normalize the statistics in college football while accounting for the different schedules is by averaging out each team’s opponents scoring results. This will hopefully help to determine how much each team scores, more or less than they should be expected to and how much each team gives up, more or less than they are expected to. This can be used to produce a theoretical spread and total. It looks like this:
It looks like Troy should be closer to a double-digit favourite and this is probably supported by the line movement from -5.5 to -7. It also looks like, as just mentioned above, the total is spot on. Something to avoid.
Another popular way to try and normalize the stats and produce a theoretical spread is through yards per play on offence and defence. This is how the game breaks down using that measurement:
As this metric usually leans heavily to the underdog, it’s generally best to look for a high variance to the available line (Army showed 3.5 of value in this metric on Saturday). Here it’s only 1.5 and also shows Troy with a decent sized advantage in yards allowed.
Another common way to compare teams is to look at how they perform in key situations during a game, such as on third down and in the red zone. While it is difficult to use these to create a theoretical spread, it can still be instructive. For these two teams the stats are as follows:
Here, it looks like North Texas might have a slightly better ability to move the chains down the field and stop Troy’s drives a little better. Also, it looks like once in the red zone North Texas has done a much better job converting than Troy. But, look at red zone defence. Troy has the best red zone defence in college football (in a vacuum that doesn’t adjust for opponent), whereas North Texas looks like they just concede in hopes of getting the ball back and scoring again (and if you watched North Texas-Army a few weeks ago you know this is true).
A little more in-depth way to compare teams is to delve into their defensive metrics, such as sack rate, tackle for loss success and drive stop rate. While these are all defensive stats, they do paint a picture as to what kind of field position teams may be able to generate and how successful they’ll be at keeping their opponent from sustaining scoring drives. The stats for this game are as follows:
All four of these stats, much like red zone defence, paint a picture of Troy as a defensive machine. They out rank North Texas by a significant margin in each category. This holds true in explosiveness as well. There’s probably enough numbers and charts in here already so, sufficed to say North Texas is pretty explosive on offence and Troy is pretty great at limiting explosive plays on defence.
A lot of these stats, except the first breakdown, are not considering strength of schedule. It is usually a great equalizer. It may be surprising to know to that Troy had the #100th ranked schedule in terms of difficulty and North Texas had the #99th. Basically identical.
It is bowl season so, what about the “intangible”? There is a bunch here to consider. First and foremost is the health of North Texas running back Jeffrey Wilson. North Texas’ running attack will be good without him but, great with him. He had 16 TD’s in 11 games and averages over 6 yards a carry. It has not been announced if he will play yet. Before the game against Rice, North Texas’ offence was rolling and they didn’t seem to miss Wilson in the first half against Rice, putting up 30. But, they scored 6 (two FG’s) in the second half and then were held scoreless till late in the 3rd quarter against FAU in the C-USA title game. Maybe they do miss Wilson more than expected?
What about a letdown for the Mean Green? (Fun, lengthy, aside — North Texas used to be the Eagles until 1966 when they adopted the name Mean Green. This apparently is purely coincidental to the fact that Hall of Fame NFLer “Mean” Joe Greene was playing for them at that time. The story goes, some North Texas basketball players started a chant about the team on the field being Mean Green and it stuck. Link. Believe what you will...) North Texas lost their first C-USA Championship game, two weeks ago, in very unconvincing fashion (they never got off the bus as the saying goes) and it’s hard to tell how excited they’ll be about this bowl. This will be their 3rd bowl in 4 seasons and I’m sure they were looking for a better berth.
From the Troy side, much like North Texas, it’s a program on the up-swing as young head coach Neal Brown has spiced things up. Troy went 6 years without a bowl bid or a Sun Belt title. Last year, in his first season, Troy took care of the bowl drought with an appearance in Dollar General Bowl and a win over Ohio. This year they took care of the title drought, splitting the Sun Belt crown with App. St. Brown has also reached 10 wins in each of his two seasons at the helm. I expect him to get this team motivated to continue the momentum into next season where they have once again scheduled Boise to lead things off and have also scheduled Power 5 mainstay Nebraska. After beating LSU this year its conceivable Brown will want to repeat a Power 5 victory. Brown’s been mentioned for some coaching openings but, he’s probably another good season or two away from leaving. Side note for prop bettors — Troy QB Brandon Silvers is two shy of the school record for career touchdowns. There’s no way Silvers and Brown don’t want that. If a prop bet of o2.5 TD’s thrown exists, hammer it.
There are 6.5 and 7’s widely available as of Monday December 11th. Troy should be able to score at their normal pace and their defence should be able to shut down North Texas’ attack. Watch for Wilson’s health and roll with the Trojans at 7 if he’s out and a lower number (6 or 6.5) if he plays.
Troy -7, -105
Good Luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/r-l-carrier-new-orleans-bowl-b20c620f0e7f
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[]
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2017-12-12 00:04:48.223000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Camping World Bowl
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Camping World Bowl
The second bowl on tap Thursday is the Camping World Bowl between OKST and VaTech.
Both these teams come into this game with extreme bowl history. Va Tech, under various coaches, has been in a bowl every year since 1993. OKST meanwhile, has a shorter but, still impressive streak, attending a bowl every year since 2002.
The line for this game opened OKST -6.5 and has dropped as low as -5 before settling in this morning at -6. The total opened at 62.5 and has slowly dropped to 61.5.
The stats for this game closely resemble two of the match-ups from last night; strong offense against a strong defense, strength on strength.
Much like Arizona and Mizz, OKST scores a lot more than they could be expected given their schedule. While, like Texas and Purdue, Va Tech allows a lot less than could be expected. What it means, is that there is probably some value on Va Tech, as this spread should be closer to OKST -2.
When looking at yards per play, they actually favor OKST.
The guess here is that the value being shown on OKST is based on OKST’s offense being such an outlier (only Oklahoma and Louisville, with Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson at the helm have such offensive numbers in the Power 5), as this metric usually favors the underdog.
As could be expected, when looking at efficiency OKST looks better on offense and Va Tech looks better on defense.
The difference is that Va Tech’s margin of advantage is bigger in both categories. And, as has been mentioned in many bowl previews, big red zone defensive advantages have played out well. Teams with a 9% or greater advantage in red zone defense are 7–1 so far this post season.
Continuing to look at defensive stats only makes Va Tech’s advantage look bigger.
Va Tech dominates in every category, plain and simple. Lots of people will be on OKST just because they think this offense will overcome any kind of Va Tech defensive advantage but, look at OKST’s schedule. They played no team with a defense like this. Va Tech actually has the best stop rate in the country. The only teams OKST played who were even close were TCU and Texas. They lost to TCU and they scored only 13 points on Texas.
The bet here is on VaTech shutting OKST down and being able to keep up if the score gets into the high 30's.
Va Tech +6,
Good Luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/camping-world-bowl-82a4bc1b5ff2
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[]
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2017-12-28 19:08:56.904000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Armed Forces Bowl
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Armed Forces Bowl
The second bowl of the day on Saturday is the Armed Forces bowl. The bowl is held in Fort Worth, Texas and this year it features Army and San Diego State.
The line for this game did not see much movement at all; in fact the least of all bowl games. It opened SDST -7 with a total of 46.5 and has only seen the spread drop a half point, down to -6.5.
These are two pretty similar teams in terms of what the game plan is, which is …. run the ball. Let’s see how the stats stack up.
It looks like both teams are scoring less than they should against their schedule. However, both are allowing less than they should be expected to. SDST in particular seem to be doing a better job of keeping their opponents under wraps. The spread could be expected to be -6. And it looks like a low scoring game, totalling 35 points.
When yards per play are used instead of expected points, there is a similar result.
There haven’t been any instances of a favorite having value based on yards per play other than USF in this morning’s other preview.
While these teams both operate run heavy offenses, it appears Army is a little better at completing 3rd downs (probably because they are usually trying to run on 3rd and really short) and SDST is a little better at stopping teams on 3rd. Considering Army’s lack of passing (about 5 attempts a game) 3rd down and short plays will probably decide this game. SDST’s 65% success rate at stopping the opposition will be under the spotlight this afternoon.
Digging into some deeper defensive stats makes SDST look like they might have a bit of an edge. Better tackle for loss rate, significantly better stop rate (let’s hope that ties in with that great 3rd down success rate), significantly better points allowed per drive.
Neither team really has an explosive offense, both ranking in the 70’s (about mid-point of the league). But, Army has a terrible success rate at stopping explosive plays. They rank 119th in the country, so maybe SDST will break some big plays.
The stats seem to point to a SDST win and possible cover. What about situationally? Well, Army is in a bowl for the second straight year and they won last year in overtime. But, how motivated will they be? Their big game was for Commander in Chiefs trophy (a game where a winner came through on Army). As for SDST, they should be pumped for this game. Rocky Long has had SDST in 6 straight bowls. But, other than one year in Louisiana, all five have been in places where they play during the regular season. Las Vegas, Hawaii and San Diego are nice but, if you play there every year, it can’t feel that special to be in a bowl there. Furthermore, its just going to be nice to not be playing at home in the Poinsettia Bowl, which SDST has done three times in the last six years. A trip to Texas should be welcome. As for the option attack that always has to be discussed when capping Army games, Rocky Long and SDST play an option team every year in Air Force. So, this shouldn’t be a surprise. And they have a month to prepare.
Much like Wyoming last night, take this puppy to the bank. And if you see a guy named Pete there, tell him not to hedge longer and get in big on SDST.
SDST -6.5,
Good luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/armed-forces-bowl-b88954c8aa0e
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[]
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2017-12-23 23:07:24.040000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Texas Bowl
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Texas Bowl
The last bowl of the night is the Texas Bowl in Houston, Tx. And there is a quasi home team suiting up.
The line for this game opened Missouri -1 with a total of 60.5. The line has crept up to Missouri -3 and the total has crept up to 61.5.
This game is shaping up a lot like the game that is going on concurrently with it, the Arizona-Purdue match up. One team with an up-tempo, out-score ’em kind of offense vs a team with a shut down defense.
The expected points scored and allowed look a lot like the Foster Farms bowl as well:
Just like Arizona, Missouri scores much more than they should be expected to against their schedule, while much like Purdue, Texas allows almost 8 oints less than they could be expected to. And much like the more defensive team in Purdue, Texas also looks like they should be a small favorite.
Again, just like in the previous bowl game, the favorite actually looks like they have value based on yards per play.
In this case, there is quite a bit of value on Missouri. 3.5 has been a key number for value in this metric.
Again, much like Arizona, Missouri has a nice advantage in 3rd down offense but, is severely lacking in every other department. A 9 point advantage in red zone defense (Texas) usually has led to success in these bowl games.
Once again, much like the Purdue/Arizona game we have one team with an atrocious stop rate but, who matches that with a very explosive offense.
This is the Longhorns first bowl in 3 years and while that is a bit of a stretch for a major program to be missing bowls, how excited can they be about travelling just down the road to Houston? Also, Texas is littered with injuries.
Missouri meanwhile experienced one of the great revivals in college football history. From 1–5 to 7–5 with a chance to join the 2008 Rutgers team as the only ones in history to end 8–5 after that start. Missouri also hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2014 and after that terrible start to the season they must be pumped to finish on a high note. Here’s hoping in this case high octane offense outscores the tight Texas defense.
Mizz -3,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/texas-bowl-71a0d3a949b1
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[]
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2017-12-28 01:42:54.630000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Week 17 Spread Picks
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Week 17 is always a tough week to pick. It’s hard to gauge how teams will respond when faced with “meaningless” games. But I did manage to find 5 games I like ATS and locked in my bets.
NYG +3 v. DAL (4 Units)
I highlighted this game here: https://sharpclarkenfl.medium.com/giants-cowboys-week-17-477e109f7ecc. Unfortunately the 3 point spread has dropped to 1.5. I still like the Giants but I’d wait to see if it goes back to 3, and I would put fewer units on if it remains under 3.
TEN -7.5 @ HOU (2 Units)
The Titans are a team that looks drastically better when it controls the offensive line of scrimmage and builds a lead. I expect them to score touchdowns on essentially every drive, putting a lot of pressure on the Texans to keep up. There’s always backdoor potential for a good QB getting over a touchdown, but I give the edge to the superior coach in a must-win game to put it out of reach.
GB -5.5 @ CHI (2 Units)
This spread is simply too low. The Packers are a far superior team and Rodgers typically does not take his foot off the gas, especially in divisional games. The Packers can lock up the bye and home field with a win, so they’ll be plenty motivated. The Pack will score with ease, and Trubisky is too inconsistent to keep up.
Friday update: David Bakhtiari tore his ACL in practice yesterday. This is a big deal, and very concerning for the Packers going against a decent defensive line. The line has dropped to -4.5 accordingly. My bet is locked in, and I’d still take the Packers there, but if nightmares of what happened against Tampa Bay with Bakhtiari injured scare you away, I get it.
LAR +3.5 v. ARI (2 Units) (Friday: make it 5 Units)
It feels ugly to put multiple units on a quarterback who has never played an NFL snap. I get it. But the Rams have been hiding Goff’s weaknesses all year. They win because they have a stifling defense and a coach that gets the most out of his offensive pieces. I don’t see a major downgrade. And this play is mostly a bet against the Cardinals, who have struggled against good defensive schemes all year and I don’t see that changing here. Add to that the chance that Murray gets re-injured, and we get incredible value with the home dog.
Friday update: I’m adding 3 units to this play to make it 5 units. All things equal, the Rams are a vastly superior team to the Cardinals. Their defense is one of the best in the league, and Kyler Murray simply isn’t good enough to combat the pressure the Rams can bring, particularly with Ramsey on Hopkins. The Cardinals will struggle to run successfully and Murray’s behind-the-line passing offense will not get it done. Meanwhile, John Wolford may bring mobility and a spark that Goff lacks and actually help this offense succeed. I think the Rams win outright.
JAC +14 @ IND (1 Unit)
The Colts have to be devastated after blowing a 17 point lead against the Steelers, putting them in a position where they no longer ensure a playoff spot with a win. I do think they will be ready for this game, and should win, but it’s going to be tough to bring the type of dominance it takes to cover such a big number. The Jaguars are fairly underrated, and I think if they don’t keep it within a score they have a good chance at a backdoor.
Bonus pick Saturday: BAL -12.5 @ CIN
I’ve been hesitant to pull the trigger on this one because it’s a 12.5 point road favorite and the Bengals are underrated, but I’m locking it in. This one is a simple style and matchup play. When the Ravens can run, they don’t stop scoring.
Good luck!
|
https://medium.com/@sharpclarkenfl/week-17-spread-picks-7f5c989208ed
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[]
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2021-01-02 14:36:36.824000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Nfl Betting', 'Sports Betting', 'NFL Picks']
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Boise State Broncos vs SMU Mustangs Free NCAAB Spread Pick, 12–18–2017
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Boise State Broncos vs SMU Mustangs Free NCAAB Spread Pick, 12–18–2017
Free College Basketball Pick by David Price of BetSheet.com
Boise State Broncos vs SMU Mustangs
Odds: SMU -7.5
Time: December 18, 9:00 PM EST
Boise State Broncos
(10–1)
The Boise State plays just their second road game of the season in its final nonconference tuneup for Mountain West Conference play when it travels to SMU on Monday night. Their first road game was on December 1st when they snapped Oregon’s NCAA-best 46-game homecourt win streak, 73–70, thanks to a buzzer-beating half-court shot by senior guard Lexus Williams.
Boise State is 6–4 ATS on the season but they are 5–1 ATS in their last 6 non-conference game.
The Broncos will now take aim at SMU’s 29 home game win streak at Moody Coliseum. The Broncos have four players who average at least 10.8 points per game led by sophomore guard Justinian Jessup (15.5) who also has made a team-leading 41 3-pointers. Chandler Hutchison, a 6–7 senior guard who was named the Mountain West’s Preseason Player of the Year, is second in scoring (15.3) and also leads the team in rebounding (8.8) and assists (4.2). Senior forward Christian Sengfelder (11.7), a graduate transfer from Fordham, and sophomore guard Alex Hobbs (10.8) also are averaging in double figures.
SMU Mustangs
(8–3)
The SMU Mustangs improved to 8–3 on the season after defeating the New Orleans Privateers, 79–66, this past Wednesday.
SMU is 3–3 ATS on the season but they are 22–7–1 ATS in their last 30 overall.
All five starters average in double-figures, led by junior guard Shake Milton (17.8 ppg) and followed by junior guard Jarrey Foster (15.0 ppg). Forward Ethan Chargois averages (13.0 ppg) and is one of 18 freshmen in the country averaging at least 13.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
SMU has played some good competition this season but they have come up short vs the better teams in college basketball. They did beat Arizona but they have lost to Northern Iowa, Western Kentucky and TCU.
Boise State vs SMU Prediction
What is David Price Predicting?
These are two teams that will be competing for an NCAA Tournament invite down the stretch. Boise State has been impressive, despite playing against sub-par competition. However, SMU has struggled vs better competition so far this season. Moody Coliseum is a tough place to play but the Boise State defense should give SMU some troubles and if the Broncos shoot a decent percentage beyond the arc, they could be a live dog in this matchup. I think this spread is too much to lay with SMU and I like Boise State +7.5 in this game.
Free College Basketball Spread Pick: Boise State Broncos +7.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/boise-state-broncos-vs-smu-mustangs-free-ncaab-spread-pick-12-18-2017-2cc927df7cc6
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["Puss Williamson'S Betsheet.Com"]
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2017-12-18 13:39:05.022000+00:00
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['Sports', 'NCAA Basketball', 'College Basketball', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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The Compelling Race for NFL Coach of the Year
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The Compelling Race for NFL Coach of the Year
There’s at least seven coaches this season that deserve legitimate consideration for the award.
The 2017 NFL season has been a remarkable year for coaching. No other year in recent memory has given us so many viable coach of the year candidates. There are multiple fantastic-turnaround-of-a-moribund-franchise coaching stories, as well as multiple Superbowl winning coaches having one of their best seasons. Let’s review the candidates, and go over the pros and cons of each one to see if we can determine which of these guys deserve to win coach of the year the most.
Sean McVay- Los Angeles Rams
Pros: In his first year as head coach, Sean McVay has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations about what he could accomplish this year with the Rams. Going by what everyone saw from Jared Goff last year, no one could have imagined that McVay could instantly turn the worst offense in the NFL into one of the best. He also has an aesthetic that belies his age, so in comparing him to other young coaches, he’s much more like John Gruden than he is Lane Kiffin. I didn’t think he would pass the test of being an NFL head coach so easily, but he did.
Cons: If the Rams lose to the Seahawks in Seattle this week, then they drop to 2nd in the NFC West. Considering all the outstanding candidates for coach of the year this season, can we really give it to someone who didn’t even win their division? So winning out will really help his cause. Also, if there is a slight blemish on the job McVay has done, it’s that he has basically delegated oversight of the defense to Wade Phillips. If we are talking about NFL Offensive Coordinator of the Year, then yeah, McVay would win hands down. However, one could argue that the Rams basically have a co-head coach, which somewhat diminishes the job he has done. Is that analysis a little harsh? Yeah it is, but in order to differentiate between the bumper crop of great candidates we have, there’s going to be some splitting of hairs here.
Verdict: Considering the dramatic turnaround from a first year head coach, I think McVay is the odds-on favorite to win the award. However, he’s not my first choice if I had a vote. (Good news for Sean McVay fans: I don’t.) But he’s still done a hell of a job, and it looks like Jared Goff is a legitimate NFL quarterback thanks to him.
Doug Pederson- Philadelphia Eagles
Pros: You can basically give the same superlatives to Pederson as we did to McVay, the only difference being that Pederson is doing it in year two vs. year one. In his second year, the Eagles became a juggernaut under Pederson, with Carson Wentz being the virtual shoe-in to be MVP (until he went down) thanks to his head coach. The Eagles lead the league in points per game, with Pederson as the playcaller and offensive architect. Carson Wentz being out for the year could actually strengthen Pederson’s case for winning coach of the year if the offense keeps humming along under Nick Foles.
Cons: The flip side to that coin is that if the offense struggles for the last few games, it could plant a seed in the minds of voters that the offensive success was do more to the extraordinary talents of Wentz rather than the offensive system itself. Also, since we split hairs for McVay, it’s only fair to point out that I don’t love Pederson’s game managing history. (It seems the offensive system wasn’t the only thing he learned from Andy Reid.) Can anyone forget the criticism against him when he was offensive coordinator for the Chiefs? Yes, he’s made some questionable decisions as Eagles coach too. Although he’s not the most egregious game manager on this list, (Keep reading to see who gets that honor) it’s tough to ignore such a crucial aspect to being head coach.
Verdict: Up in the air. I think if Pederson keeps the Eagles rolling with Nick Foles, and he gets the number one seed in the NFC, then the award should be his. If not, then considering the dearth of worthy candidates, I’d look to give the award elsewhere.
Mike Zimmer- Minnesota Vikings
Pros: How can you not be impressed with the job Zimmer has done with the Vikings? Zimmer is a defensive guru that brought his pressure defense to Minnesota with incredible success. The Vikings are the only team in the NFL to be top-5 in passing yards against, rushing yards against, and points against. However, the reason why the Vikings have been so successful this year is because the offense is finally holding their own, and Zimmer deftly handled what could have been a rift-inducing quarterback controversy with ease. Granted, Case Keenum’s play made his decision easy, but lesser coaches could have made a mess of that. Considering the Vikings are 10–3 with someone who is essentially their third choice as QB, you have to give plenty of consideration for Zimmer as coach of the year. Also, overcoming a eye injury as a compelling personal story can’t hurt his cause.
Cons: This is a little subjective, but it feels like the job Zimmer has done has been only very good when other candidates have been great. Perhaps in a year with weaker competition, Zimmer’s season would have been a lock, but in this year it feels like he’s going to end up coming in third. Last week’s game against the Panthers makes me worry that the Case Keenum experience is about to run out of gas. Considering how badly the Vikings faded last year, you can excuse me for thinking that- I hope for the Vikings’ sake that’s just perceptual bias.
Verdict: While I doubt Mike Zimmer actually wins the award, if it ends up happening I would be totally fine with it. The Vikings accomplishing what they have this year deserves accolades, and Zimmer has proven himself to be an excellent head coach than can handle and adjust to adversity.
Bill Belichick- New England Patriots
Pros: Let’s face it: If “Coach of the Year” were simply given to the best coach in a given season, then I would be hard pressed to think of a season since 2001 where Bill Belichick wouldn’t have won the award. It’s analogous to the NBA back in the 90's: Michael Jordan should’ve won MVP every year for about ten years, but didn’t because that would’ve been boring. So let’s not overthink this. Bill Belichick is the best coach in NFL today, probably of all time, and deserves to win coach of the year accordingly.
Cons: This year hasn’t been the greatest year for the Patriots, as they have had a handful of poor performances that have been uncharacteristic. Unfair or not, I think the standard for Belichick is higher than every other coach to win this award. Going 12–4 with a first round bye is routine, pedestrian stuff. For Belichick to be realistically be in the running for this award, the Pats need to have some sort of record-setting year, and its not really happening this year.
Verdict: The best coach in the NFL is not going to win coach of the year this season.
Mike Tomlin- Pittsburgh Steelers
Pros: Is this the year Mike Tomlin finally gets his due? If the Steelers can slay their dragon this week, beating the Patriots and securing home field advantage in the AFC, you certainly have to throw Tomlin’s hat into the ring. At first thought, I’m surprised that Tomlin hasn’t won this award already, but then again it seems like Tomlin is always being criticized more than praised, even while reaching the pinnacle of success and never having a losing season in 11 years as a head coach. When he won the Superbowl, critics said that it was still Bill Cowher’s team. Then critics said he is a “cheerleader” more than a coach. Honestly, this is BS. You don’t think Mike Tomlin could’ve run the defense for the Steelers if he wanted to? When he took over for Bill Cowher in 2007, Tomlin was highly regarded for the cover-2 system he helped develop in Tampa, which achieved incredible success by requiring pressure from a front four with minimal blitzing. However, he was jumping into a Steelers team that had an established and successful 3–4 defense with complex blitzing and pressure from all over the place- the virtual antithesis of the Tampa-2. So what did Tomlin do? He recognized that Dick Lebeau’s system wasn’t broke, so it shouldn’t be tampered with. Many other coaches would’ve forced his square-peg players to play in his round-hole system- we have seen that scenario many times with typically poor results. Tomlin never received the credit for this, and because of his astute leadership, the not-broke Steelers won a Superbowl in his third season.
The idea that a head coach should be involved in every x and o otherwise they aren’t an important part of the team is an ignorant point of view. Head coaches are like CEOs- and sometimes micromanaging overburdens the team more than anything. Think about coaches that struggle with juggling multiple roles. Usually in order to save their job they reluctantly delegate. (Just look at what Andy Reid had to do recently.) Doesn’t that make the case that they should’ve delegated that role in the first place? One of the secrets to Tomlin’s success is that he lets his coaches coach and his players play. He treats everyone like men, which has earned the respect of everyone around him. Add the fact that he’s passionate and inspiring, and I can’t think of another coach I’d rather play for or another organization I’d rather be in- and Mike Tomlin is a big part of that. If the Steelers go 14–2, Mike Tomlin deserves heavy consideration for a well-deserved coach of the year award.
Cons: Remember when I alluded to a coach that was worse at game management than Doug Pederson? Tomlin is it. Frankly, some of the game management decisions he makes are maddening. The end of last week’s game with the Ravens was a perfect example. Let me set the scenario for you:
1:02 to go in the 4th, 1st and 10 at the Ravens 30, the Steelers down two points. Baltimore has two timeouts left. The Steelers are in field goal range.
On first down, the Steelers ran up the middle for 2 yards, forcing Baltimore to take it’s second timeout. 56 seconds are left now. Considering that the average play runs about 5–6 seconds off the clock, if the Steelers just run again up the middle on second down, they force Baltimore into calling it’s last time out at probably around 50 seconds. Then they can run again on third down and Baltimore can’t stop the clock, so the clock would wind down to about 5 seconds left, just enough for Boswell to kick a field goal to end the game. This playcalling also gives the Steelers minimal risk of falling out of field goal range, and obviously the Ravens never get a chance to get the ball back to win.
So what did the Steelers actually do? Incomplete on second down, then incomplete again on third, with Ben pulling a miracle out of his butt not to take a sack and be knocked out of field goal range. Now I don’t know if Tomlin was involved in this playcalling, but the onus is on the head coach to be aware of game situations. This worked out for the Steelers in the end, but the fact of the matter is that they left more than enough time for the Ravens (who just happen to have the best kicker in the NFL) to kick a field goal, so you better believe Tomlin would have been excoriated if this blew up in his face.
Unfortunately, this example is more of the rule rather than the exception with Tomlin. Whether it’s inexplicable challenge decisions, incomprehensible 4th down decision making, or poor clock management, after eleven NFL seasons Tomlin is who he is, and game management is not his strength.
It also has hurt Tomlin that it seems like the Steelers have been outcoached in big games, specifically with the Patriots. It’s hard to argue that Tomlin deserves coach of the year when Belichick typically coaches circles around the Steelers. (To be fair though, Belichick usually coaches circles around everyone.)
Finally, Tomlin coached Steelers teams have had a long-term habit of playing down to worse teams. This season is no exception. One of the Steelers’ losses is to the Bears. Yes, the Bears. This leads people to believe that Tomlin is not doing a good enough job of getting his team ready to play every game, and it’s hard to argue that there isn’t some truth to that.
Verdict: If the Steelers put the Patriots in their rear view mirror and win 14 games, then you have to think Tomlin is going to get serious consideration. I would look for not only if they win but how they win against the Patriots. If Tomlin can be the coaching equal (or better) to Belichick in this game and the Steelers win, then give the man coach of the year. He deserves to finally be recognized.
Sean Payton- New Orleans Saints
Pros: As I stated earlier, the candidates for coach of the year are a mix of a Superbowl winning coaches having one of their best seasons and coaches pulling a cellar-dwelling team out of the gutter and into relevancy. With Sean Payton, you have both. Considering how difficult their division is, the Saints’ emergence this year is that much more impressive. I love the way Payton has transitioned the Saints into a running team- being able to adjust to accentuate your strengths is the sign of a great coach. He managed to get out of what was looking to be a toxic situation with Adrian Peterson with ease- you could make the case that trading Peterson was the NFL transaction of the year, considering that it led to the emergence of Alvin Kamara. Not only winning the toughest division in the NFL, but the way he did it, means Sean Payton deserves to be in the running for coach of the year.
Cons: I think Payton suffers from some of the same perception problems that Belichick suffers from, in that when he wins he should win because he has a great quarterback. He also has a little bit of a cantankerous personality, also like Bill. This could be the tiebreaker in the minds of the people who vote- fair or not, we all know there is human element to winning awards, and his infamous choke sign to the Falcons last week isn’t going to win him any goodwill. Lastly, he’s been around for so long that choosing him over more sexy choices like McVay seems unlikely.
Verdict: Despite a strong resume, showing coaching adaptability that led directly to his team’s success, and sporting quite possibly the most complete team of his tenure, I seriously doubt Sean Payton will be in the top three in voting. Even though it’s been his year, it’s just not his year.
Doug Marrone- Jacksonville Jaguars
Pros: The biggest out of nowhere candidate for coach of the year is Doug Marrone, simply because unlike Sean McVay, we’ve seen Marrone coach before this year and it wasn’t much to write home about. However, it turns out that Marrone was just what the Jaguars needed, and I love that he realized right away the strength and weaknesses of his team. Early in the year when Bortles was struggling immensely, Marrone answered the question as to how many times he’d like the Jags to throw the ball as zero. And in looking at the way he used Fornette early in the season, it seems that he was serious.
This is an example of a coach trying to change the culture of a losing team, and it worked. The Jaguars are the proverbial “team that nobody wants to play” going into the playoffs, due to their bruising style of offense and smothering defense. That strategy is a winning formula- there is a reason why “defense wins championships” is a thing. So a lot of credit should be given to Marrone for changing the ways of the losingest team in the NFL this decade. He was the right man for the job, and his philosophy was embraced by the team. He also had the most daunting challenge of any coach in the running, and the Jaguars seem to be getting better as the season concludes. In all, if the award were to be given right now, I would give the award to Marrone.
Cons: They don’t give out the coach of the year award now, and the reality is that by the end of the season, there are going to be coaches that will end up padding their resume a bit better than Marrone likely will.
There is also the perception that Marrone is just the extension of Tom Coughlin’s involvement with the team. While there is a little bit of truth to that, the whole truth is that Coughlin isn’t a coach. He isn’t involved in the day-to-day coaching of the team. It is not fair to consider Coughlin the de facto coach of the Jaguars, but I would not be surprised if that perception held weight. Finally, Jacksonville’s small market and still-mostly anonymous team will lead to Marrone to be overlooked. Fair or not, that’s the reality.
Verdict: Marrone deserves to win the award right now, but other coaches will likely clinch achievements that should outstrip Marrone of his accomplishments. However, if he can sneak the Jags into the top seed in the AFC, then there’s no way he can be ignored. Marrone would fully deserve the award.
So who is really going to win? I still say it’s McVay right now- but I’ve laid out a lot of different scenarios, so don’t be surprised if a coach you didn’t consider until now ends up winning instead. The one thing I am sure of is, whoever does end up winning will have earned it. This year’s race for coach of the year is perhaps the most competitive in the history of the NFL.
|
https://medium.com/@AlexPredicts/the-compelling-race-for-nfl-coach-of-the-year-c8af082aab05
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['Alex Brigandi- The Stats Guy']
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2017-12-17 07:22:50.997000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Sports Journalists', 'Sports Betting', 'NFL Playoffs', 'Coaching']
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Las Vegas Bowl
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Las Vegas Bowl
The third bowl of opening day is the Las Vegas Bowl featuring Boise State vs Oregon and containing a whole whack of college football history.
PAC-12 (or Pac -10 for you old-timers) and Mountain West teams have a long history of playing inter-conference games and bowls and the Pac -12 has eaten in those match-ups. With one exception. And that exception is Boise State. The Bronco’s have long been the darling of the Group of 5 conferences, creating huge upsets and coming oh-so-close to creating true chaos in the old BCS system. Boise previously played in this Las Vegas bowl three straight times from 2010–2012 and beat a PAC -12 team each time straight up.
These two teams also have some very specific and personal history thanks to a pair of college football’s better season kickoff games and LeGarrett Blount, the author of one of college footballs most infamous incidents. Boise won both of those games by the way; adding to their chaos-inducing mystique.
The lines for this bowl opened Oregon -5 with a total of 59.5 (most widely available openers). The spread has since moved to Oregon -7.5, with some -7’s popping back up on Wednesday. The total has held steady at 59.5.
These previews have thus far been fairly stat-heavy (Navy/Army, N.Texas/Troy, WKU/GeoSt) but, this is one bowl where the stats can be thrown out the window and driven over by an 18 wheeler.
Here they are in case anyone is keeping track of these:
As mentioned in previous bowl previews (and probably in every bowl preview ever written) motivation and circumstance can be every bit as important as the statistics put up during the season. In this case it’s all about motivation and injury recovery. These numbers don’t mean much because of two things; One, Oregon has a sophomore quarterback who is really good, and he missed a large portion of the season. Maybe Justin Herbert is not NFL good but, he’s really good for the collegiate level. With Herbert in the line-up Oregon went 6–1 and scored 77, 42,49,35 (loss), 45, 48, and 69 points. With Herbert on the sideline Oregon went 1–4 and scored 10,7,14,41 (win), and 3. It’s so different that it’s hard to lend any weight to the stats. As one can see from the charts above, taken at face value the stats point to a Boise outright win — it looks like Boise should be favored based on expected points; it looks like Boise has a significant Yards Per Play advantage; Boise has a better stop rate and allows less points per drive on defense. But, factor in Herbert’s absence and those stats might be very different.
Two, Oregon has experienced one of the most high profile and strange coaching changes of the early off-season. Willie Taggart was a pretty special hire from USF and in his first year, as just outlined, Oregon went 7–5 and really, with a healthy star qb, they went 6–1. A star qb who is only a sophomore and who is due back next season. Oregon is a fairly respected Power 5 school, so one would think Taggart was set-up nicely to go on a bit of a run starting in 2018. Instead, he has moved on after one year, back to the state of Florida. Mario Cristobal, Oregon’s O-line coach and Offensive Co-ordinator has been named his replacement. It’s always tricky to tell how these kinds of things are going to play out but, you can say this for Cristobal, he has been pretty successful everywhere he’s been in college football. He was an assistant coach under Greg Schiano at Rutgers, where Rutgers achieved the kind of success Rutgers is not used to. Cristobal was then the head coach at FIU and turned that sputtering program into a Sun Belt champion and coached them to two bowl games — upsetting Toledo and losing a close one to Marshall a year later. He was unceremoniously fired after one bad year and then picked up by Nick Saban to help out at Alabama. Cristobal was head recruiter and o-line coach at Alabama and was once again lauded for his work there. He left Alabama to join Oregon this year, with Taggart, to be the o-line and assistant coach. This seems like a great fit, if a steep step up in class. Hopefully Cristobal’s tenure at Alabama will serve him well with this Power 5 school. All that is to say, it’s hard to judge whether the kids will be bitter Taggart left or excited to show Cristobal what they can do.
If Herbert stays healthy and plays like he did in the last two games of the year (blowouts over Arizona and Oregon St) and Cristobal proves he’s ready for this bowl game than this should be no contest. But, coaching changes just make it so hard to tell, especially one this weird. The advice here is wait to play in-game and hope Boise scores first. Get Oregon at a cheaper number after seeing if Herbert and the boys want to play for Cristobal.
No official play pre-game,
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/las-vegas-bowl-cddf705000bc
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[]
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2017-12-14 15:03:44.799000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Quick Lane Bowl
|
The second game on Boxing Day is the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit pitting Duke and Northern Illinois. Flat out, worst bowl game so far.
But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance to win some money! The line for this game opened at Duke -4 with a total of 47.5. The line has drifted up to Duke -6.5 while the total has stayed steady. Is this money all because of the MAC fade? Must be, because the stats don’t show that Duke should be this big of a favorite.
The expected points scored and expected points allowed definitely make this line look false.
It appears as if N. Illinois should actually be favored. And not by a little either, by 9.5 points. This is by far the biggest discrepancy during the bowl season. And if you’ve been reading previous bowl previews you’ll know that the next metric usually favors the underdog, so a spread difference this big doesn’t bode well for Duke.
Sure enough, the yards per play metric favors N.Illinois. And again this is the biggest differential yet during bowl season.
The dominance for N. Illinois continues even when breaking down other, more specific, metrics.
The only real advantage shown in this chart is in third down defense and it favors N. Illinois by quite a bit. And this is a real harbinger of defensive dominance in comparing these two teams.
Their offenses are certainly nothing to write home about. But, in comparing two really good defenses, its N.Illinois that might have the better one. They are better than Duke in every category; we could see some 3rd and longs for Duke today as well as Duke’s qb hitting the turf quite a bit.
While the coaching and bowl history angles are pretty similar for these two programs one thing to consider is that N. Illinois’ stats could be even better. They were 2–2 on the season when freshman Marcus Childers took over under centre. He is a very dynamic Group of 5 qb and N. Illinois went 6–2 in MAC play with him calling the shots. Duke on the other hand has an under the radar absence on their roster today. Kicker Austin Parker will not be dressed for this game. He was 81% kicking fg’s this year. No one else on the roster has attempted a field goal this year. Everyone reading this loves college kickers, right? How about kickers in a bowl game who have never even had an attempt? That should be fun to watch.
You just can’t take Northern Illinois. It has to be with authority. Duane would want to chant Fook Duke. So, D$, the play is Huskies all the way. Fook Duke.
N. Illinois +6.5,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/quick-lane-bowl-e44a8ab3dd34
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[]
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2017-12-26 19:49:55.470000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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TaxSlayer Bowl
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Saturday opens with two bowls at noon (here is the other). The first one to tackle is the TaxSlayer Bowl between Louisville and Mississippi State.
The line opened Louisville -4.5 and it has climbed to -7 as of Saturday morning.
A lot of the stats are going to point to MSST. A relatively dominant SEC team who is 20–4 in their last few seasons of non-conference games. The expected points scored and points allowed live up to that, showing some value on the Bulldogs.
The yards per play metric however shows some value on Louisville. That’s based on Louisville’s absurd offensive metrics. The question is how well will that offense hold up against an SEC defense? Louisville got smoked by LSU in last years bowl and they lost to Auburn to kick off the 2015 season (beating up on Kentucky every other year doesn’t really count, does it?)
The efficiency and defensive stats don’t do anything to dissuade the notion that MSST is a more dominant defensive team.
The teams are very similar in offensive stats but, MSST holds a solid advantage in every defensive metric. The stop rate is particularly concerning for Louisville, as is the points allowed per drive.
Louisville got hammered last year in their bowl game vs LSU and Lamar Jackson took serious heat for it. Chances are he, and the team as a whole, will be looking for some kind of redemption. Add to that the fact that MSST is missing their star player and the Bulldogs could be in trouble. MSST qb Nick Fitzgerald was injured at the start of the Egg Bowl and will not be playing today. Where that leaves MSST’s is up in the air. Will a decent SEC defense be able to slow down Lamar Jackson for the second year in a row?
The bet here is no.
Louisville -7,
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/taxslayer-bowl-4584b275b586
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[]
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2017-12-30 15:11:39.060000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Bahamas Bowl
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Who wouldn’t want to go to the Bahamas? The first bowl on Friday takes place in Nassau, Bahamas at a wonderful time of day for football fans. What’s better than some lunch time football on a lazy day at work? Or a Breakfast Bowl if you’re a west coast whale?
This years Bahamas Bowl features the UAB Blazers and the Ohio Bobcats. The line opened Ohio -7.5 (most widely available) with a total of 57. The total has inched up to 57.5 but, the spread has crossed downward through the key number and now sits at Ohio -6.5.
This line appears right from a strictly numbers based approach. If capping this game starts by looking at expected points scored and expected points allowed, the spread opened at exactly the right spot.
An additional way to look at this is by yards per play.
This metric always leans to the dog and usually to bet that dog the differential here would have to be a little higher. As pointed out here in the Frisco Bowl preview, dogs with a 4.5 point advantage have won outright all 5 times this post season.
Where UAB does look a little better is in the deeper stats. They have a marginally better offense on 3rd downs and in the red zone.
The one stat that really shines a light on UAB is red zone defense. Referencing again back to the Frisco Bowl (and other previews along the way) a big advantage in red zone defense has led to outright wins. UAB has a 15% advantage.
To swing the pendulum back to the fighting Frank Solich’s let’s look at explosiveness and strength of schedule. Ohio can score quick, #41 in the country, and they have one of the most electric mobile qb’s in the Group of 5. And while Ohio didn’t play a tough schedule, #96 in the country, UAB played the worst, #130.
In this case, the stats can be painted any which way. Expected points and yards per play and strength of schedule all kind of point to Ohio. Red zone defense, red zone offense and 3rd down offense all kind of point toward to UAB. Motivation should help throw all these stats out the window. UAB didn’t have a football program two years ago. In their first year back they have set school records for wins and been invited to a pretty sweet Group of 5 bowl. These kids should be jacked. Additionally, Frank Solich, the Ohio head coach, does not have a stellar record in bowl games. He was 2–3 in bowls as head coach at Nebraska and he is 2–6 in bowls as a head coach at Ohio. For ballsy bettors out there this might be the moneyline dog bet the bowl season has been waiting for!
UAB +6.5,
Good luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/bahamas-bowl-3e900e69a361
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[]
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2017-12-22 15:33:36.246000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Roles In The EtherSport Platform
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EtherSport protocol contains certain roles, their rights and responsibilities within the system. In the original protocol design, the following roles exist:
EtherSport (The official lotter)
EtherSport platform offers its own lottery, rules, results and winning funds distribution. Our responsibility is to provide a list of all events and their results from the certain sport leagues. Moreover, EtherSport provides a simplified internal exchange of the ESC to Ethereum.
Players
Can buy lottery tickets from lotters to participate in the “Lottery 11”, as well as play peer2peer on the proposed by other players’ terms and conditions.
Lotters
Can create and host “Lottery 11”. In fact, this is a player who has fulfilled some requirements and got the right to publish their version in the “Lottery 11”. Each lotter receives a percentage of the amount of bets collected from the line provided by him. Requirements to become a Lotter will be described in the rules published on the EtherSport system.
System developers
Interested in developing and improving the EtherSport infrastructure. After launching the core functions, the team of developers will continue improving the system, add new functions, and stay active participants of the EtherSport community. This will guarantee development of the product and growth in demand for tokens.
Token holders
The system’s users who will hold EtherSport tokens on their wallets.
|
https://medium.com/@ethersport/roles-in-the-ethersport-platform-5cdc6590209c
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[]
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2017-12-17 16:47:36.060000+00:00
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['Ethereum', 'ICO', 'Sports Betting', 'Lottery', 'Cryptocurrency']
|
NFL Week 15 Betting Preview
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NFL Week 15 Betting Preview
*extremely Jim Nantz voice* Hello, friends. I am Blakey Locks and I will be your guide this Fall. Every weekend, I am going to lead you as we traverse through the trials and tribulations of betting your mortgage on a weekend of football. From the New England Patriots to the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, I will give you the knowledge necessary to conquer your bookie and feed your children. We will win together, lose together, and laugh together. Let’s ride.
This week I wrote up all my CFB bets on Twitter so there’s no need to do an article as well. If you want my CFB bets they are in the thread below:
This week I am going to write up my NFL bets instead, so without further ado, let’s get into the games.
NFL YTD Record: 73–56–4 (56.59%) +23.99u
Bills @ Broncos (+6) o/u 49
This is a major let down spot for the Bills. They have won back-to-back big primetime games and are on a short week for the second week in a row. They have to travel out to Denver and play in the elevation against a really tough defense in a game where they don’t have a ton of motivation and will be emotionally let down. Yes, they can lock up the division but the division is all but locked up and in terms of seeding they don’t have a ton to play for. I’m by no means a Drew Lock believer but he is playing pretty decent right now and so is the rest of his offense. In Lock’s last three starts, they beat Miami outright, covered against the Chiefs in KC, and beat the Panthers outright on the road. Jeudy, Patrick, and Hamler have been playing really well and the Broncos should be able to run the ball effectively. On the other hand, the Bills have been struggling to run the ball recently and that’s the Broncos' weakness on defense. They are great against the pass and should limit the hot Josh Allen.
Panthers +8.5 @ Packers o/u 51.5
Teddy as a road dog! We are back! Rodgers has historically been great as a home favorite but if you take away his last two games against inept offenses (Bears and Wentz-led Eagles), the Packers lost to the Vikings outright, almost lost to the Jags and did not cover the two home games before that so they are by no means invincible at home. Meanwhile, the Teddy trends remain strong:
Overall ATS: 33–13 (71.1%)
As a Dog: 23–6 (79.3%)
When an underdog over 3 points: 13–3 ATS (81.3%)
The Teddy trends have stayed true to form in Carolina. They are 0–3 ATS as a favorite this year but 6–3 ATS as an underdog. Despite CMC being out, Mike Davis should be able to run the ball effectively and the Panthers front-7 has some dudes who could make the big play needed to stay inside the number. I also like the motivation spot for Carolina despite being a team out of playoff contention.
They have a first-year head coach looking to prove himself and a first-year OC who is auditioning for NFL and CFB head coaching jobs. Plus, they have a ton of young guys looking to prove themselves for next year so they should keep playing hard and trying to win. Meanwhile, the Packers have to feel really good about securing the 1-seed so they could be a little slow.
49ers (-3) @ Cowboys o/u 45
I’m buying low on the Niners here and most definitely selling Andy Dalton high. Two weeks ago I told everyone and their mother that the 49ers would beat the Rams outright and they did just that. Then the next week everyone said “wow the 49ers are good let’s bet them this week” and I said “no, bet the Bills now” and the Bills dominated. Then the 49ers lost again last week to the WFT which honestly wasn’t a shocking upset to me and the Cowboys blew out the Bengals who I consider Jets-level at this point. The Cowboys don’t have enough on offense against this 49ers defense and the Cowboys are the dead last worst team in the NFL against the run which is exactly what San Fran wants to do. Mostert (if healthy) and Jeff Wilson should run all over them, control the game, and set up Mullens to succeed.
SEA/PIT/TEN ML Parlay (-108)
This is basically me just wanting to get the Seattle ML down to a good price. I’m selling high on Washington especially if Dwayne Haskins is playing QB. Alex Smith has made this WFT offense top-10 in the league the past few weeks doing what we saw him do in KC, which is being an elite game manager. Haskins has been one of the worst-rated QBs in the league by every metric when he has played and Antonio Gibson is looking like he’ll also miss the game Sunday. Even if Smith and Gibson play I love how the Seahawks defense is playing right now so I still like this spot. But without them, it should be a breeze. The WFT defense is really good but the Seahawks OL is playing well and Russell Wilson is still Russell Wilson. He should be able to get the ball to his playmakers and score enough points that WFT can’t keep up.
Derrick Henry is in beast mode right now and should run all over this Lions defense. Matt Stafford might not go and even if he does, he will be banged up and has played poorly this year when not 100% healthy. Lions are one of my dead teams as of this week. Meanwhile, the Steelers have lost two in a row so they should take advantage of this get-right spot against Cincy. I usually hate these large road favorite spots for Tomlin teams which is why I wouldn’t lay the points, but the Bengals are such an awful team, they have no life. The Steelers will win the game.
DISCLAIMER: I bet the Browns -4 earlier in the week but because of the Jones and Bradberry news the line has shifted to -6.5 and I would hold off betting it at that number. I also bet a Chargers/Bears teaser and if you missed that with the Chargers Thursday night then I would recommend a Browns -0.5/Bears +9 teaser to get in on those two teams.
Teasers
IND -1/NE +8.5- The Texans are dead. Deshaun Watson has publicly expressed his frustration and their offensive weapons have dwindled down to nothing. The Colts are playing really well on both sides of the ball and Jon Taylor just had a breakout game with the horrific Texans run defense on the horizon. Indy should control this game from the start.
Rookie QBs are 0–11 SU against Belichick in his last 11 times facing them. Belichick off a double-digit loss is 19–5 ATS. The Pats also have extra rest and if you see any New England ATS in Miami trends… throw those away. Brady famously hated playing in the humid Miami weather. It had nothing to do with the actual matchup. Cam Newton has spent most of his life in warm weather climates so it doesn’t bother him. The Patriots will be able to run the ball and their improving secondary with Belichick’s extra time could easily lead to an outright win. This is also a revenge spot after Miami beat the Pats in Week 17 last year to knock them out of a bye in the playoffs, so now the Pats could really hurt Miami’s playoff chances.
TB PK/ARI PK- The Bucs are playing pretty good football right now and they go to a Falcons team that is playing bad football. The Falcons have been pretty good defensively but without Julio Jones, this offense looks awful. Matt Ryan has played really poorly without Julio the last couple of weeks and has been significantly worse all season without him. That makes Ridley the top target for Ryan and he could have a tough week against Carlton Davis. Davis has been elite all season (except against Tyreek Hill) and even balled out last week against Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. Davis was only targeted four times and allowed five (5) total yards between the two receivers. The Bucs win this game.
The cap here is a sell-high on the Eagles, as well as the fact that the Eagles have no secondary right now. Everyone is high on Hurts after last week but I think that Eagles’ performance was similar to a post-HC getting fired game (a spot we’ve seen go 3–0 ATS this season) with Carson Wentz getting benched. The team was so happy to see him gone that everyone played better but as we’ve seen since with the Texans, Lions, and Falcons, those teams regress back to their norm.
I am still not a Hurts believer and now with tape, I think a really good DC like Vance Joseph will be able to game-plan for Hurts. As I said, the Eagles’ entire secondary is hurt and even if Darius Slay clears concussion protocol and plays, DeAndre Hopkins has been the outlier against elite shadow corners (and I don’t even consider Slay elite) so he should still dominate either way. Cards win a big one for them at home.
So to refresh, my card is:
CAR +8.5, SF -3, Browns -4, LAC +9/CHI +9, IND -1/NE +8.5, TB PK/ARI PK, and SEA/PIT/TEN ML parlay. And again, if you missed LAC and the Browns, make it a CLE/CHI teaser instead. If you have any other questions about any of the other games, or the games I did bet, you can always ask me on Twitter @BlakeyLocks! Let’s have a big weekend!
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https://gothamsn.com/nfl-week-15-betting-preview-8451575ed32
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['Blakey Locks']
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2020-12-18 20:11:27.349000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Gambling', 'Sports Betting', 'Sports']
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New Years Eve 2020
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Yesterday the blind follow went 2–2. Breaking even isn’t terrible, but I made a small adjustment to my model to include pace into the projections so hopefully that gives me more accurate numbers, and therefore better picks.
I hope your 2021 is better than 2020. Be a better you, and who cares if you try those bullshit mottos, new year new you, leave that shit behind in 2020 and go into 2021 with a bang. Like I am trying to do tonight.
Now the picks.
Bulls +6.5
The Bulls looked terrible in the beginning of the year getting blown out by 20 and 19 points. But after a good effort against the Warriors, which they should’ve won, and then beating the Wizards, I think they are going back to back. Mainly cause the Wizards stink, even with Russel Westbrook putting up triple doubles every night. Zach LaVine will be able to score enough to keep this game close.
My mode has Wizards -2.5
Kings +5.5
Tyrese Haliburton looks like a steal right now. He is pulling up from the logo with the confidence of a 6 year vet. Plus the Rockets are missing 2 key role players, and it is the first game for John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, and Eric Gordon, so I expect a lot of rust coming from the Rockets supporting cast. De’Aaron Fox will take advantage of John Wall, and we will finally see how healed that left ankle is.
My model has Kings -5
OKC Thunder +5.5
Lug Dortz is a god damn machine. Last year in the bubble he almost single handled took out the Rockets because of his defence against James Harden, and improved in the offseason with developing a respectable 3 point shot. Lug Dortz is going to shut down Brandon Ingram, and therefore ruin the chances of the Pelicans doing anything here. Eric Bledsoe and Lonzo Ball aren’t really working together in the back court, yes it is early but I just don’t like that combination. Shai is showing why he is going to be a superstar in this league, and Zion needs to work on his defence because right now he is a massive liability.
My model has OKC -2.5
Good luck, happy new year and happy betting
James
|
https://medium.com/jamesbets/new-years-eve-2020-7115a40070e9
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["James O'Dowda"]
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2020-12-31 17:22:15.274000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting', 'Betting', 'Betting Tips', 'Money']
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eSports betting — Nevada Signs Bill
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eSports betting — Nevada Signs Bill
In Nevada, a new law will let pari-mutuel wagering on the World Series of Poker, esports competitions and other nontraditional sporting events.
The Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a bill, SB 240 into law on Saturday after being unanimously approved by the Nevada Senate and Assembly. The law will be in effect starting the day of July 1.
“By adding ‘other events’, we are able to capture events like esports and the World Series of Poker,” sponsoring Sen. Becky Harris of District 9 told ESPN. “This allows for Nevada operators to use a pari-mutuel system of wagering. This allows for operators to offer bets they might not otherwise make.”
The bill was projected to alter the 464th chapter of Nevada Statutes, covering pari-mutuel betting. Prior to its approval, traditional sportsbook-style betting had been allowed on other events. The law will currently open new lines for other competitions not classified under the traditional Nevada sporting events and dog racing law.
Legal Online Gambling in the US
In the US, the legal way to gamble online is only if you’re in New Jersey and accessing one of the ensuing sites Resorts Casino, Betfair Casino, Golden Nugget Online Casino, SugarHouse Casino, Borgata Casino, Tropicana Casino etc.. You need to be 21 years or above so as to signup to play online slots, blackjack, video poker, roulette, table games, and bingo for real money….Presently, CS:GO betting is technically permissible, though it is not true online gambling. In the year 2018, people in Pennsylvania will also be allowed to make use of permissible online gambling sites.
The two styles of betting is differentiated in the way that pari-mutuel wagering allows gamblers to wager against one another, rather than contrary to a bookmaker, consequently removing tax and the house take. The pari-mutuel matchmaker takes a percentage, using the remainder being divided amid the winning bettors.
The update comes after effective sportsbook-style betting in many other events. It was in 2011 when Sportsbooks first opened betting for the final hand of the World Series of Poker. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has also permitted sportsbook betting in 2016 for esports competitions Intel Extreme Masters Oakland and later DreamHack Masters Las Vegas in the year 2017.
|
https://medium.com/itemsseeker-gaming/esports-betting-nevada-signs-bill-92a59fceea77
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[]
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2017-12-19 20:35:18.338000+00:00
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['Gambling', 'Nevada', 'Online Casino', 'Csgo', 'Sports Betting']
|
Whitepaper draft
|
Whitepaper draft
COIN-BET
Whitepaper version 1.6 under review
Comprehensive betting site based on block chain
COIN-BET is the comprehensive betting site based on ERC20 Smart Contract.
COIN-BET is the outsourcing company that develops PC mobile game and webpages including SPORTS BET and CASINO.
We have made 20 sports-bet sites and 7 casino in the past 5 years.
It was exported to countries such as Korea, China, Japan, etc.
Now we need only UI / UX designers.
Please evaluate only the functions that have already been completed.
ABSTRACT
We were developing lottery-styled gambling system to match the Ethereum Block Number. Although the development of multiple ONESTOP Gambling is not difficult work and there is the easiest way to maximize ICO investor’s profit with users’ convenience, I have a question about why most ICOs that operate Gambling do not provide these services.
It is not understandable why they do not provide the service together while Sports BET and E-Sports BET are perfectly same system.
By just registering to COIN-BET, user will no longer need to register to any other sites.
We addressed various ways to maximize ICO investor’s profit with user’s enhanced convenience, and we are willing to launch the service for all kind of GAMBLES with initiation of SPORTS BET service which is most profitable platform we have developed and supplied.
Try our demo version.
You will experience something amazing.
The development of sports betting and e-sports are almost completed, and horse racing, stock market, and ghost lag are being applied.
A trustworthy game to match numbers is already available.
For example, to bet with predicting trustworthy data is available for the unpredictable matching game such as “What is the traffic accident number of New York on yesterday?”
We sincerely appreciate all the Bitcointalk members who provide valuable advices for our development, and many people who requested anonymity.
We promise that we will be the first and biggest one-stop GAMBLE platform in the world.
Future Gambling!!
Now, COIN-BET starts with you.
Please read this white-paper for details of COIN-BET.
THE OVERVIEW OF GAMBLING MARKET
I would like to ask one question at first.
Do you have GAMBLE experience? I will listen to your answer later.
According to one of the biggest statistic information provider statista.com, the gambling market size in billion dollars is shown below.
20.5 BILLION USD at 2009
37.9 BILLION USD at 2015
47.1 BILLION USD at 2017
59.7 BILLION USD at 2020
As high-speed internet is widely supplied, the number of company that provides online gamble is being dramatically increased. This also indicates the prediction of incremental number of users who use online gamble sites. If you do not use a smartphone or internet, I would appreciate it if you close the window of this white paper.
It is well known that a lot of people are interested in gambling. But, the size of gambling market is, in fact, unpredictable.
The actual data for how many people enjoy the gambling in the world is, as a matter of fact, not easily calculated, and it can be abstract data which has a certain leveled trustworthy.
All the casino operators will not provide all tax information, and the companies who have not yet obtained license will not, of course, provide tax information. In addition, an accurate data for how many people in a certain country enjoy gambling is more difficult to acquire because of the emergence of Cryptocurrencies, which is attracting our attentions and is ensured a certain level of anonymity.
Now, I have asked a question at the beginning of this page. Do you have GAMBLE experience? No?? Have you ever purchased a lottery ticket or played rock-paper-scissor game? Congratulations. You are the person who has strong possibility of becoming COIN-BET user.
In some countries, tax legislation is being developed for Cryptocurrencies.
However, most countries have not yet established related regulations. Since it is not subject to taxation, this is excellent condition for ICO investors. This benefit is also applied to users.
Suppose you win a jackpot at casino and get $1,000,000. You can get the full amount if you choose 10-year division, but will you receive it in 10-year division? Maybe not, and you will want to get lump sum. If you choose lump sum amount to get, more than 30% of your prize money was disappeared. Somethings are left. Tax… Tax… Tax… How much money indeed can you get? I leave it to your imagination.
In conclusion, it must be true that we are great lucky persons.
It is because that there is Cryptocurrencies for us. The online gambling market using Cryptocurrencies has unlimited growth potential. Most of the many problems that are brought in existing casinos can be solved. You can enjoy various fun games in everywhere if you have internet connection, of course, as well as perfect fair play. At COIN-BET.
There is one more point to go over.
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The OVERVIEW OF COIN-BET OPERATION
COIN_BET completed the test of some part of service with progress of the initial platform operation stage by stage, and ICO will be held before the final test and official service launch. After ICO, a beta test will be provided for anyone to participate before official service. The whole system operation of COIN-BET will be controlled by ERC20 SMARTCONTRACT, and it means that developer, server administration, etc. including anyone cannot be involved in the operations. All transactions will be recorded on BLOCKCHAIN, and anyone can read.
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|
https://medium.com/@coin_bet/whitepaper-draft-acd69aa18893
|
[]
|
2017-12-18 01:45:43.404000+00:00
|
['ICO', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Investors', 'Sports Betting', 'Esport']
|
NBA Day 3 — Christmas Day. No games today (Christmas Eve), and…
|
No games today (Christmas Eve), and with a busy day tomorrow for myself I thought about writing this tonight to talk about a few things while I have the time. First, let’s set the record, I went 3/4 on the 23rd, 3/5 if you include the parlay, which brings my season total to 5/7. Not bad for someone who started taking this seriously only about a month ago.
Christmas Day Schedule
Now, for the betting lesson of the day, I am going to answer the question I get the most from my friends about betting. What in the world is the spread? For beginners that don’t know the terminology, that is the +/- number beside a teams name, and that number means, when you bet on a team how much you think they are going to win/lose by. For example, the opening game for the Raptors was against the Pelicans. The Raptors were 4.5 point favourites, which would look like Raptors -4.5 on most betting sites, and then the Pelicans would be 4.5 point underdogs, which would look like Pelicans +4.5 on most betting sites. Now for betting why does this matter? Well, it is because you are giving a team a handicap. If I bet the Raptors as favourites, that means I think the Raptors are going to win by at least 4.5 points, so imagine the Raptors are down 4.5 points to the Pelicans before the tipoff. So for me to win this bet I need the Raptors to win by at least 5 points, because there are no half points in basketball, and if they only win by 4 points, I lose because of those 4.5 points I gave the Pelicans before the tip. If I bet the Pelicans as underdogs, it is the opposite, I think the Pelicans are going to lose the game by less than 4.5 points, so the Pelicans start the game up 4.5–0. I win this bet if they lose by less than 4.5 or win the game outright. This is a quick and easy way to think about the spread, in the simplest way possible just imagine the team you are betting on starting with the points beside their name, +/-. Easy…. right?
Happy Holidays, enjoy my picks below
Clippers (+1)
I was lucky, I bet this game on the 23rd when the line had yet to move, it is now at Clippers -2.5, so I got a good number. I think the Clippers are going to walk all over the Nuggets, yes Jokic will give the interior of the Clippers defence some issues, but that was the case last year and they will want revenge on this team after blowing that 3–1 lead in the Conference Finals. MPJ is going to have a tough time scoring against arguably the best defender in the NBA, Kawhi Leonard, and Jamal Murray will be guarded by PG13 and Patrick Beverley all night, which doesn’t sound like a good time. Taking out 2 of the teams 3 best offensive threats, plus the line moving against them, and the Nuggets having to go into OT their first game of the season… ooof. Clippers have revenge game on their mind.
My model has the Clippers -5.7
Lakers (-6)
This is going to be the game to watch on Christmas. LeBron vs Luka. What more could you ask for this Christmas. However, without Kristaps Porzingis in the line up again, this will be too easy for the Lakers. AD will have his way on the interior of the Dallas defence, and with the additions of Dennis Schroder and Montrezl Harrell looking to settle in even more after an impressive first game in the purple and gold, Lakers take this easily. Also, my friend Vic in LA might have a heart attack if the Lakers start 0–2 so I gotta pick this game in hopes for his health.
My model has the Lakers -4.2
Bucks (-9.5)
Another game where I bet early and it paid off. The line opened at -7.5, I got it at -9.5 and it is currently at -10.5. The reason? Warriors stink without Klay Thompson. Steph Curry tried his hardest against the Nets, but with Wiggins shooting like the guy at the YMCA who was a “torn ACL away from the NBA” and Kelly Oubre blaming the double rim for his 2–14 performance in game one, I have no faith until proven other wise. James Wiseman was the one bright spot to this team but his minutes are limited since he missed all the preseason, and I doubt Steve Kerr is going to throw him to the wolves against Giannis and the new look Bucks. Speaking of Giannis, this is his revenge game for what happened at the end of the Celtics game. For those of you who missed it, he bricked a game tying FT and blew a chance to go to OT. He is pissed about that, and will take all of his anger out on the Warriors and the poor rim they choose to wheel out on the court tomorrow. I also didn’t mention how good Jrue looked on the Bucks and Middleton is one of the more consistent players in the NBA. Bucks by 100 if I could.
My model has the Bucks -16.6
Heat -5
The spread has moved against me in this game, and you can currently get it at Heat -3.5, which I love even more than what I got it at. I think there was a little bit of a finals hangover in the first game for the Heat against the Magic, and that rust will be worn off by now. Zion and Ingram will have a tough time scoring against Jimmy and Bam. The Pelicans will have to pick their poison with Tyler Herro and Gorgan Dragic, whichever one is being guarded by JJ Reddick will set the world on fire. Lonzo looks lost out on the court as well, since the addition of Eric Bledsoe has taken away his primary ball handling duties. The Heat burned me last time, I hope they don’t make it two for two.
My model has the Heat -7
Good luck, and happy betting.
James
|
https://medium.com/@james-odowda/nba-day-3-christmas-day-2aeac8f120cd
|
["James O'Dowda"]
|
2020-12-25 04:55:14.886000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting', 'Betting', 'Money', 'Win']
|
Heart of Dallas Bowl
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Christmas break is over, the Aloha Bowl ended up sucking, back to business. Boxing Day kicks off with the Heart of Dallas Bowl between the Utah Utes and the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The line for this game opened Utah -6.5 with a total of 57 and it essentially has not moved. The line briefly ticked up to Utah -7 but, is back down to -6.5 while the total sits at 56.5.
These teams are surprising close in a lot of statistical categories. Let’s start the comparison with the expected points.
This explains that West Virginia, typical of a Big 12 team, scored about 5 points more than could be expected against their schedule. While Utah allowed about 5 points less than could be expected against their schedule. According to this there is about 3 or 4 points of value on W. Va and maybe a little value on the over (although totals have been heart breaking this bowl season).
The expected points shows some value on West Virgina and the yards per play backs that up.
As mentioned in previous bowl previews team with more than 3.5 points of value in this metric perform extremely well in bowl season.
These two teams are remarkably similar in the rest of the stats usually presented here.
It looks like W. Virginia is going to be a little better at stopping Utah on 3rd down but, Utah is better at sacking the qb and is a little better at preventing explosive plays.
There is not a lot to choose from between these two teams on paper. But, the coaching match-up and some motivation could provide separation. While the Big 12 has kind of owned the PAC in bowl games recently, West Virginia is facing one of the best bowl coaches in history. Utah’s Kyle Whittingham is a whopping 10–1 in bowls as Utah’s head coach. He served under Urban Meyer on the Utah staff before being named head coach and every one should be well aware of Urban’s record with time to prepare. It would appear Whittingham learned well. The Utah players should also be fairly excited. Well it was an underwhelming year for the Utes, (they started out 4–0 and then had a brutal 3–6 record in conference play) they did have to win at home to finish the season and qualify for bowl season. Whittingham will have them ready for this game. On the other side of the field, West Virginia sports one the most under-whelming coaches in the Power 5. Other than last seasons surprising 10–3 finish, Dana Holgorsen has led the Mountaineers to a lot of 7–6 and 7–5 seasons in the Big 12, never really being a title threat. West Virginia comes into this game missing their starting qb (injury) and their starting rb (draft prep).
Have to side with Whittingham here; ignoring the yards per play advantage and taking the Utes.
Utah -6.5,
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/heart-of-dallas-bowl-536c0262936
|
[]
|
2017-12-26 15:37:18.425000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Arizona Bowl
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The fourth bowl on Friday might be one of the worst match-ups of the post season. But, there is always a chance to make some money.
The game features the New Mexico St Aggies and the Utah St Aggies. A Battle of the Aggies!
The line opened NMST -3 but, has moved all the way to Utah St -5.5, the most extreme move the bowl season.
The expected points scored and expected points allowed point to a small advantage for Utah St.
The problem here for NMST lies in their inability to hold teams below what should be expected. They are allowing just about 6 points more per game than they should.
In yards per play though, we revert back to a situation similar to some of the earlier bowls. A huge advantage for the dog.
Digging into the efficiency stats shows New Mexico matches up pretty well and may back up that 8 point advantage in yards per play.
Utah St holds the advantage in both red zone categories while New Mexico St holds the advantage in both 3rd down metrics.
The defensive specific metrics are split and don’t show any decided advantage. This should be a tight game. And hopefully motivation swings it the way of New Mexico St. They haven’t played in a bowl game since, wait for it…. 1960. Its a four hour drive. The players and the fan base should be jacked. NMST should keep this close and hopefully eek one out.
NMST +5.5
Good Luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/arizona-bowl-a62adcdf86d1
|
[]
|
2017-12-29 22:42:36.078000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
Kansas City Chiefs vs Denver Broncos: Free NFL Spread Pick, 12–31–2017
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Kansas City Chiefs vs Denver Broncos: Free NFL Spread Pick, 12–31–2017
Free NFL Spread Pick by Vincent King
Kansas City Chiefs (9–6) vs Denver Broncos (5–10)
NFL: Sunday, December 31, 4:25 PM EST
Line: Broncos -4, 38
Last Meeting: 10/30/17 DEN 19 KC 29
Trends:
Chiefs are 9–1 ATS in their last 10 vs. AFC West
Broncos are 3–7 ATS vs. a team with a winning record
Broncos are 2–9 ATS in their last 11 games overall
Chiefs are 4–0 ATS in their last 4 meetings
The Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos will close out their regular season schedule on Sunday afternoon at Sports Authority Field. The Broncos will be glad the offseason is in their sights but the Chiefs have clinched their second straight AFC West title and will be moving on to the playoffs. Nevertheless, oddsmakers have the Broncos favored by -4 points at home. The Kansas City Chiefs listed seven players as questionable for Sunday’s game and also announced that Tyreek Hill will not play.
Rookie QB Patrick Mahomes will get the first start of his career as the Chiefs have decided to rest Alex Smith. Mahomes will want to rely heavily on fellow rookie RB Kareem Hunt. Hunt has 1292 yards with seven TDs to lead the KC rushers and has already broken the KC franchise record and is within striking distance of the league rushing title. It’s undetermined how long Andy Reid will leave Hunt in the game but we expect Hunt to get some touches early on. The Chiefs defense was outstanding again last week, holding the Dolphins to a 0 for 8 on third downs. They have been much better the last three weeks after a rough stretch defensively, and are now allowing an average of 21 points per game.
Paxton Lynch is expected to get the start at QB for the Broncos. Lynch has only appeared in one game this season and owns a 2:2 TD to INT ratio in four career games. The Broncos offense could not get into a rhythm all season due to their quarterback issues and are only averaging 17.7 points per game. The Broncos defense was not as effective as year’s past, however, they still feature the third-ranked rush defense. The question is how much do the Broncos have left in the tank? The Chiefs should have more motivation to play well even with their backups playing the majority of this game. Both teams will have inexperienced quarterbacks on the field but the motivation to end the regular season in the win column is still incentive enough for Kansas City to beat their rival. Take the points in this matchup with KC winning a close one.
Chiefs vs Broncos FREE Pick: Chiefs +4
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/kansas-city-chiefs-vs-denver-broncos-free-nfl-spread-pick-12-31-2017-c8f4ba633698
|
['Vc Sports Monitor']
|
2017-12-31 19:20:14.041000+00:00
|
['Sports', 'NFL', 'Denver Broncos', 'Sports Betting']
|
Potato Bowl Preview and Prediction: Central Michigan Chippewas vs. Wyoming Cowboys, 12–22–2017
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Free College Football Spread Pick by Precision Picks.com
Central Michigan Chippewas vs Wyoming Cowboys
FREE CFB Bowl Prediction
Line: Wyoming -3, 45.5
Game Time: Friday, December 22nd, 4:00 PM EST
The Central Michigan Chippewas and Wyoming Cowboys will square off on the famous blue turf in Boise for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Kick off is at 4:00 pm and oddsmakers have the Cowboys pegged as -3 point favorites. Central Michigan is making a fourth straight trip to a bowl game while Wyoming is in back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 1988.
Central Michigan comes into this one with an 8–4 record on the year. The Chippewas won their last five games against Ball State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State and Northern Illinois. The Chippewas were 6–2 in MAC play, finishing a game behind Toledo in the West Division. The Chippewas average 29.7 points while their defense allows 26.8 PPG.
The Chippewas are led by QB Shane Morris who threw for 2908 yards with 26 TDs and 13 INTs this season, and Central Michigan’s top rusher is Jonathan Ward with 988 rushing yards.
Wyoming is fairly confident that QB Josh Allen will suit up on Fridayafter missing the last two games with a sprained AC joint. The Cowboys had a three-game win streak going but dropped their final pair against Fresno State and San Jose State. Josh Allen leads the Cowboys passing game with 1658 yards, 13 TDs, and six picks, and Trey Woods is the leading rusher on 133 carries, 474 yards, and two TDs.
Josh Allen is an NFL quarterback prospect and was regarded as one of the top quarterbacks in college football entering this season. The talent surrounding Allen is not great and his numbers suffered this season. The star of this team has been their defense. Wyoming currently stands 13th in scoring defense as they allow an average of 17.8 points per contest.
Even if Josh Allen plays, Wyoming figures to have a tough time matching the offensive output of the Chippewas. CMU has rattled off five straight wins and averaged 41 PPG over this time. Wyoming simply doesn’t have the athletes on offense to support Josh Allen. Take the Chippewas +3 as live dogs.
Central Michigan vs Wyoming: CMU +3
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/potato-bowl-preview-and-prediction-central-michigan-chippewas-vs-wyoming-cowboys-12-22-2017-2ffdf98ea7
|
['Precision Picks']
|
2017-12-21 12:49:25.792000+00:00
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['Sports', 'College Football', 'NCAAF', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
|
Gildan New Mexico Bowl
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Gildan New Mexico Bowl
The fourth bowl of opening day is the New Mexico Bowl between Marshall and Colorado State (The previous bowl is previewed here).This should be a fun bowl to watch as its a fresh match-up -these two teams have never played and in fact Marshall has pretty much zero experience playing Mountain West teams — they played BYU in 1999 and BYU isn’t even in the Mountain West anymore.
The line for this game opened Colorado St -5.5 with a total of 58…. and it just sat there all week. This game had the least amount of line movement of any bowl game. And then this morning, bam, someone with some cash smacked Marshall and they are down to +3.5 across the board. Its true that 5.5 is a pretty dead number. And that’s true right down to 4.5. But, 4 means something. So, if Marshall was the play… the best number is gone.
Lets first see what this spread should be based on expected points scored and expected points allowed. The breakdown looks like this:
This chart explains that not only was Colorado St -5.5 probably a bad line, Colorado St -3.5 is still a bad line. It appears Marshall should be favoured by 3.5.
A second way to try and generate a theoretical spread is to look not at expected points scored and allowed but, at yards per play and yards per play allowed. That comparison is as follows:
Again, it looks like Marshall should be favoured or at least a pick’em. This was obviously created when the spread was 5.5 but, the same premise holds true. There is just 4 points of value in the spread now, not 6.
Some stats to look at that, while not really creating a spread, can help identify what a team’s chances of finishing drives are and what a teams chances of maintaining drives are, would be red zone efficiency and 3rd down efficiency. They look this:
It appears that Colorado St may have a slightly better chance to score once they reach the end zone and a slightly better chance to maintain drives and reach the red zone. However, Marshall has a much bigger advantage on the defensive side of the ball which should manifest itself in better success at stopping Colorado St from scoring once in the red zone and stopping Colorado St from continuing their drives.
This defensive advantage is made even more clear when the teams are compared using the following stats:
Marshall is going to sack the quarterback more (albeit not by much), they’re going to tackle Colorado St behind the line of scrimmage more, and they’re going to do a much better job holding Colorado St scoreless on drives (these last two stats, stop rate and points allowed per drive aren’t even that close). This points to Marshall winning the field position battle and probably wearing Colorado State down as the game progresses.
There is some concern when it comes to how explosive Colorado St’s offence can be.
They have one of the most explosive offence’s in college football. But, Marshall is fairly good at stopping explosive plays on defence. This should be the pivotal point of the match-up. Can Marshall’s stop rate hold up against this explosive offence?
One more thing to consider is strength of schedule. This should always be observed in bowl games. And while, relatively speaking, they both played terrible schedules, Colorado St did play a slightly tougher one -87 vs 102.
As far as the “spot” goes, Marshall should be a tad more motivated. They missed out an bowl last year and in the 13 bowls the university of Marshall has played none have been even close to this far west; in fact, they’ve only crossed the Mississippi once to play a bowl and it was in Fort Worth. So, the players should be pumped. Additionally, Marshall has no coaching turnover to worry about. There is stability there. Doc Holliday isn’t going anywhere. Furthermore, Doc Holliday has a fantastic record in bowls. He is 4–0 straight up, winning bowl games in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Conversely, Colorado St actually plays in New Mexico almost every other year. In fact, they played here this year. And Colorado St has played in a bowl for four straight years, this is not necessarily going to be an “experience” for them.
Is Marshall more motivated and can they shut down/slow down the Rams offence? The bet here is yes. Take Marshall. Definitely should have gotten this preview out Thursday or Friday but, life…. If the line move, and “chasing steam” is bothersome, wait for a live line. Hope CSU scores first, then grab Marshall at +6 or higher. Or, be bold, ride Doc Holliday and take Marshall outright.
Marshall +3.5,
Good luck
|
https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/gildan-new-mexico-bowl-b0b95a159413
|
[]
|
2017-12-16 14:41:13.752000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
|
College Football 2017 Bowl Picks Against The Spread
|
College Football 2017 Bowl Picks Against The Spread
Bowl season is here. Here are my picks against the spread, excluding playoff games. Here is a post on bowl betting trends for The All-American.
Bowl games, semi-random exhibitions a month-plus after the season, can be hard to predict. General advice: Fade consensus. Fade bigger name G5 teams where the performance adds up. Pay attention to which team wants to be there. Take the points.
My best bets have an *.
New Orleans: North Texas (-6.5) vs. Troy
Cure: Georgia State (-6.5) vs. Western Kentucky
Las Vegas: Oregon (-7.5) vs. Boise State
Oregon is a much, much better team with Justin Herbert healthy at quarterback. The 2018 Heisman buzz starts here.
New Mexico: Marshall (+5.5) vs. Colorado State
Camellia: Middle Tennessee (+3.5) vs. Arkansas State
Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic (-22.5) vs. Akron
This is not a de facto home game for FAU. It’s a true home game. FAU ranks 12th in S&P+. Akron ranks 110th.
Frisco: Louisiana Tech (+5) vs. SMU
SMU lost Chad Morris. Louisiana Tech had four one-score losses. Too many points.
Gaspirilla: Temple (-7) vs. Florida International
Bahamas: Ohio (-7.5) vs. UAB
Potato: Central Michigan (+1) vs. Wyoming
Birmingham: Texas Tech (+2.5) vs. South Florida
The best team USF beat was Temple, 86th in S&P+.
Armed Forces: Army (+7) vs. San Diego State
Dollar General: Toledo (-7.5) vs. Appalachian State
Hawaii: Houston (+2.5) vs. Fresno State
Fresno State has lost its last six bowl games outright and ATS. The last four weren’t even close.
Heart of Dallas: Utah (-7)* vs. West Virginia
Trust Kyle Whittingham in bowl games. He’s 10–1 straight up and 8–3 ATS at Utah. Holgo is 0–4 ATS since dropping 70 on Dabo after 2011.
Quick Lane: Northern Illinois (+5.5) vs. Duke
Nothing inspires a P5 team like spending Christmas in Detroit to play a MAC team. One of the nation’s top efficiency defenses against a Duke team head to 17 points or fewer five times in ACC play.
Cactus: UCLA (+2) vs. Kansas State
Snyder is the anti-Willingham when it comes to bowl play. The Wildcats are 3–7 overall in his last 10 bowl games, 2–8 ATS.
Independence: Southern Miss (+15.5) vs. Florida State
High efficiency Southern Miss defense vs. low efficiency Florida State offense. FSU in a crappy bowl after a disappointing season and having their coach fired. Statistically, it’s not clear why Southern Miss isn’t favored.
Pinstripe: Boston College (+2.5) vs. Iowa
Iowa in bowl games is the opposite of Iowa at home in late autumn. The Hawkeyes have lost their last five, going 1–4 ATS. Roll with the dudes.
Foster Farms: Purdue (+4)* vs. Arizona
Arizona lost by two touchdowns or more to every team not Oregon State in November. Purdue has a top 10 run efficiency defense. Rich Rodriguez is 3–7 ATS in 10 bowl games at West Virginia, Michigan, and Arizona.
Texas: Missouri (-3) vs. Texas
Missouri won six-straight to close the season, scoring 45-plus points in each game. Not sure Texas has the offense to stay in this one. Don’t trust the Longhorns to keep the lid on Mizzou’s explosive passing game.
Military: Navy (-1) vs. Virginia
The best unit is Navy’s offense.
Camping World: Virginia Tech (+4.5)* vs. Oklahoma State
VT has far and away the best defense Oklahoma State has faced in 2017.
Alamo: Stanford (+2.5) vs. TCU
Stanford tends to be quite solid ATS in bowl games.
Holiday: Washington State (-2.5) vs. Michigan State
Michigan State is great at stopping the run and limiting explosive plays. Washington State throws it all the time and relies on efficiency.
Belk: Wake Forest (-3) vs. Texas A&M
The Aggies’ last convincing performance against a P5 team came in September.
Sun: Arizona State (+6.5) vs. N.C. State
ASU beat three top 40 S&P+ teams. This feels like too many points.
Music City: Kentucky (+7) vs. Northwestern
Trust one of the nation’s least explosive offenses to build up or hang onto a multiple score lead? Nope.
Cotton: Ohio State (-7.5)* vs. USC
USC played one Top 25 SRS team, Notre Dame, and lost by 35. Ohio State is better than the Trojans at pretty much everything, except passing their way out of long downs (which they won’t be in because USC can’t stop their run game).
Arizona: New Mexico State (-4) vs. Utah State
Taxslayer: Mississippi State (+6.5) vs. Louisville
Mississippi State can give Louisville problems in the trenches and make them one-dimensional. Too many points.
Liberty: Memphis (-3.5) vs. Iowa State
Memphis’ passing game should overwhelm the Cyclones.
Fiesta: Washington (+2)* vs. Penn State
Penn State lost Joe Moorhead. Washington has Chris Petersen with time to prepare and is the nation’s best defense at stopping explosive plays.
Orange: Miami (+6.5) vs. Wisconsin
Wisconsin is playing a consolation game. Miami is playing a home game and its first major bowl game since 2004.
Outback Bowl: Michigan (-7.5)* vs. South Carolina
Michigan has a point to prove and a healthy quarterback. South Carolina fired its offensive coordinator ahead of facing Michigan’s defense.
Peach Bowl: UCF (+9.5) vs. Auburn
Scott Frost is staying to send UCF off with an undefeated season. Auburn has nothing to play for.
Citrus: LSU (-3) vs. Notre Dame
LSU trended upward toward the season’s end. Notre Dame trended downward on both sides of the ball and got smoked by two comparable teams in Miami and Stanford.
|
https://medium.com/@tyduffy/college-football-2017-bowl-picks-against-the-spread-d7618a19e149
|
['Tyler Duffy']
|
2017-12-15 15:40:33.794000+00:00
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['Sports', 'College Football', 'Gambling', 'Sports Betting']
|
Los Angeles Lakers vs New York Knicks Free NBA Spread Prediction, 12–12–2017
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Free NBA Pick by Samar Baht of Sports Picks Forum
Los Angeles Lakers vs New York Knicks Free NBA Prediction
NBA: Tuesday, December 12th 7:00 PM EST
Odds: Knicks -3.5, 213
An inter-conference clash between the Los Angles Lakers and the New York Knicks take the court in our Tuesday night featured matchup. The New York Knicks (13–13) will be 3.5-point favorites at home in Madison Square Garden and the Over/Under (O/U) opened at 212 points. Both teams defeated their last opponent. The Knicks defeated the Atlanta Hawks 111–107, while the Lakers beat the Charlotte Hornets 110–99.
Los Angeles won the first two games of this four-game Eastern road swing by downing Philadelphia and Charlotte. The Lakers are 14th in the league in scoring offense as they put up 106 points per game and they are 4th in rebounding. The Lakers stand 24th in the league in scoring defense as they allow 108.7 points per night. Brandon Ingram averages a team-high 16.2 points per game while Jordan Clarkson chips in 15.2 points a night. Lonzo Ball adds 8.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game.
The Knicks have played much better on their home court (12–5) which is one of the better home court records in the NBA. Kristaps Porzingis leads this Knicks team with 25.5 PPG and presents a mismatch playing the power forward position at 7'3". Enes Kanter has been a nice addition to this team, Kanter came from the Thunder in the Carmelo Trade. Kanter is leading the Knicks in rebounds with 10.3 per game. The Knicks are averaging 104 points per game and giving up 103.8 to their opponents.
The Lakers score the most points in the paint in the league this season, scoring 54.5 points in there per game. The Knicks, though, have been the second-best team at defending inside, allowing just 39.5 points per game. The Lakers also concede the most points in the paint in the NBA, and the Knicks will be hoping to capitalize on that given they are a top ten team in this category. The battle of the paint is always important in Lakers games, and the stats suggest they will be up against it in this one.
The Knicks are a much better team at home this season and they are 10–3 ATS in their last 13 home games, 6–1 ATS in their last 7 vs. Western Conference and they are 7–2 ATS in their last 9 home games vs. a team with a losing road record. I am backing the Knicks (-3.5) at home in this matchup vs the Lakers.
Lakers vs Knicks FREE Pick: Knicks -3.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/los-angeles-lakers-vs-new-york-knicks-free-nba-spread-prediction-12-12-2017-3d3990726a5c
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['Sports Picks Forum']
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2017-12-12 13:18:31.385000+00:00
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['NBA', 'Los Angeles Lakers', 'New York Knicks', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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New England Patriots vs Pittsburgh Steelers Free NFL O/U Pick, 12–17–2017
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Free NFL Pick by Vincent King of King Sports Picks
New England Patriots (10–3) vs Pittsburgh Steelers (11–2)
NFL: Sunday, December 17, 4:25 PM EST
Line: Steelers +2.5, O/U 54.5
Last Meeting: 1/22/17 PIT 17 NE 36
Trends:
Patriots are 4–1 ATS in their last 5 meetings in Pittsburgh
Over is 5–2 in the last 7 meetings in Pittsburgh
Steelers are 12–5 ATS in their last 17 games in December
Two of the top teams in the AFC collide on the gridiron Sunday afternoon when the New England Patriots travel to the steel city to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh holds the top spot in the AFC but New England would move ahead of Pittsburgh with a win. These teams last met in the AFC Championship last season with the Patriots winning 36–17.
New England may have been looking ahead to this matchup last weekend when they lost in Miami on Monday Night Football. The Patriots look to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season and regain the #1 seed in the AFC. The Patriots have won six of their last seven road games. The Patriots perennially have one of the top offenses in the league and this season is no different. However, it may be their defense that has stepped up their game this season. After conceding 32 PPG through Week 1 -4, they have come together as a unit and are allowing 19.2 points and 374.6 yards per game. New England’s defense will need to play their best game of the season facing Big Ben and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pittsburgh has rattled off eight straight wins and their last loss came on October 8th vs Jacksonville. This will be a playoff type atmosphere considering what is at stake. The Steelers surged into sole possession of first place in the AFC thanks to their 39–38 Sunday night win over Baltimore combined with New England’s unexpected loss to Miami. They can clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a win this weekend.
Pittsburgh has not fared well vs the Tom Brady and the Patriots. Pittsburgh is 4–12 ATS in the last 16 meetings and 1–4 ATS in their last five at home against New England. This may be their best chance to turn the tide in their favor. However, my focus has been on this Total. Both offenses have multiple weapons and while the defenses have played well, the play here is Over 54.5 The Over is 5–2 in the last 7 meetings in Pittsburg and 9–4 in the last 13 meetings. The Over is 7–1 in Patriots last 8 games when playing on Sunday following a Monday night game. I expect both offenses to battle Sunday afternoon and exceed the Total of 54.5.
Patriots vs Steelers FREE Pick: Over 54.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/new-england-patriots-vs-pittsburgh-steelers-free-nfl-o-u-pick-12-17-2017-42bcd879e73d
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['Vc Sports Monitor']
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2017-12-17 12:45:51.739000+00:00
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['NFL', 'New England Patriots', 'Pittsburgh Steelers', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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New Mexico Bowl Prediction: Marshall vs Colorado State, 12–16–2017
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New Mexico Bowl Prediction: Marshall vs Colorado State, 12–16–2017
Free College Football Bowl Prediction by Precision Picks
Marshall Thundering Herd vs Colorado St. Rams
Line: Colorado State -5.5, O/U 58
Game Time: Saturday, December 16th, 4:30 PM EST
The Colorado State Rams will collide with the Marshall Thundering Herd in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, December 16th from Dreamstyle Stadium in Albuquerque, NM. Both teams enter the New Mexico Bowl with (7–5) records and had promising starts to the season, only to fade off down the stretch. Oddsmakers have pegged the Rams as -5.5 point favorites with the Over/Under at 58.
Marshall had a great start to their season, starting the year off with a 6–1 record, however, struggled down the stretch losing 4 of their last 5 games. The Thundering Herd averaged 26.8 points per contest, including 237.8 passing and 132 rushing yards per game to add up to a grand total of 369.8 total yards. Quarterback Chase Litton led the Marshall offense, completing 60 percent of his passes for 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The heart and soul of this team is their defense. Their rush defense is tremendous, and their pass defense was also very effective this season: 212 passing yards per game, 125 rushing yards per game and 19.2 PPG.
The Colorado State Rams will be playing in their fifth straight bowl game and will be aiming for their first bowl win since the 2013 season. Colorado State was mentioned as a Mountain West title contender in the preseason and appeared to be on track to play for the division title in November after the 6–2 start. But the Rams stumbled in late October with a loss to Air Force (45–28), followed by defeats to Wyoming (16–13) and Boise State (59–52 in overtime). CSU features a potent offensive attack led by QB Nick Stevens (27 TD/10 INT), WR Michael Gallup (1345 receiving yards, 7 TDs) and RB Dalyn Dawkins who has accumulated 1349 rushing yards on the season.
The biggest hole in this team’s armor has been their defense. On average, they allow 27.5 PPG, 184 rushing yards per game and 243 passing yards per game.
The Thundering Herd are 5–0 ATS in their last 5 bowl games while the Rams are 2–5 ATS in their last 7 bowl games. The biggest concern for Colorado State entering this game is the motivation factor. This is not the bowl game Colorado State envisioned entering the 2017 season. However, all three top offensive players in this Rams offense are seniors and will be playing their last game for CSU. This should provide enough motivation to end on a high note and lead their team to a victory. One concern for Marshall is the level of competition they played this season. When Marshall played NC State and WKU — arguably the top two passing offenses it faced this season — the defense gave up over 300 passing yards.
This Rams offense should be too much for Marshall and the Rams should cover by a touchdown.
Marshall vs Colorado St: Colorado State -5.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/new-mexico-bowl-prediction-marshall-vs-colorado-state-12-16-2017-ae66014d1cc9
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['Precision Picks']
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2017-12-14 12:07:46.585000+00:00
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['College Football', 'NCAAF', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers Free NFL Pick, 12–10–2017
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Free NFL Total Prediction by Kris Saint of King Sports Picks
Baltimore Ravens (7–5) vs Pittsburgh Steelers (10–2)
NFL: Sunday, December 10, 8:25 PM EST
Line: Steelers -4.5, O/U 43.5
Last Meeting: 10/1/17 PIT 26 BAL 9
Trends:
Ravens are 0–3–1 ATS in their last 4 games following an ATS win
Steelers are 5–1–1 ATS in their last 7 games following an ATS loss
Under is 4–1–1 in the last 6 meetings
A pair of NFC North rivals takes the field for Sunday Night Football when the Baltimore Ravens travel to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh holds a three-game lead over Baltimore with four to play, so a division title for the Ravens is unlikely. However, Baltimore leads the AFC Wildcard by 1 game over a host of teams so a win is imperative to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Ravens defense struggled to stop the run earlier in the season, but over their last five games, they have not allowed more than 78 yards on the ground. Baltimore will need a complete defensive effort to stop one of the best backs in football. Le’Veon Bell is averaging 147 yards from scrimmage and leads the NFL in that category with 1,559 yards on the season. Another key to this matchup will be Baltimore’s ability to force turnovers. Ben Roethlisberger loves to air it out but he has been prone to throwing interceptions and has 13 on the year. The Ravens lead the NFL with 20 interceptions and 29 takeaways.
Pittsburgh will need to exploit the secondary that will be without CB Jimmy Smith. Who else will be able to do that better than Antonio Brown? Brown leads the NFL with 88 catches for 1,296 yards and nine touchdowns. Will the Ravens secondary be able to stop the best receiver in football? No one has yet.
This will be a hard-hitting, AFC North style football game. Sunday night’s total is set at 43.5 points. The UNDER is 4–1 in the last five games between these two teams and I expect this trend to consider.
Ravens vs Steelers FREE Pick: Under 43.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/baltimore-ravens-vs-pittsburgh-steelers-free-nfl-pick-12-10-2017-44064b41bc30
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['Vc Sports Monitor']
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2017-12-10 11:51:42.594000+00:00
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['NFL', 'Baltimore Ravens', 'Pittsburgh Steelers', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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Military Bowl
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Military Bowl
The first game of the day on Thursday is the Military Bowl in Annapolis. Its pits returning participant Navy against the Virginia Cavaliers.
The line for this opened Navy -3.5 with a total of 56. Both those numbers have come down dramatically. The spread now sits at Navy -1 with a total of 51.5.
The expected points scored and expected points allowed point to some big value on the Midshipmen.
It looks like Navy’s great ability to hold opponents below their expected score by almost 5 points is helping produce an expected spread of -6.5.
The yards per play backs that value up on Navy. This metric shows that the spread is spot on.
Digging a little deeper into some efficiency stats shows some potential dominance for the Cavaliers.
Navy is definitely going to convert more 3rd downs and is looks like they have marginally more success in the red zone than Virginia. But, Virginia has some serious advantages on the defensive side of the ball. Their 3rd down defense will hopefully offset the 3rd down offense of Navy (same sized advantage). The red zone defense is where Virginia could shine. A 19 point advantage in shutting teams down in the red zone is substantial.
Looking into defensive specific stats only increases Virginia’s advantage on that side of the ball.
Virginia has significant advantages across the board. Putting Navy in bad field position and making them drive the whole field without throwing the all should pay off in the second half.
Virginia should also be super motivated to be here. While Navy plays a bowl game almost every year, to middling results (4–5 under Niumatalolo), and was actually in this home bowl 2 years ago, Virginia hasn’t been a bowl game since 2011. Not only that but, new coach Bronco Mendenhall has authored a decent start to the programs turn-around. Virginia went 2–10 and has a chance this year to win 7 games for the first time since that 2011 bowl season.
All of this is on top of that fact that Navy is coming off a crushing loss to Army for the Commander in-Chief trophy a few weeks ago.
Virginia ml +105,
Good Luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/military-bowl-83cbe7bfdb47
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[]
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2017-12-28 16:02:07.455000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Sacramento Kings vs Philadelphia 76ers Free NBA Spread Pick, 12–19–2017
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Sacramento Kings vs Philadelphia 76ers Free NBA Spread Pick, 12–19–2017
Free NBA Pick by Simon Says of Sports Picks Forum
Sacramento Kings vs Philadelphia 76ers Free NBA Prediction
NCAAF: Tuesday, December 19th 7:00 PM EST
Odds: Sixers -8.5, 207
An East Coast vs West Coast matchup between the Sacramento Kings vs Philadelphia 76ers. Sacramento fell 108–93 on the road in Toronto Sunday afternoon to drop their second straight. Philadelphia was in action on Monday night, losing to Bulls 115–117.
Sacramento is in the middle of a four-game road trip and they have lost five of their last eight games. On average, the Kings score 96 PPG but it’s their defense that needs work, allowing 105 PPG. Zach Randolph is expected to return for this game after being given Sunday off, while rookie point guard De’Aaron Fox is questionable after sitting out the contest with a thigh bruise suffered early in Thursday’s loss at Minnesota.
The 76ers are playing the second game of a back to back here and they’ll likely have Joel Embiid back in action. Philadelphia squandered an eight-point lead in the final 3:49 of their 117–115 loss at Chicago on Monday night. The Sixers allowed the Bulls to hit seven straight shots in an 18–5 run over a 3:05 span and lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
It is no secret that the key to this Sixers team winning is Joel Embid. When Embid plays he changes how this offense operates and he provides a big presence down low for opposing offenses. The Sixers are 6th in the league in scoring offense with 108.9 points per game and 1st in rebounding with 48.8 boards a night.
Philadelphia is 16–6 against the spread in their last 22 versus Pacific Division opponents but are just 1–5 in their last six home games and 1–4–1 in their last six overall. The 76ers are also 0–3–1 against the spread the last four times they played on the back end of games on consecutive nights. The Kings are 1–5 ATS in the last 6 meetings in Philadelphia, 7–19 ATS in the last 26 meetings and the underdog is 7–0 ATS in the last 7 meetings.
This is really a must win for the Sixers but it will be a difficult task for them coming off a game Monday night in Chicago. I think the -8.5 points are too many to lay in this situation and while the Sixers should win, I like the Kings to cover the number.
Kings vs Sixers FREE Pick: Kings +8.5
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https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/sacramento-kings-vs-philadelphia-76ers-free-nba-spread-pick-12-19-2017-2202690f3f56
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['Sports Picks Forum']
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2017-12-19 13:13:37.395000+00:00
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['NBA', 'Philadelphia 76ers', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
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Time to bowl on the blue stuff! One of the most unique places in college football is Albertsons Stadium with their smurph_daddy turf. The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl features a regular visitor this year in the Wyoming Cowboys. Their opponent is the Central Michigan Chippawas.
The line for this game opened Wyoming -1 with a total of 45. The total has held steady for the most part and still sits at 45. The Wyoming line has jumped up with the announcement that star qb Josh Allen is healthy and is going to play. On Friday morning the line was bouncing back and forth between -3 and -3.5. Hop on now.
The projected points scored and points allowed for this game show that the line opened in about the right place.
Using this metric, the game should be basically a pick’em.
The yards per play though, which tend to always favour the dog, show the lowest support yet in bowl season for taking the points.
The only other dog during bowl season that has had this low of a yards per play metric advantage is North Texas. And, as described in that bowl preview, the play was to hammer the Troy Trojans.
The deeper stats are where Wyoming really shines though.
While 3rd down metrics are pretty similar, Wyoming should dominate the red zone on both sides of the smurf turf. It’s been pointed out many times that red zone defense is a decent predictor and Wyoming has a 13% advantage in that area. Additionally, Wyoming sacks the qb way more often, tackles for loss more often, has a much, much better stop rate and allows significantly less points per drive than C.Michigan.
So, the stats lean pretty heavily to Wyoming. What about the “spot”? Well, usually, a team playing a bowl game in a locale where they play all the time should mean a bit of a letdown. But, today, Wyoming is getting their star qb back in the line-up. Josh Allen is showcasing himself for the NFL draft. There is really no other reason for him to suit up for this game. He was injured to end the year and missed the last few games of the season. The only explanation for him to be in this game to assure every scout out there that he is healthy. And the betting line on every NFL team in the top 10 of the draft having a scout or two at this bowl game has been set at -1000. On the Central Michigan side, this is their 4th season in a row in a bowl game, and the third under head coach John Bonamego and they have lost both bowl games under Bonemego. A final, interesting, side note for Central Michigan, no player on the Chippawa roster has ever played a college football game west of Oklahoma.
As the Tennys crew has been made aware… take this puppy to the bank.
Wyoming -3,
Good luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/famous-idaho-potato-bowl-8cff4cd077f7
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[]
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2017-12-22 16:39:35.138000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Liberty Bowl
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The second noon bowl on Saturday (here is the other)is the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. It matches up the home team Memphis Tigers and the Iowa St Cyclones.
The line opened Memphis -3 and has been bouncing around Saturday morning between 3.5 and 4.
We’ve seen a few of these types of match-ups so far in bowl season, an offensively strong team facing off against a decent defensive team. The expected points scored and points allowed comparison backs up that overview.
Memphis scored 14.5 points more than they could have been expected to versus their schedule. While Iowa St allowed 9.5 points less than they could have been expected to versus their schedule. The end result is that Memphis should be favored by about 5 points.
The yards per play metric shows value on the favorite as well.
Favorites who have shown value in the yards per play metric have had middling results in bowl season — USF won and covered, as did OKST; while SDST, Arizona and Missouri all lost outright.
The efficiency stats don’t provide much separation for these two teams as they are almost identical in each category.
The one place Memphis does have a decided advantage is in 3rd down conversions. So, while the red zone conversion rate is basically the same, the guess here is that Memphis will have a few more chances than the Cyclones.
Not surprisingly, to go along with the defensive advantage pointed out in the expected points allowed, Iowa St has an advantage in the stop rate and points allowed per drive stats. But, Memphis holds their own in sacking the qb and tackling behind the line of scrimmage.
It’s not often that a team playing at home shouldn’t be marked down down bowl season. Not travelling is boring. Additionally, Memphis is coming off a terrible double OT loss in their conference championship game. Neither is a strong sign. Iowa st on the other hand, retained their star coach and is playing in their first bowl game in five years. These players should be relatively pumped. But, what about Memphis retaining their star head coach? There were plenty of rumors about Norvell leaving after the loss to UCF. Not only should the team and the program be pumped about keeping Norvell, the offense is steered by star qb Riley Ferguson. Ferguson should be uber motivated today. He is in a deep draft class of qb’s. And while Rosen and Falk no-showed and Darnold and Allen under-performed, Mayfield and Lamar have yet to have their showcases. This is a spot for Ferguson to shine. He and his star senior wide receiver Anthony Miller should be up for putting on a show for their home crowd today.
Going against the grain a bit here and cheering for the Tigers and a qb to get excited about.
Memphis -3.5,
Good luck
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https://medium.com/@BigTenWatto/liberty-bowl-2b3fa8365082
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[]
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2017-12-30 15:09:34.979000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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Tips And Tricks To Improve Your Sports Betting Success
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No matter if you begin gambling on sports for fun or with strict goals of earning money, the question “how do I create longer” will pop into your head sooner or later. Can you actually boost the odds, figuratively, in your favor? Yes. Is it easy to do? Not really.
There are several steps you may follow and apply in order to make more cash, get better in gambling and enjoy it more.
The very first step is to begin. Register to an internet sports betting website. Vulkan bookmaker only needs basic info and the entire process takes under a minute. It’s linked because choosing a safe site is very valuable to your success, as getting scammed and having money stuck online is the worst kind of reduction you can have.
Educate Yourself
Reading sports publications and up to date articles may help a lot. Big transfers happen during the move period rather than understanding that one team got apparent weaker or stronger might cost you cash.
It’s surprising how many gambling options exist on the market. Win, draw or lose in the end aren’t the only few outcomes or elements you’ll be able to bet on. Daftar Poker88
All players and teams have powerful social networking presence so after them and studying their tweets and posts can make a huge impact. Also speak to other fans and bettors on forums or social media, since there’s always something new to learn. A piece of information from an older and more seasoned bettor is priceless.
Use a Strategy
Plans are mathematically calculated processes one takes in order to improve odds of winning. They were proven to work and even though experimenting is fun, it could cost you a great deal of money.
Some of the hottest gambling strategies are:
1. The Martingale system — Probably the most simple one, but quite effective. It educates to double the bet after every loss. It is extremely to apply to casino matches, but can be done with sports gambling too. Casino games have chances, just like bookmakers. Be certain that every double down leaves you rewarding in case you win.
2. Bettors describe it as a valid method of “abusing” the chances. If one bookie has a 2.10 peculiar on 0–2 goals whereas the other one provides 2.05 for 3+ targets, betting equal amounts of cash on both in those 2 bookies guarantees a triumph. That’s a really simple case, but the whole procedure is quite complex and takes time to study.
Applying a strategy turns fun betting into some sort of business but if you want to enhance the wins to losses ratio, it is essential.
Keep in mind that plans require higher budgets so as to execute and although the risk goes down, it is never a 100% guarantee that you are going to win. Also note that bookies are fighting against people who misuse the system, notably by using matched gambling and, even if not careful enough, it might lead to a prohibited account and you do not need that to happen with money inside their own system. Domino QQ
Invest Money Wisely
Though they say that it’s the best if you forget about the invested money, as it may never return, do not look at it as a cost but rather as an investment which may find no return. This way, even if everything goes wrong, you are not going bankrupt nor it’s impacting the way you live.
If your budget is $1,000 invest 1 or 2% at the moment, and increase the percentage just a tiny bit if you’re on a lower budget. That way you are able to create 20 to 100 well sized bets even if all of these go wrong, and they most likely won’t. It is also cutting down the strain and stress if the game isn’t going the way you expected.
Even if you discover an odd that seems too good to be true, resist the temptation and do not try to double the whole bankroll by going all in. The goal here is to build it up slowly by gambling low percentages and applying strategies. It’s much better to remain at neutral equilibrium for longer periods of time as opposed to going very negative fast.
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https://medium.com/@dmncksh/tips-and-tricks-to-improve-your-sports-betting-success-a5498c835634
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[]
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2017-12-13 11:26:21.650000+00:00
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['Sports', 'Sports Betting']
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How to turn 5 mBTC into 8,000 mBTC — thanks to one lucky punter!
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How to turn 5 mBTC into 8,000 mBTC — thanks to one lucky punter!
Sportsbet.io gives punters the chance to #betbigwinbig, but not many players will have had a win as big as one lucky user this week.
Putting 5 mBTC on an 11-fold bet on Wednesday’s English football, one user scooped a win of over 8,000 mBTC at odds of 1,573/1.
That’s an equivalent of a €4 bet, with a win of over €7,000 — not bad the week before Christmas!
Each of the 11 bets, on the Premier League and Championship, came in, meaning it will be a very happy festive period for the lucky winner.
What a bet!
None of the bets, which were a combination of matchbets, double chances and both teams to scores, had an individual price of over 2.35, with a bet on Nottingham Forest v Preston the longest odds.
However, combining the bets in an 11-way accumulator paid dividends for the user, who is now 8,101.48 mBTC better off!
With hundreds of markets each day across a wide range of sport, including an in-play offering, Sportsbet.io is the perfect place to bet with Bitcoin.
This win goes to show that knowing your stuff can really pay off, and that Sportsbet.io is the best place to #betbigwinbig!
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https://medium.com/@WillAtkins/how-to-turn-5-mbtc-into-8-000-mbtc-thanks-to-one-lucky-punter-6291abb5c032
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[]
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2016-12-18 13:09:50.255000+00:00
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['Bitcoin', 'Betting Tips', 'Betting', 'Sports Betting', 'Premier League']
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Patriots vs Steelers: Looking Ahead to the NFL Game of the Year
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Patriots vs Steelers: Looking Ahead to the NFL Game of the Year
Winning home field advantage in the AFC could come down to more than just who wins their head-to-head match-up.
Could next week’s “game of the year” have the Pats and the Steelers overlooking a divisional rival this week?
The NFL season is a study in contradiction. On one hand, it has by far the shortest regular season of any of the professional sports leagues. Heck, even the 12-team WNBA’s regular season lasts a bit longer (131 days) than the NFL’s (115). On the other hand, no other sport demands so much physically or perhaps even mentally from their athletes, so the shorter season is almost merciful in that sense. The NFL’s potent, concentrated season means that each regular season game is so much more significant than regular season games in other sports. With so many games that matter going on at the same time each week, there really is no equivalent to “Football Sunday” in any other professional sport. (Perhaps the only thing that tops the spectator experience of Football Sundays are the early rounds of March Madness, where multiple single-elimination games are on simultaneously all throughout the day. For sheer drama it doesn’t get any better than that.)
So with only four more Football Sundays left, we should be able to have a grasp on how good each team is going into the last quarter of the season, and then focus in on their road ahead to figure out which team could have an advantage. The last four games has historically been a pivot point in the NFL- they call it “December football” for a reason. It’s where the NFL wheat gets separated from the chaff. Tom Brady’s career record in December? 55–10. The Steelers record in December since 2013? An NFL best 15–2. Something has to give, which means the race for the top seed in the AFC is going to be a barnburner. So let’s get into the weeds with the remaining schedule of the two teams, and see if we can learn anything about what to expect.
AFC TOP SEED: PATRIOTS vs STEELERS
New England Patriots remaining schedule:
at Miami, at Pittsburgh, home vs Buffalo, home vs Jets
It might come as a surprise to know that last year’s win snapped a three game losing streak for the Patriots in Miami. Over his long storied career, Miami is the one place that has given Brady trouble: He’s 7–8 lifetime there. Of course being the competitor he is, Brady knowing he’s under .500 there will only give him more motivation to play lights-out, and this Miami team is struggling to be consistent. Jay Cutler has to be better then he’s been all year for them to have a shot, but the Dolphins’ disastrous performances in their three previous prime-time games this year doesn’t install much confidence in that happening. Add the fact that the Pats are playing their best football right now, and even without Gronk an upset here is highly unlikely.
So is this a trap game for the Patriots or not? I have zero worries about a Belichick-coached team overlooking any opponent, as history shows that they put their foot on the throat of lesser opponents rather than play down to them. (Are you paying attention Mike Tomlin?) However, there could be one silver bullet: If the Bills lose to the Colts on Sunday, The Pats will clinch the AFC East before putting their pads on Monday. Maybe, just maybe that could sap their motivation a little. Again though, Belichick has been around the block more than a few times. He knows the game still matters, and I severely doubt Miami can play well enough to win regardless. That being said, +11 points for a home team is pretty enticing if the right factors (specifically a Bills loss) come into play.
Speaking of the Bills, if Brady has struggled (relatively speaking) in Miami, then there probably isn’t a more opposite way to describe how he’s performed in his career against Buffalo at home. Brady has simply owned the Bills in Foxborough, going 13–1 in his career. His only loss? The 2014 season finale where he was rested during the 2nd half. (I’m sure it burns him a little that Brady is credited with a “loss” there just because he started the game.) This Bills team is not playing well coming down the stretch, so it’s hard to see anything other than another Patriots win come week 16.
Conversely, the Jets are playing a lot better and right now are a much tougher out than the Bills. Could the Jets be playing for something when they match-up with the Patriots in the final game of the year? The Jets are on the road facing a reeling Broncos team this week, then go to the Saints, then play at home to the surging Chargers. That’s three of their final four on the road. Strike one. Then they need to win two of those first three games to realistically even have a sniff at the playoffs in week 17. Strike two. Then if the Patriots needed to beat the Jets in week 17, that only adds to the mismatch. Strike three. So it’s far more likely that the Jets won’t have much to play for when they play the Pats (beyond trying to save Todd Bowles’ job and knocking off their most bitter rival), which leads us to the conclusion that the Pats will run the table on their non-Steelers opponents. So how will the Steelers do?
Like last year, the Steelers can take the AFC North with a win at home against the Ravens.
Pittsburgh Steelers remaining schedule:
home vs Baltimore, home vs New England, at Houston, home vs Cleveland
Unfortunately, I don’t have the same confidence that Mike Tomlin’s team won’t play down to their opponent or fall into a trap game, because that’s just what the Steelers do. Yes, the Steelers are currently on a seven game winning streak, but that has included three pulled-the-win-out-of-my-butt games against teams that don’t have a winning record. Their saving grace? The Steelers play the Ravens, who are the only team that’s more of a bitter rival to them than the Patriots. There’s really no such thing as a “trap” game when the Ravens come to town. Unlike the Dolphins, the Ravens are playing well enough right now that their best effort could beat the Steelers, who will really miss Ryan Shazier. That being said, the Steelers will clinch the AFC North with a win, and the way the Steelers play so much better at home leads me to believe that the Steelers will take care of business against the Ravens in another AFC North slugfest. So I don’t see this week being the trap game for the Steelers, but even if they did lose, by beating the Patriots the next week, the Steelers would be tied at 11–3 with the Patriots but would go back into the top seed by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreak.
So in looking at the match-up against the Patriots, the scheduling gods have blessed the Steelers with two straight home games, while the Pats will be on the 3rd leg of a rare back-to-back-to-back road trip. If this game were played in Foxborough, I’d struggle to see any scenario where the Steelers would beat the Pats, given how each team is playing right now. The Pats are not the Bengals. They won’t totally, utterly fall apart in the second half if they take a big lead. A lot about this game hinges on something we haven’t really seen this year from the Steelers: Will they finally play a defense that can stop the Patriots’ short passing attack? Apparently Joe Haden is doing everything he can to be back for this game, and the Steelers need all the help they can get right now, as they have uncharacteristically given up tons of big plays in the past few weeks. (Brandin Cooks could play a huge factor in the game, especially if Chris Hogan can’t go.)
Brady has owned the Steelers almost as much as he has the Bills, going 7–2 in the regular season and 3–0 in the playoffs. I can’t help but think back to that last loss in 2011 as a possible template for a Steelers win here, because this was the last time the Steelers and the Patriots met in Hines field and Ben Roethlisberger actually played.
In this game, the Steelers threw their old defensive gameplans out the window and went almost exclusively with man-to-man coverage, which threw the Patriots for a little bit of a loop. It also helped immensely that the Steelers grinded the game out with long sustained drives, keeping Brady off the field by having the ball a whopping 39 minutes, virtually two-to-one edge in time of possession. (Interestingly enough, Antonio Brown caught his first career TD pass in this game. Watch the video and try not to crack up at Steve Mariucci’s reaction to the first-ever Antonio Brown celebration dance that we all know well by now.)
Losing the AFC Championship game the way they did stuck with the Steelers last year, and I have to believe they learned from their mistakes. All indications are that they deliberated how they will gameplan against the Patriots as far back as the offseason, even going so far as to make personnel decisions based on it. Therefore, I give the slight edge to a Steelers team that will likely be a 3 or 4 point home dog going into the game. To me, all the variables or intangibles are in place for an upset. If the Steelers don’t win, then the race for the top seed (and likely the AFC championship) is effectively over.
If the Steelers do win, here is where it can get interesting. Imagining the scenario where the Steelers avenge last year’s humiliating loss to the Pats, they then travel to Houston to play on Christmas day. Can you say letdown game? (SIDE NOTE: The NFL decided it was a good idea to schedule two games on Christmas this year. The three games on Thanksgiving is a hard enough sell, because at least you can play the “tradition” card. Now doubling the amount of games on Christmas from last year? Are they trying to cause divorce rates to go up?) Houston is a tricky team with a good home field advantage, and will likely be up for playing in a nationally televised game. Considering the propensity the Steelers have for playing down to their opponent, I can totally see the Steelers blowing this game if they were to beat the Patriots the week before.
That tells us that this week’s Steelers-Ravens tilt has more hidden implications than you realize, which will only add to the intrigue of what is still the NFL’s best rivalry. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine the Steelers blowing the Ravens game, beating the Patriots, then blowing the Texans game, which would put them back at square one. That’s the most Steeler-y outcome I can think of to the end of the season.
This just goes to show you how hard it is to be the equal or better of the Patriots. If the Steelers want the top seed, they have virtually no room for error. That means that they have to go no less than 13–3 AND beat the Patriots in the regular season. As the saying goes, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. And then they likely have to beat the best all over again in the playoffs. No one ever said it was going to be easy.
|
https://medium.com/@AlexPredicts/patriots-vs-steelers-looking-ahead-to-the-nfl-game-of-the-year-613c6d61bff6
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['Alex Brigandi- The Stats Guy']
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2017-12-10 06:48:49.561000+00:00
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['NFL', 'New England Patriots', 'Pittsburgh Steelers', 'NFL Playoffs', 'Sports Betting']
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New Era Pinstripe Bowl Prediction: Iowa Hawkeyes vs Boston College Eagles, 12–27–2017
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New Era Pinstripe Bowl Prediction: Iowa Hawkeyes vs Boston College Eagles, 12–27–2017
Iowa Hawkeyes (7–5) vs Boston College Eagles (7–5)
Time: December, 27th 5:15 PM EST
Current Odds: Boston College +2.5, 45.5
The New Era Pinstripe Bowl features two physical football teams as the Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Boston College Eagles. While you may see spread offenses permeate the rest of the country, these two don’t have any problems lining up with multiple tight ends or a fullback and grinding down opponents.
Iowa has had its ups and downs out of the Big Ten this season. The Hawkeyes lost three close games to Penn State, Michigan State andNorthwestern. Iowa did pull off a signature win over Ohio State, 55–24 in November. QB Nate Stanley is not asked to be a playmaker in a run-first offense, but the sophomore has thrown for 24 touchdowns to just five interceptions on the season. Stanley will keep the Eagles defense honest as they can’t just focus on the run, if they do, Stanley could make them pay with play action.
Iowa features some stand out defensive players including LB Josey Jewel, one of the top linebackers in the nation who averages 11.4 tackles per game. Another impact player is CB Josh Jackson who is projected to go in the 1st round of the NFL Draft if he foregoes his senior season.
Boston College plays a similar run-first style offense as they usher out ACC Rookie of the Year, running back AJ Dillon. Dillon rushed for over 1,400 and 13 touchdowns as a freshman this season and you can expect him to receive some Heisman hype in 2018. The Eagles found themselves in a difficult spot when starting quarterback Anthony Brown suffered a knee injury that kept him out of the last three games of the season. Darius Wade has been solid in Brown’s absence, as he has completed 46-of-75 passes for 528 yards, two touchdowns and an interception this season.
Boston College played a tough schedule this season and managed to go 8–3 ATS on the year and 5–1 SU on the road. Iowa also played a tough Big 10 schedule but they went just 5–6–1 ATS on the season and 2–3 SU on the road.
This should be a hard-hitting game that is won in the trenches. Both offenses will be chewing up the clock running the football which is a reason why this game should play to Under the total. This game could come down to a FG but expect this game to go Under 45.5.
Iowa vs Boston College FREE Pick: Under 45.5
|
https://medium.com/verifiedcappers/new-era-pinstripe-bowl-prediction-iowa-hawkeyes-vs-boston-college-eagles-12-27-2017-3b0e29edbfc
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['Sports Investor Central']
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2017-12-27 12:41:02.040000+00:00
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['Sports', 'College Football', 'NCAAF', 'Sports Betting', 'Gambling']
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Trading and the Sharing Economy
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Photo courtesy of Uber
Trading and the Sharing Economy
Brokerages Distributed Model — Phase 1
You’ve probably heard of the sharing economy. If you haven’t, you’ve definitely heard of Uber (transportation), AirBnB (lodging) and a host of other companies, including Didi, which beat Uber at its own game in the Chinese market. Disruption is a term thrown around loosely whenever new technology arrives on the scene, but the rate at which these companies have flipped entire industries upside down is astounding. If you don’t believe me, ask your local taxi driver.
So what does renting out your flat, or hailing a ride from your mobile have to do with Banking, Finance, FinTech, whatever you want to call it? The answer, everything.
Let’s face it, banks and financial institutions don’t exactly have the trust of the people. Global financial meltdowns, bailouts, payouts, etc. have gone a long way to making the general population feel like the “have nots”. Like an exclusive party that they haven’t been invited to, and they won’t be expecting a call anytime soon (well, ever).
I’ve worked in the spot Forex and CFD brokerage industry for about 20 years working on the retail, institutional, management, and product sides in different capacities, and previously started another technology company, tradingwheels, that was focused on helping a trader work on their emotional intelligence in a real-time trading environment (which I was giving away for free).
It’s not an understatement to say that, for years, almost nothing truly innovative has happened in the industry. Sure, pricing is tighter, mobile apps are more prevalent, bandwidth is abundant in many areas, but the business models are largely the same. The ads are the same, the message is the same: Does “trade the largest market in the world, 24/5.5 days a week, and get tight spreads” sound familiar? Yawn!
Compare that to the transportation industry. According to Reuters, New York City cab drivers have seen their monthly leasing income drop as much as 60% in the past few years. Now that is disruption and it doesn’t even touch what is happening with energy, housing, online consumer goods, food, or even space travel!
During this time I have been fascinated in what is also happening in the cryptocurrency space. The openness of a distributed ledger and how it also leverages the assets (computational cycles) of others in the network to make it stronger. This type of model made complete sense for something similar to be brought into the OTC brokerage space not only as a tradable asset or technology with its own set of advantages (much has been written about this) but as a business philosophy as a whole. Treating traders and their volume (akin to computational cycles) as a valuable asset to make the network of traders, as a whole, stronger, and being as transparent as possible (a distributed ledger) without jeopardizing privacy issues could work and scale quite well for the benefit of everyone in brokerage.
So this is the basis for my new company, EQL-X, LLC (“eqlx”).
First, let’s get into transparency. There has been a fog of secrecy surrounding the OTC brokerage industry. From the outside (trader) looking in (broker), it feels like it’s done on purpose. I’m not saying that companies do this intentionally or that is it bad per se, but wouldn’t it be radically different to open the books so to speak? Just show how much we make, how much we spend, what our core costs are from our liquidity providers, if we outsource our risk to a third party, the list goes on. This is in the same vein as a distributed ledger of sorts and is a new way to think about true transparency- and something a lot of legacy brokers do not want to talk about.
The eqlx model is built on trust, transparency, and our unique 50/50 profit share.
Second, share the wealth (compliance hat time- “when or if there is wealth or profit, of course”). If my company, eqlx, can be transparent with the amount of funds coming in (and out), why not take it a step further and reward all of our awesome active traders (what we call “the collective”) their share of the 50% net profits we give back to the collective for as long as they continue to be an active trader? This, though with very apparent differences, is a similar concept to the mining reward in a proof of work (POW) model I saw in cryptocurrencies, and is the most direct and transparent way, I believe, that showcases the seriousness in how eqlx values our ecosystem (the collective) of traders.
There is much more to discuss about our model, and of what we will be introducing in the weeks to come, but I look forward to building this exciting new brokerage model right alongside you.
You + Us = Awesome,
This is eqlx.
Matthew Carstens
CEO & Co-Founder
eqlx
For details on how individual active traders are valued for their potential profit share please go to: http://eqlx.io/the-difference/
|
https://medium.com/team-eqlx/trading-and-the-sharing-economy-6f6d8b87a68d
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['Matthew Carstens']
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2016-10-13 14:34:37.616000+00:00
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['Fintech', 'Forex', 'Forex Trading', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency']
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How To Start Trading On Forex, The Biggest Financial Market On The World
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How To Start Trading On Forex, The Biggest Financial Market On The World
I am not a broker, or a banker, or a trade professional.
I recently started working in brokerage company that deals with financial markets, but with focus on Forex. I wasn’t bless with dominant left brain hemisphere, so as you could guess, like an average literature writer I had no knowledge about this complicated business world, full of numbers.
So, I began the process of learning.
Let’s start from the beginning! Once upon a time in 1973 …
Before World War II, the world’s dominant currency was the British pound. However, during World War II, the British pound lost its primacy as a result of the war with Germany.
In years before and after the crisis in 1929. year to the American economy during World War II until today is gaining strength and the United States is becoming an economic power, as the result of that and the American dollar takes dominance, as the most powerful currency.
Not interesting, I know, but in time all those events lead to this.
Forex market or FX stands for two simple English words, ‘foreign’ and ‘exchange’.
Volume of this market is 5.5 trillion dollars and that makes it the biggest and most transparent market on the world.
Where Is It?
Well, on your computer!
Forex market is not limited on one location and there is no center as is the case with the New York Stock Exchange. Forex market is the OTC or Over The Counter (OTC) or inter bank market. So, it makes it much easier to approach.
But do not get confused, the centers for processing orders on the Forex market are located in several geographic locations.
These centers are: London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong.
You can monitor the market on a platform where are presented all financial instruments that are traded in real time.
What Can We Trade?
Fist thing, is the one that makes the world go around.
Yes, that’s right! MONEY!
But if you think that is the only thing that is being traded on this market, you would be terribly wrong.
Although known as a currency exchange, in addition to currency pairs on Forex it is possible to trade with oil, gold, silver and other precious metals, world stock indexes and many other financial instruments. So, dig in your grandma’s jewelry !
Just kidding! Do Not Steal from your grandma! But if you were wondering if you can trade anything else on Forex, the correct answer would be YES!
To Make The Long Story Short, Why Should We Trade On Forex:
It is possible to carry out large transactions with a small role.
You can invest in several markets at the same time.
You can go limitation loss of profit, and with setting Stop Loss and Limit Profit functions on your tasks. Other markets are limited-time while the Forex market is not.
You can trade 24 hours, 5 days a week. Trading starts on Sunday, an hour before midnight, local time, when the market opens in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. Before closing these markets, open European market; . Then again open market in New Zealand and so on. Most of the data from the US have an impact on other markets, and then and has most market participants. For this reason, the opening of the US market at 14:30, then we have the greatest activity during the day.
Trading starts on Sunday, an hour before midnight, local time, when the market opens in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. Before closing these markets, open European market; . Then again open market in New Zealand and so on. Most of the data from the US have an impact on other markets, and then and has most market participants. For this reason, the opening of the US market at 14:30, then we have the greatest activity during the day. On other markets, mainly earning when prices rise. On the Forex market, you can earn when courses and prices fall.
Markets with a small number of participants and the low trading volume can be easily manipulated. On the Forex market, due to the very high volume of daily trading, it is impossible to manipulate it.
No cost of trading, no commissions, no hidden costs, no costs for broker, in fact no costs at all.
Do not be fooled, you do not know everything now, but this is a start. In trade journey are many steps, and tools that can help you invest and earn the money you want. Because let’s be true, everybody would like to get checks, and not to have to go to work. For us to get there, the first step is to
START LEARNING HOW TO!
Thank you for reading.
If you found this article interesting, click on ❤ below so other people can appreciate it! And I will too!
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https://medium.com/@sonjabalaban/forex-the-biggest-financial-market-dbedd9d8b52d
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['Sonja ت Balaban']
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2016-10-14 12:38:45.081000+00:00
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['Finance', 'Forex', 'Education', 'Trading', 'Buisness']
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Trading metals
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Trading metals
Summary: When trading metals online, there are two markets to consider: the silver and gold markets. These two markets are offered by forex brokers as well on top of the classical currency pairs and offer tremendous opportunities to find profitable trades.
Because the brokerage industry is so competitive, forex brokers are trying hard to differentiate from one another. This is being done either through the overall products that are being offered (currency pairs, metals, CFD’s — contracts for difference, indexes, etc.,) or through breakthrough in execution, technology, spreads, or both.
There are not many things a broker like CornèrTrader can add to make a competitive offer as the overall products being offered are more or less the same. What makes a difference in these instances is the customer satisfaction and how clients in general are being handled.
Coming back to trading metals online, gold and silver are traded the most even though some brokers are offering some other options like palladium, copper, etc. The reason why gold and silver are so popular comes from the fact that they are liquid against the US dollar.
In other words, there is always a counterpart at the other side of the trade and no matter the size of your trading, these markets will take it with not a single issue. Moreover, the supply and demand chain is not that short-ended as in the case of other metals offered for trading and this let’s fundamental factors like economic news to be incorporated when trading them.
The symbols for trading gold and silver are XAUUSD in the case of gold and XAGUSD in the case of silver. They are being both denominated in US dollars and this is normal as the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency.
Traders should pay a lot of attention when trading the two metals online as there are many things to consider.
Firstly, the digits in the case of the XAUUSD are different than the ones to be found in the silver pair. Therefore, a classical quotation for the XAUUSD will show, for example, 1312.05, so two digits, while the one for the XAGUSD will always have four digits, like 18.9654.
This is important because the difference between the ask and bid price, or the swap, is different from the two metals and sometimes it may make sense to trade gold and other times silver is recommended.
Secondly, always look for the correlation degree between the two metals. Taking a long trade on gold on a US dollar news and a long trade on silver on the same US dollar news is like taking two trades in the same direction on gold. This is overtrading and the two metals are not supposed to be traded like that.
The idea is to find a trading platform that allows to plot charts on top of one another, chose a common time frame and simply plot the two metals to see if they are correlated or not. If the correlation degree is quite high (and it is), look to trade the two metals when they diverge on a common US dollar news. This is the only way they could be traded in different directions at the same time, as they will tend to strive to get back getting correlated again.
Thirdly, use oscillators to find divergences when trading the two metals online. It is most likely that divergences will be common on the two charts. However, from time to time, gold may diverge and silver not, or the other way around, using the same conditions for both of them.
What to do in such a situation? Simple look at the correlated charts and trade the pair that is not confirming the divergence in the direction of the divergence seen on the other pair.
Silver is being considered gold’s little sister pair and often the returns of the two metals are different. For example, if for some reason both metals are bullish and move to the upside, one may jump 1% and the other one 3%. They moved in the same direction alright, but the size of the moves was different.
Last but not least, the idea behind trading silver and gold is to try to avoid trading them at the same time. This means to avoid opening a position on both of them at the same time, not to avoid trading them in the same direction.
Let me give you an example. Assuming both gold and silver are bearish. It makes no sense to trade both of them on the short side at the same time as it is like taking two different trades, at the same time, in the same direction. This is overtrading and a trader should avoid this by all means.
What a trader needs to do is to take the trade on one of the two metals, either gold or silver, and then wait for market to reach the target. If this is not happening and market goes against the original trade, the thing to do is to short the other one with the idea that a better entry has been found.
Such an approach is extremely popular in the US where regulators are forcing brokers to use the FIFO (First In First Out Rule). Using the example from above, instead of taking two trades on the same metal and then being forced to respect the FIFO when it comes to closing them, one should take a trade on the gold market and another on the silver one to avoid such troubles.
From a technical point of view there is no difference when trading metals online or trading a currency pair, and this is one of the reasons why forex brokers are offering metals to be traded. Same indicators can be used, with the same interpretation, and it is just like trading a currency pair.
The main difference comes from a fundamental perspective as metals are influenced by other things that are not necessarily influencing the currency market, like supply and demand and safe haven status.
|
https://medium.com/@dwaynebuzzell/trading-metals-4c142c212717
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['Dwayne Buzzell']
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2016-10-14 14:28:31.655000+00:00
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['Trading', 'Stock Market', 'Forex']
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Administered FX Trading Funds Alternative Savings For High Returns
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Many speculators are enticed by the currency exchange field owing to low initial expense, great liquidity, twenty four hour dealing, and numerous other alluring aspects. Nonetheless, lots of traders are unable to learn adequately or trade currency on account of a profession or various responsibilities. Plus, a great deal of individuals like to complement their existing portfolio without the necessity to learn to master an entirely new niche. It is at this point that a foreign currency exchange managed account comes in. A forex managed trading fund is a forex account financed and held by the speculator and dealt with by a business or specialist. It enables the individual a good gain and the opportunity to engage in the greatest monetary arena on the earth.
There will be hundreds of providers that make use of a person’s investment by implementing a managed foreign currency fund. A few of these organisations focus on managed currency exchange trading funds and use all of their energy totally in the fx world. This provides the investor belief that their foreign currency managed trading account is being transacted by an expert currency dealer and provides them with a more significant likelihood of a regular return on investment. The profit may be anywhere within 5% to 14% plus month to month and the performance fees are somewhere ranging from 25% to 40% of the profit per month to the firm. As well, a lot of firms can deduct administration fees.
You can find loads of benefits to a foreign exchange managed fund. The person has the ability to gain a regular increase rate without the need to expend all the crucial time and effort to trade themselves. The foreign currency exchange sector has massive liquidity likewise, offering the speculator a much more convenient method to extract finances what time they fancy. In addition, exchanging foreign money facilitates proceeds in both rising and diminishing conditions presenting the professional dealer more chances to grow a person’s balance.
Two of the major types of managed foreign currency funds are the ones exchanged by a trader, and those bought and sold mechanically. They are programs that automatically trade currency based on a fixed formula. A programmer will write the formula and fiscal administration set of rules into a series of programming languages to construct programs that possibly will offer a more stable gain for the foreign exchange managed trading account than the ones bought and sold by a person. This gives the business or specialist the potential to showcase performance results and achievable future production. Some of the more conventional people wish to have their resources dealt with by a person than the ones transacted by a trading robot, since the human aspect can occasionally result in better profits and minor draw downs.
A managed fx fund appears like a really fruitful route to select in the currency trading field. Still, some individuals may yet be put off from it for one or two factors. Generally, lots of brokerages have a lowest specific sum to launch a fund. This minimum amount is usually in the region of $10,000 and could be a substantial commencing cost to the run of the mill individual. Additionally, a lot of these agencies set up a monthly admin fee to your managed foreign exchange fund. Should your per month roi be not as much as than the set per month management charge, your currency exchange managed account will be down even ahead of the fees being taken off. A great deal of caution you will need to be exercised in deciding upon your currency trading supplier as to reduce your losses because of bad cycles.
FX managed funds can be a tremendous means to produce a large gain or bestow a dependable rate of increase over a long period, with no difficulties and mental swings of dealing currency exchange independently. If the person has equally the wealth and a respected company, a currency exchange managed trading fund could show to be a fantastic financial investment.
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https://medium.com/@lancelots/administered-fx-trading-funds-alternative-savings-for-high-returns-8e750be41659
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['Lance Lewsey']
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2016-10-24 16:22:13.229000+00:00
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['Forex']
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Wine Paper
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Adrian Pinto is the founder of the Mumbai-based Green Paper Works. It is a unique company that specialises in converting waste from wine-making into beautiful paper. He tells Grin why turning wine waste to paper is one more powerful step to saving our planet.
Adrian Pinto and his paper made from grape waste at wineries.
How did you think of starting this venture?
I have spent the last 15 years working in the hospitality, wine and spirits industries. As I spent more time in these industries I came to realise that the profession I love was at odds with my intrinsic beliefs about sustainability and the future of our planet. Since I was a little boy I was taught to care about nature and as I began to share these values with my young children I realised that I couldn’t do this with a clean conscience.
India’s booming wine industry has escalated its wine production from 100,000 cases to 3 million cases of wine in less than 15 years and I could no longer ignore the millions of tonnes of waste created by our wineries and wineries around the world. The global wine industry is creating 33 million tons of waste — called pomace — each year. In an ideal world this pomace should be used in loads of products — cold pressed oil, natural cosmetics, food products such as flour. But what are we using it for? Almost nothing! Except for a few wineries that use it for compost, most of the pomace goes into landfills. What was my industry doing to the planet? What kind of a world am I leaving behind for my children? How can I make a difference? It was these questions that led me down the path to founding Green Paper Works. Five years ago we embarked upon a journey to make beautiful paper without killing a single tree. There is no disputing the fact that ours is a paper loving world and Green Paper Works was determined to innovate a solution that will not destroy the planet. A few paper facts …
93% of the paper we use on Earth comes from trees
Packaging makes up 1/3 or more of our trash.
To print a Sunday edition of the New York Times requires 75,000 trees!
Every tree produces enough oxygen for 3 people to breathe.
The growth of paper consumption is directly related to GDP 1:1.
Availability of raw materials is an increasingly difficult challenge.
And as I type this email more than 199 tons of paper has already been produced. Every statistic I know says that demand for paper is expected to double before 2030. The desperate need to change the status quo led me to a lucky kitchen experiment. That’s where I discovered that the pomace also has another amazing use that nobody else had chanced upon. Green Paper Works is proud to be the first company in the world to patent the process that turns grape waste into 100% natural, chemical- and tree-free paper. Grape Paper! What’s revolutionary about this grape paper is that raw material costs are way lower than wood. Also:
100% tree-free — no more cutting trees for paper.
100% chemical free.
100% waste utilised.
Lower cost of raw material vs. traditional fibres (wood, thread, biomass, cotton waste etc.)
Sustainable & environmentally friendly
Multiple applications: packaging, office stationery, gifting, cellar door, etc.
We are the first and only producers of Grape Paper in India and have now also received an international patent for our production process.
Wine paper diaries.
2. What has been the biggest challenge?
Grape Paper is economically viable, sustainable, tree- and chemical-free and eco-friendly. Its production can potentially enhance the sustainability of wine industry, transforming it from a red zone to a green zone. However, India is only just coming up to speed with the sustainability conversation and therefore the challenge is for us to convince existing manufacturers and customers to switch to our planet-friendly Grape Paper, albeit at a higher cost.
While we have had a lot of interest in the product and everyone we have met have bought into our story and agree that it is important for everyone, including businesses, to make choices that will safeguard the interest of our future, converting the interest into sales, notwithstanding the environmental benefits, has been extremely difficult. Making Grape Paper a part of a business’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme has several striking advantages. Environmental economists say that a circular economy is not only sustainable but also a life support system. Materials and resources are recycled endlessly; there is no waste. A circular economy using grape paper would not only save the environment but could also result in nearly 10–20% of savings for corporations. We are so proud to offer a solution to paper that is not only 100% tree-free but the industry creating such incredible waste can also turn waste discharge into a profitable solution.
3. What is your long term goal?
Going forward our plan is three-fold:
Make grape paper more visible with the existing paper suppliers and distributors as well as end users. Our first port of call will be existing suppliers of paper and packaging to the wine industry. Once we have established relationships with them we will seek to make grape paper products available directly to the end users. These include wine companies (for packaging like canisters, gift boxes, etc), cellar doors, wine spars and wine shops (bags and packaging), hotels and wineries with accommodation (brochures, packaging, etc), cosmetic companies that use grape is some form, perfumeries, etc.
Once we generate sufficient interest, especially for the high volume products such as wine bags, we will then offer licenses to manufacturers to license our technology, both in India and internationally.
Invest in R&D to develop “formed packaging” to replace Styrofoam in the wine and packaging industries. The power of this idea is in markets that produce large quantities of wine and where consumers are aware of the impact of manufacturing and environmentally unfriendly products on the planet. We know that this market is primarily outside India at the moment but going forward we would like to see the CSR opportunity, environmental and other green benefits become a serious conversation in India too.
~
|
https://grin.news/wine-paper-49dbfc138b1a
|
[]
|
2016-12-30 08:52:05.744000+00:00
|
['Sustainability', 'Environment', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business', 'Wine']
|
Why Dirty Fasting Works For Me
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Why Dirty Fasting Works For Me
The premise behind intermittent fasting is simple: eat within a limited window of a 24-hour period to help improve your overall health.
Intermittent fasting (IF) has been shown to boost energy and mental clarity, to lower insulin levels, to assist in cellular repair, and to increase levels of human growth hormone, which can lead to weight loss and increase in muscle.
For some, doing IF for sixteen hours and eating within an eight-hour window works well (16:8). And after a month or so of 16:8, an adjustment to a 20:4 fasting schedule might work even better for others. (That’s how it worked for me.)
My point is that IF is more of a change in lifestyle, as opposed to a (probably) restrictive diet.
However, the biggest question about IF is, “What happens if I eat or drink something during my fasting window?”
There are plenty of IF advocates who would say, “It’s not a big deal. If your snack or drink was more than 50 calories, just re-start your fast.”
However, I have found that my emotional reliance on food makes it too challenging to *always* stick to water and tea during my fasting window.
Navigating My “Food is Reward” Mentality
Like pretty much everyone else in the whole wide world, I consider my job to be stressful. I teach in a rough urban area and strive every day to be positive and compassionate with my high school students, many of whom are struggling with generational poverty and PTSD.
Being strong and unflappable while I’m at work is a must. But it is also very emotionally depleting as well.
Right or wrong, food is my reward for successfully getting through another day. I like to cook meals that are healthy-ish, however, that comes with its own stressors of planning a weekly meal list, purchasing groceries, and finding the time to cook or prep the crock-pot.
So when I’m finally sitting down to eat with my family, I want to stretch out that reward. I feel like I earned it.
Why do we reward animals in restricted environments with food? Because it works. Image credit: Jooinn
And this leads to the “dessert versus wine” dilemma.
My Dessert Might Look Different From Yours
My eating window is usually 20:4, but when I’m finished with dinner, I’m torn between the desire to have “just a little something else,” or to convince myself that I’ll be fine with drinking water the rest of the evening.
In other words, if I break my fast with a small lunch at 2:30 p.m. and then finish dinner at 6:30 p.m., my fast should begin at 6:30 p.m. And then I would drink water or decaf tea for the rest of the evening.
However, as part of my (probably unhealthy) food-is-reward mentality, I often want to cheat on my fast — known as dirty fasting — and have something else in the evening while my husband and I are watching tv.
Subconsciously, I know that I want to extend that reward mentality a bit longer.
When I cheat with a real dessert, like one or two salted caramels, I feel terrible. My body loves sugar, but I react badly to it. My stomach gets bloated, my hip joints ache, and I get brain fog. I even react badly to fresh-cut pineapple sometimes.
However, when I dirty fast by having a kind-of-large 6 oz glass of red wine, I feel completely fine and consider my fast to still be legit.
Source: Pixabay
(Now before folks start dropping comments like, “Needing a glass of wine every night is a sign of alcoholism,” I’m going to politely let you know that your I’m-just-trying-to-help-er-okay-maybe-judge-you-because-I-KNOW-about-alcoholism perspective is probably well-intentioned, but I’m just not interested. I was married to an alcoholic for twenty years. Attended Al-Anon for ages. More on all that another day, okay?)
Let’s get back to the wine.
White or Red?
As I’ve aged, sadly, my overall sensitivity to sugar has increased. I used to like a nice sweet glass of white zinfandel, moscato or Riesling, but they started to backfire on my body. Even with a small glass, I would wake up feeling bloated and headachy. I soon discovered that these wines’ sugar content ranged from 5–14 grams of sugar — or even more. Yep, that’s a big ten-four no for me.
On the other hand, I found that dry reds like cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir usually contained less than a full gram of sugar.
Check this out:
Source: Wine Folly at https://winefolly.com/review/sugar-in-wine-chart/
Thus, I realized that, with a dry red, I could satisfy my food-as-reward mentality by drinking something adulty and low sugar during my fasting window….and that I would not suffer the consequences of bloating and joint inflammation.
And, even more importantly, that I would still lose weight.
Perfectionism vs. Reality
I’m fully expecting a bunch of other IF advocates to jump all over this article.
“Don’t you realize how many calories are in wine regardless of the sugar content?”
“Don’t you want to lose weight more quickly? You need to ditch the wine and stop rationalizing dirty fasts.”
“Why are you telling folks who want to lose weight to drink alcohol at night? That’s irresponsible.”
Well, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Deprivation does not work for me. It is not sustainable. I already have a gluten sensitivity and I’m not up for adding any more restrictions to my diet. If that makes me a bad intermittent faster, then so be it. I just know that my weight is dropping and I don’t feel anxious or resentful anymore.
And if you’re nodding and saying, “Yes, girl, yes!” to embracing reality — rather than perfection — then please come sit with me.
We can have a glass of dry red and talk it over.
|
https://medium.com/@lorichappellmann/why-dirty-fasting-works-for-me-8899eced3543
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['Dr. Miss']
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2020-11-02 21:51:02.970000+00:00
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['Health', 'Weight Loss Tips', 'Intermittent Fasting', 'Wine', 'Emotional Eating']
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2016 in review
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Well, 2016 has been quite a year! You may have noticed that I haven’t posted a great deal in December this year and that’s because I’ve been busy planning an exciting, packed 2017 but I did want to take the time to round up the year, and highlight some of the great things I’ve experienced. Whilst the Western world has been somewhat turbulent politically and economically this year, the wine industry has remained steady, sane and really very interesting, with lots of new discoveries, classifications and new wine styles emerging throughout the year. My own experience of 2016 has been on the whole pretty positive, only marred by the aforementioned global issues and I have an awful lot to be thankful for. Here are some of my personal highlights from the year past.
Maestrazgo Wine Club: At the beginning of 2016 whilst on holiday in Argentina, I had to give up a project I’d been working on for almost a year and start from scratch with the goal of building a group of winelovers living in Barcelona. I remember building the group on Meet-up.com, opening a tasting for the week after I arrived back and crossing my fingers. I needn’t have worried because it booked up within the day, and I opened a second one which also filled up remarkably quickly. Since then we’ve done 35 tastings over the year, with a different topic every single week, exploring the world of wine with a wonderful group of people. It remains the highlight of my week and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have such an active, interesting group of people attending my tastings. 2017 is set to continue in the same vein with some new events and ideas planned for the year ahead. Stay tuned!
Wine education: If you’d told me 18 months ago that I’d currently be halfway through my WSET Diploma with Distinction and Merit grades for all exams I’d have laughed at you, as at that point I was just getting started with my education and this looked like a distant dream. It’s been pretty tough going financially travelling to London and back on top of the course costs but I couldn’t have spent the money any better; my understanding of the world of wine has come on leaps and bounds over the past year, largely due to the excellent teaching of the WSET and the format of the course. 2017 will see the end of the WSET Diploma and an opportunity to regather and prepare myself for the arduous, 3–5 year battle for the Masters of Wine title. I couldn’t be more excited!
Wine Cuentista: This year I’ve had the pleasure of organising several exclusive, private tastings for both people living within Barcelona and also those visiting. The private tastings are flexible allowing people to choose their topics very specifically and I’ve had a great time organising tastings from a general coverage of Spain, to deep-diving into individual appellations and wine styles. I’ve also enjoyed starting my blog and generally rambling away over the course of the year and whilst Spain might be the worst place to be self-employed in Europe at the moment, the reward of being able to define your own professional philosophy and goals is well worth the effort. I intend to devote a lot more time to my blog in 2017 and Wine Cuentista will also be coming to Youtube to explore wine more visually. Exciting stuff.
Devour Spain: 2016 has seen me working alongside Devour Spain a great deal, an excellent company focusing on food, culture, wine and history tours around the major cities of Spain. I work with them specifically as part of their Wine and Tapas tour in Barcelona, a great experience that allows me to meet people from all over the world and introduce them to the wonders of Spanish wine. There’s something enormously gratifying about knowing that hundreds of people are going back to their home countries, going into wine shops and having conversations like “We had the most amazing wine in Barcelona, do you have it?”
New Years Resolution: The first time I’ve ever completed one! My resolution this year was to share 50 different bottles of wine with 50 different people and I managed to honour it and have a great deal of fun in the process. Unfortunately in 2017 I won’t be able to afford a resolution quite like it (The bill crept a little over 4000 euros in the end!) but I fully intend to take the time to sit down and share a bottle as often as I can, get to know someone or catch up with an old friend. My New Years Resolution will be dreadfully boring by comparison and will be focused on wine education but now that I’ve managed to finish one, it would be a shame not to make a habit of it.
New friends: It seems that this year I’ve met more incredible people than ever before, from all across the world and in a few different fields. From getting to know the French wine industry through Le Petit Ballon, to being visited by winelovers from around the world to share a bottle or two, to getting to know the local community of Barcelona and of course, meeting incredible professionals through my Diploma course, it’s been a very social year indeed! Wine famously brings people closer together and my 2016 has certainly been proof of that.
Old friends: None of it would of course be worth it without the support, friendship and love from my friends and family. I’m surrounded by a lot of people that I care about and who care about me, and that makes all the difference in the end. In 2017 I’m going to become a father for the first time, which will bring a whole new dimension to proceedings and life in general, and I couldn’t be happier. Regardless of what 2017 brings, I know I’ll be able to spend some time with the people that mean the most to me and that’s a very comforting thought.
I hope you’ve all had a similarly interesting and exciting 2016, and I wish you all a wonderful start to 2017! It’s going to be a great year and I’m looking forward to seeing you all for a glass of wine or two over the coming months.
Happy New Year!
Fintan
For more ramblings about the world of wine, come say hello at winecuentista.com!
|
https://medium.com/@Wine_Cuentista/2016-in-review-1509a7047823
|
['Fintan Kerr']
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2016-12-30 12:53:48.566000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Travel', 'Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Wine Industry']
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How do we make wine fun again?
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How do we make wine fun again?
In our discussions to bring on a new COO we waxed lyrical about the state of the wine industry and the beverage industry as a whole. He mentioned that the drinks industry was like a big party, beer and spirits are the life of the party. They get everybody dancing, talking, having fun, or chilling out. Wine was in the corner, dressed all nice, talking to each other about tasting notes. They did not seem to know what was going on in the rest of the room.
He’s not wrong.
Wine, for better or worse, went from this drink that brought us together, to a drink of the luxury life. When most wine that gets drunk sits around the $20 marker, its not really a premium thing in 2016 is it? Wine got unnecessarily pretentious as well. No we are not talking about stuff like Petrus (the best wine in Bordeaux) or your $50+ wines that clearly are finer than the rest, but the stuff that we kind of want to drink day to day. The stuff we want to drink at regular occasions, like BBQs, tailgating, picnics, house parties, or watching Netflix with your bae.
Wine is starting to get a little bit better at that, with companies like Wine Riot, or VinoMofo pairing wines off with occasions like “Netflix and Chill” and thats awesome! It just scratches the surface though. Like anything in the world, when you get told what to do, or get told what to drink, get told when to drink it, people feel uncomfortable. They don’t enjoy it as much, because they aren’t really sure if they are, or how they are supposed to enjoy that wine. The problem for the wine industry is much, much deeper.
People enjoy things more when they discover things for themselves. This has been an under appreciated success key to marketing to millennials by the way, who are the largest consumer segments of wine in the United States. Why? It makes them feel special, it makes them feel unique, and it makes them feel like they have something that they can share with their friends. It makes it fun, and it makes it social again! Why has wine not gotten there yet? Well, we have to shift the perception of wine from that of telling you that this bottle is for this occasion, to “hey have you ever tried this wine? what do you think about it?”
Easy right? Not really. It takes a concerted effort, which is what we are building out at Vynl. Not from a single winery, but from a place that wants to see a great wineries who care about wine, but also care about people really enjoying their wine. What we will do, is help them connect with their consumers, engage them, create and strengthen their relationships. in doing so, we make wine fun again! Because thats what drinking should be all about.
|
https://medium.com/@VynlRocks/how-do-we-make-wine-fun-again-1d19680a74e1
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['Vynl', 'The Scratch']
|
2016-12-16 18:12:41.475000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Marketing', 'Entrepreneurship']
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Bucatini And Red Sauce
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Bucatini And Red Sauce Welcome to Qorkz Kitchen! Today we are doing one of our own recipes and making fresh semolina Bucatini pasta from scratch. We are then finishing the pasta in our homemade red sauce. This dish is hearty with just a little kick of spice and is perfect for a cold fall day. We hope you enjoy it! Ingredients For The Pasta 115 grams of Semolina flour
225 grams of durum flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fine ground black pepper
3 eggs Flour measurements are by weight. We like this kitchen scale for our measurements because of its weight zeroing function allowing us to weigh everything in one bowl. Directions Mix the semolina, durum, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a stand mixer to incorporate them together. Then slowly add one egg at a time, then the oil, and let the dough start to come together. Depending on the humidity in the kitchen you’re working in, the dough may be finished at this point or still may need some water to help smooth it out. Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a ball and comes away cleanly from the sides of the mixing bowl. Because this dough is destined for a pasta extruder, it can’t be too dry or the pasta will crack and fall apart as it’s being extruded. The dough coming away from the sides of the bowl cleanly. Once the dough comes away cleanly, form it in a ball on the counter and then wrap it in saran wrap to rest for 30–40 minutes. For this next part, we use a Kitchen Aid pasta extruder to create our Bucatini pasta. Available Here. If you don’t have a pasta extruder, this dough could be rolled out into sheets and hand cut into the noodles of your choosing.
Forming The Pasta Take 1/4 cup of the semolina flour and coat the counter of your workspace. Then roll the dough out gently until you have a disk about twelve inches in diameter. Next, cut the dough into smaller sections roughly equal in size. Once you have your pieces cut, roll each one into its own smaller dough ball to go into the pasta extruder. To form the noodles, attach the extruder to your Kitchen Aid with the Bucatini plate inserted. Turn the power on to full. Take the dough balls one at a time and insert them into the top of the extruder. They will work their way down the screw inside slowly, so be cautious of that and don’t overload the machine. The pasta will come out the bottom fully formed and you cut it off at your desired length. Air dry the noodles on a pasta drying rack for 30 minutes prior to cooking. This step makes a big difference in the integrity of the noodles as wet noodles are more likely to stick and clump together during cooking. We like this pasta drying rack for its easy storage. Boil the pasta in salted water for 9 minutes or until mostly cooked through. The noodles will cook for additional time in the red sauce prior to serving so you don’t want to overcook the noodles, but because there was raw egg used in the dough, be certain to cook the noodles thoroughly. We did not add any oil to our water as that would coat the outside of the noodles and make it harder for our red sauce to stick.
Meatless Red Sauce This red sauce is our go-to for hearty pasta dishes when we don’t want to have a big meaty sauce. It is rich and fragrant with just a touch of spice.
Ingredients 28 oz can whole peeled Roma tomatoes
1 bunch basil
8 cloves of garlic sliced
1 tube/can tomato paste
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon red chili flake
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 table spoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
5 bay leaves. Using a heavy bottomed pot, add the olive oil, garlic, and 10 fresh basil leaves and cook over medium low for ten minutes to bring out the garlic and basil flavor to the oil. Once the garlic and basil have cooked through, remove the basil from the oil leaving the garlic behind. increase the heat to medium and add the tomato paste. Cook the tomato paste for five minutes or until it starts to brown on the bottom of the pan. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir for another two minutes. Move the paste to the sides of the dish and add the red wine directly to the center of the pan to deglaze any parts of the tomato paste that have stuck to the bottom and then stir the whole mixture together and cook for another 1 -2 minutes. Pour the tomatoes into a blender or food processor and pulse 4–5 times until the tomatoes are chunky but not smooth. Add the tomato mixture into the pot slowly so as not to splatter the hot tomato paste. Next add all the spices along with ten fresh basil leaves and give the whole sauce a stir. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for one hour stirring occasionally. If the sauce reduces too much, add another 1/4 cup of wine or 1/4 cup of water to thin it back out. Remove bay leaves prior to serving.
Bring The Dish Together Remove the pasta from the pasta water but do not rinse. Bucatini is a pasta that is hollow inside so it is going to retain some of the pasta water inside of the noodles, which will help add some salt and starch to the sauce. Pour the Bucatini directly into the sauce and stir to coat. Simmer the pasta on low for about five minutes to bring the dish together. To serve, use thongs to twist the pasta into a bowl and grate some Parmigiano Reggiano over the top and ad one basil leaf for presentation. “Pasta and red sauce and Merlot. Is there anything more perfect? This Merlot has big cherry flavor with hints of leather and tobacco with soft tannins. Grab a glass and taste why this partnership will always be timeless. ” — Jill Hoffman — Qorkz Try: Chateau Lane Merlot “I love a good Rhone GSM blend anytime but especially with spicy pasta. The spice of the Grenache, lavender fragrance and perfumed berries of the Mourvedre and the dense, tannic fruit of the Syrah lend themselves perfectly to this flavorful and hearty bowl of pasta. ” — David Toomey — Qorkz Try: Oak Cliff Rogues Blend
|
https://medium.com/@qorkzwine/bucatini-and-red-sauce-8ab270ec2429
|
[]
|
2015-10-15 06:36:51.312000+00:00
|
['Food', 'Recipe', 'Wine']
|
Grape Notes: Pinot Noir
|
Photo Credit: Left Coast Cellars
My first memory of pinot noir was over a creamy chicken dinner in an underground, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Beaune, France more than six years ago. Sure, I’ve probably tasted pinot noir before this time, but I didn’t really know about it. Not like this. My husband, Michael, and I were spending our fourth year together as a married couple, and we decided to visit Burgundy — ride bikes through vineyards and taste some amazing wines. It was here, in this idyllic French wine region, that I got to know pinot noir as an earthy, smooth, comforting wine that has become my go-to Thanksgiving red-wine pairing. Since then, I’ve enjoyed this fickle grape in its many wine forms. The most common introduction to pinot noir is it’s classic presentation as a light-bodied red wine. Pinot noir can also be part of a sparkling trio, being one of three key varietals found in Champagne, or a rebellious white wine.
Dinner Party Trivia: Pinot noir is a varietal has been used to create new grape varietals when crossed with another varietal. For example, the South African pinotage resulted from crossing pinot noir and cinsault (known as hermitage in South Africa). Similarly, the Bulgarian bouquet is a cross of pinot noir and mavrud (an indigenous Bulgarian varietal).
Color:
Pinot noir is a black grape variety that typically presents itself as a red wine with light to medium ruby hues depending on where it’s grown. As a white wine, it tends to have a light golden color.
|
https://medium.com/winelife/grape-notes-pinot-noir-6f048c1f094c
|
['Michelle Lim Warner']
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2015-11-01 16:19:12.915000+00:00
|
['Wine', 'Pinot Noir', 'Sip']
|
Wine Cellar Secrets: A Day In The Life Of Quintessentially Wine
|
Wine Cellar Secrets: A Day In The Life Of Quintessentially Wine
Chapter Eight: A Suspect
“Do come in, Inspector. I always make it a point of principle to make myself available to the constabulary whenever they come calling.”
Tinnion’s eyebrows raised, and he couldn’t entirely hide the brief smile that passed across his face. “You have a lot of experience with the police, do you, Ms Wellington?”
Amanda Wellington chuckled, and she motioned for the detective to sit down opposite her, across the desk in her office.
“Not much,” she said, “but as Collections Manager, I occasionally get approached by your brothers in blue to be asked questions about particular wines. It’s usually to give valuations if there has been a theft. I’m considered something of an expert.”
Tinnion hid his exasperation well; they had so far met a grand total of two times, and Wellington had mentioned that she was Collections Manager on both occasions. The detective was never a great one for ego and titles — indeed, he hardly ever bothered introducing himself as an inspector, and much preferred to be judged on his own personal merits — but he was intrigued by Wellington’s strange desire to be known as the main Collections Manager. It was like she was keen to remind him that she managed the overwhelming majority of Quintessentially’s wine and resources.
“So, how long have you been here?” he asked, choosing his words with care.
“Just over a year,” she replied promptly. “I was recruited by the CEO himself.”
More status, Tinnion thought disparagingly. A dislike of this woman was growing in the pit of his stomach even before he had managed to steer this conversation down whatever path it was going to take. He knew that he needed to take that emotion firmly under control, however, as he didn’t want to start making assumptions about anything that could end up skewing the investigation.
“Did you know before taking the job that another Collections Manager was already in place?” he asked. He wasn’t surprised to see a scowl fly across her face before quickly vanishing again. She clearly wasn’t as good as hiding her emotions as she would have liked.
“No,” she said smoothly, as if the irritation hadn’t happened. “I found out on my first day when Adam introduced himself.”
“How did that make you feel, knowing that had been kept from you?”
Wellington hesitated for a moment, seeming to think about it before speaking. “Well, I was surprised, certainly. I -” She blinked and then frowned as a thought seemed to occur to her. “I’m a suspect,” she said slowly. “My word, you actually suspect me, don’t you?”
“Where were you between 1am and 1.30am this morning, Ms Wellington?”
“At home, in bed … asleep.”
“Can anyone verify that claim?”
“I live alone, Detective.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Wellington’s jaw set in an angry line. “No,” she snapped abruptly. “I was in bed by myself.”
“Well, those are the pleasantries,” Tinnion said in an altogether more cheerful tone, flashing his most charming smile. “Now that they’re out the way, let’s move on. Everyone is a suspect, irrespective of where they were at the time of the theft.”
“I see your point,” Wellington said, “except for one fatal flaw in your logic, Inspector. I still don’t have the foggiest idea what the theft entails. To this day, I don’t know what Adam is curating down in that dungeon of his.”
“You make a good point,” Tinnion noted. “Thank you explaining your ignorance about the collection so cogently.”
Wellington suddenly smiled, the anger of a moment ago seemingly forgotten; she had obviously decided to tune out his sarcasm.
“You remind me of Columbo,” she said quietly. “I’m expecting you to say ‘One more thing …’ any minute now.”
“The day I hit that stereotype,” Tinnion said, continuing to return the smile, “is the day I need to hang up my badge for good.”
There was a silence between the two of them for a moment that was surprisingly companionable, and Tinnion was intrigued to know what Wellington would say next. He had found silence to be a very useful trick from time to time, as most people were uncomfortable with a lack of sound and rushed to fill it. A lot of time, what they filled it with was the verbal equivalent of white noise; generalised babble, small talk and chatter, just to keep the noise level going, but occasionally — just occasionally — they would give something away. It might just be a Freudian slip or a thoughtless, throw-away remark, but that could be incredibly telling.
Sadly, Wellington wasn’t one of them; people who were comfortable with silence between themselves and a stranger were rare, but she was one of them and Tinnion was impressed. He mentally cursed; he had been hoping for something more. The old adage of being innocent until proven guilty wasn’t something he believed in, but he was making assumptions here without any proof — and trying to tease out information that might not even exist.
Wellington shifted her weight to lean her right arm on one of the chair arms, and smiled serenely at him. Tinnion decided to drop the act; it clearly wasn’t working, and he could well have been overanalysing the situation anyway — there were situations when suspecting everyone simply wasn’t the right course of action. Now, he needed to focus on questioning everyone else; in particular, Mr Collins, the security guard. He was someone that could well know more; he had spent so much time just outside the vault door that he must had picked some useful snippets of information up.
“Well,” he said in as polite and calm a tone as he possibly could, pretending that the last two minutes of carefully gauged silence hadn’t happened, “thank you for talking to me, Ms Wellington. It’s been a pleasure.”
“I’m sure it has,” she said with a self-deprecating smile. “I hope I’ve been of some help.”
Tinnion nodded. “It’s always useful to be able to rule people out,” he said.
…stayed tuned, Chapter Nine: ‘Down To The Station’ is only a day away. If you are enjoying this series then please follow Quintessentially Wine.
|
https://medium.com/@QuintessentiallyWine/wine-cellar-secrets-a-day-in-the-life-of-quintessentially-wine-e98ad00d30
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['Quintessentially Wine']
|
2015-10-15 17:58:53.516000+00:00
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['Fiction', 'Short Story', 'Wine']
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Best Place to Buy Cheap Alcohol Online!
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Best Place to Buy Cheap Alcohol Online!
In this highly technological world, life has become really fast and people are used to doing convenient things. Partying every weekend is a culture and especially in the month of December when Christmas is just round the corner. Every family would be having a party at their place with the best of food and best of drinks — alcoholic or non alcoholic. To fulfil your needs of a nice and cheap alcohol online you just have to do wine online shopping.
The best place in Austin which offers online wine delivery is Travis Heights Beverage World store. Their online supply and delivery of alcohol had a whopping increase as the people are in love with these services. It has become the best online wine store with thousands of people connected to it. It has some of the best Austin beverages with exotic tastes and flavours. The people living in and around South Austin can buy beverages online from this store without any inconvenience.
The store has become famous not just because of the online wine delivery which it has started but also because of the free evening tasting sessions which it offers. The store is known to add new drinks in its collection quite often. To make people aware of those new flavours, free tasting sessions are organised every Thursday through to Saturday evenings. It offers the best alcohol delivery both in store and online. The various reasons which cannot be overshadowed for selection of this supplier are lightening fast 30 minutes delivery, easy availability, and superb collection of beverages.
The person who is stuck somewhere or is just in a mood to relax, the one who is throwing a party at his place or just being a guest at a party, can all order great wines, beers, champagnes and other drinks from here without any hassle. The deliveries are closed on Sundays however the order can be placed online for the same. The dedicated team ensures that you can have the best of services at the best of price online.
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https://medium.com/@travisheights4/best-place-to-buy-cheap-alcohol-online-71e92a01c3cc
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['James Travis']
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2016-12-19 08:15:27.300000+00:00
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['Wine']
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Aglianico del Vulture
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Aglianico del Vulture
Aglianico del Vulture is an excellent wine from Basilicata, produced specifically in one area of Mount Vulture, which is located in the northern part of the Potenza’s province. This mountain is actually a dormant volcano off for a long time, on whose slopes are lands from the unique soil and climatic characteristics.
The land is rich in minerals, especially potassium, a fundamental element for the plants growth and, of course, also for the vine. In the vine, in fact, potassium plays an important role in metabolism and in the sugars translocation.
In this area there are also several natural springs of mineral water, which makes this part of Basilicata the ideal place for quality farming and wine. Aglianico del Vulture is a wine made with grapes of a vine native of this land grown in hilly areas at altitudes between 200 and 700 meters above sea level.
History
History
Quinto Orazio Flacco, known as Horace, described in his writings the unequivocally love for this red wine and its intense flavor.
The etymology of the term “Aglianico” is still the subject of debate among scholars, but it could comes from the expression Vitis Hellenic used by the Romans.
Another hypothesis rather credited traces the name of this grape in Elea, an ancient town of Lucania overlooking the Tyrrhenian coast. The term “Aglianico” then, born from a linguistic distortion introduced by the Aragonese that in the fifteenth century were the Lucania’s rulers. In Castilian, in fact, the double “l” is pronounced with the sound “gl” from “Hellenic”, so Aglianico.
Grape harvest
The fifteen municipalities involved by the production of Aglianico del Vulture DOC are Rionero in Vulture, Venosa, Melfi, Genzano di Lucania, Barile, Rampolla, Acerenza, Atella, Forenza, Lavello, Banzi, Ripacandida, Ginestra, Maschito andPalazzo San Gervasio.
The grape harvest is traditionally made in the second half of October until the middle of November for 3–4 weeks. The maximum yield per hectare is set at 100 quintals, while the yield of grapes in the wine must not exceed 70%. The entire production process, including fermentation and subsequent aging required, must be carried out entirely within the production area specified.
Thanks to its excellent organoleptic characteristics, and the resemblance to a well-known grape variety of Piedmont, this wine has been proudly surnamed the “Barolo of the South”. Aglianico del Vulture is one of the most popular Italian red wines both nationally and internationally and to demonstrate this we just mention the eleven “Great Mentions” and the “Gold Medal” awarded in 2010 during the popular event Vinitaly in Verona.
The excellent quality of this wine with its long history of production, have lead the D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) happen in the 1971. An additional recognition was the most recent assignment of D.O.C.G. (Controlled and Guaranteed Origin Denomination) to the “Superior” type of Aglianico del Vulture.
Characteristics
Aglianico del Vulture DOC has a beautiful ruby red color in which appear, with the progress of aging, garnet or orange tones. The aroma is intense and balanced, and also is accentuated with age. On the palate this wine has a warm flavor, savory and dry, overall very harmonic and balanced that with age it becomes more and more velvety. The content of tannins is ideal. The alcohol content is included between 11.5 ° and 14 ° depending on the type.
This wine is ideal to aging and it is also marketed in the types “Vecchio” (aged at least 3 years, including two in wooden barrels) and “Riserva” (minimum 5 years, even in this case at least two in wooden barrels).
Aglianico del Vulture unaged can not be sold before one year after the harvest, and in any event not before 1 November of the following year. There is also a “Spumante” version and an interesting dessert wine called “Aglianico dolce”.
How to serve
Due to its intense flavor and full-bodied, Aglianico del Vulture D.O.C. is particularly well with meat (white, but mainly red) cooked on a spit or in the oven. This wine is ideal for braised meats, roasts and rich dishes with wild game and fowl. It is also a great combination with the mature cheeses such as Caciocavallo Lucano or Canestrato di Moliterno IGP produced with sheep and goats milk.
The recommended serving temperature is 18–20 ° C.
In his sparkling version, Aglianico del Vulture is the perfect accompaniment to sweets and desserts such as fruit tarts, pastries and traditional desserts. In this case the wine should be served colder, around 8–12 ° C.
Drinking it will give you a feeling of antiquity, wisdom, body and texture. Aglianico is one of the best expressions of the land where it was born.
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https://calia.me/aglianico-del-vulture-4161d8f69f8d
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['Giovanni Calia']
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2017-08-27 09:57:36.153000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Italy', 'Travel']
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The Wine Rule
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I take a lot of meetings, both personally and professionally as the founder of the watch company Martenero. There’s no set format — meetings can be in an office, cafe, bar, or just walking through the city. Anywhere really. They can be highly structured or off the cuff, goal-oriented or purely exploratory. As a whole, there’s very little consistency, which works so well because every person and every situation is unique. But there’s one not so little thing that is alarmingly consistent — people are always late, and they don’t think that it’s a big deal. They arrive 10, 15, even 30 minutes late, say that they are ‘sorry’ and ‘so busy’ and then look to me for empathy. They think that a disingenuous sorry makes everything okay. Well, it doesn’t. You disrespected me and my time, and you owe me more than a sorry. You owe me wine.
THE RULES
For these offenders I have created The Wine Rule. It’s quite simple and effective. Full set of rules below:
1) If you agree to meet me at a certain time, I will make every effort to be on time and I expect you to do the same.
2) There is a five minute grace period. I’m happy to consider a few minutes late as being ‘on time’.
3) If either party is more than five minutes late, that party owes the other a bottle of wine (nothing fancy; a drinkable $12 bottle will do).
4) Wine must be delivered within one week, or there are additional penalties.
5) I will enforce the rule with no exceptions.
WHY I DO THIS
I see two major reasons why chronic lateness is a big deal:
It’s Disrespectful
All of us have limited time on our hands, and I don’t think there’s a single person that doesn’t have better things to do than simply wait for someone else who can’t follow their own schedule.
You’re forcing someone to adapt to your own schedule rather than respecting both of your schedules. Whether you realize it or not, you’re sending the message that your time is more valuable than the other person’s. It’s not, and this is narcissism. Stop it.
It Likely Encourages Sloppiness In Other Parts of One’s Life
I don’t believe that actions exist in a vacuum. If you don’t do something as simple and fundamental as abiding by your own schedule, think about what else you could be mismanaging in your life:
What person close to you have you neglected contacting?
What project at work or on the side do you keep putting off?
What hobby do you always think about pursuing but (realistically, at the current pace) never will?
Begin by respecting both your own and other peoples’ schedules, and I would bet that that would carry over positively to other areas of your life.
THE REACTION
When I first tell people about the wine rule, I tend to get universal buy-in. They love the idea, agree that ‘everyone else’ is chronically late, and tell me how they have the same problem.
But when that person is late and I actually enforce the rule (see rule #5), people freak out. They are inevitably surprised that I enforce the rule, genuinely believe that they should be an exception to the rule, and that this one lateness was ‘different’ because they have ‘so much going on’. More than one person has begged not to have to pay up.
I’m constantly amazed at this reaction. You see, I don’t buy your excuses and I don’t care anyway. No, this time isn’t different, you’re not special, and you’re going to give me that bottle of wine because that’s what we agreed to.
THE AFTERMATH
Usually people get so annoyed after buying a bottle of wine or two that they are never late afterwards. There’s just something about this little gesture that people find so irritating, and avoiding these negative feelings becomes the prime motivator. This is a little piece of fascinating human psychology I’ve stumbled upon — how people can be so motivated not by any sense of enjoyment or fulfillment but rather by avoiding negative feelings or shame. Perhaps something worth exploring more deeply in the future.
After I created The Wine Rule everyone’s punctuality improved remarkably, and an aura of fun even developed around the whole thing. It’s become a joke, a friendly competition to see who can be on time the most. Not something I would have guessed was possible.
So the next time someone is late to meet you, and they offer you a dismissive ‘sorry’ which they clearly don’t mean, my advice is this: Smile, and utter those beautiful words: You owe me a bottle of wine.
Special thanks to Zeba Khan (accountability) and Matt O’Dowd (inspiration). Additional thanks to John Reineck and Greg Spielberg. And apologies to Alanna Gregory for that one time when I was one hour late.
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https://medium.com/@johntarantino/the-wine-rule-ff0d3b4cda1e
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['John Tarantino']
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2015-10-29 20:42:32.629000+00:00
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['Wine']
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Nothing is Accidental: Two Girls, One Wine
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Nothing is Accidental: Two Girls, One Wine
Ashley is an intro level sommelier. You probably don’t know what that is. You’re forgiven— I didn’t know the details or the the intricacy of the job until she started on her journey to ultimate alcoholism. Sommeliers study wine and all that is involved in the exquisite process that give us the liquid of my people (social drunks). Variations of grapes are regional in countries all over the world, making each a unique and specific fruit. The dirt grapes are grown in affects the taste — I mean, who knew?
Now, I like wine. White preferably, or a light red. Why do I like wine? Mostly because I don’t love people, and wine doesn’t throw shade, or piss me off, or tell me to do things for it. Wine just lets me get a little drunk and relax. Wine is good to me. I don’t care where its been, or where it’s going, as long as we’re together at the end of a long day.
Ashley is very concerned with where her wine has been. She has to know the “why” and “how” her wine came to be. The make up, the essence of wine. She immerses herself in it, sipping slowly as I knock half a bottle back.
Our view from A Voce, overlooking a snow dusted Columbus Circle.
Ashley and I have gone to wine tastings before. Last February, we walked into A Voce in Columbus Circle — her as a potential buyer for the liquor store where she works, me as a social alcoholic — and stumbled out like fools. The other buyers were spitting their wine into communal buckets, which I considered wasteful (and disgusting). Ashley and I tasted 75 wines that day, which ended with us as the youngest, most under-dressed, drunkest people in the room. We asked for the wine list at dinner and waiter denied us. It was 4:30pm. Moral of the story, we know how to taste wine but Ashley has been practicing “blind” tastings, an integral part of the sommelier certification test. I thought it would be interesting to see how Ashley, well on her way to being an expert, understood wine as opposed to an uncultured swine like myself.
I walk into her house without knocking. I can hear her sitting in the kitchen with her mother, shouting at the Yankees as they lose to the Houston Astro’s. She’s clapping at the television, nods in my direction like a brute. I lay on the floor with her dogs.
This is our friendship.
Eventually, fed up with a Jeter-less squad, Ashley sets up her dining room table for our tasting. Two bottles of wine, two sheets of printer paper, four glasses and a glass pitcher. This already seems like too much for me.
“We’re going to be testing a theory”, she explains, placing the various items in perfect photo-op position. “We’re going to determine if decanting makes a difference.”
I stare at her blankly. She shakes her head and continues. “Decanting is the process of letting wine breathe. When the wine touches the air…” This went on. I am interested, but I just really, really would like a drink.
“Wine is starved of air, especially if it’s a Stelvin, or a screw cap. A cork lets a very small amount of air in, but air nonetheless. The second the air hits the wine, the wine is like “OH SHIT, HELLO!” and it’s characteristics usually end up changing. We’re here to determine the difference.”
Ashley pours the entire bottle of the deep crimson liquid into the pitcher. “This will allow the wine access to air a little quicker,” she adds, drawing columns for tasting notes on the sheets of paper she laid out. “Did you cleanse your palate?”
“Excuse me?” I know I have a foul mouth but now she was just being insulting.
“Rinse your mouth. You just ate dinner and drank raspberry ale. It’s gonna fuck with your tastebuds….I’m serious, Monica cleanse your damn palate!” I lethargically walk over to the kitchen sink. “How much longer do we have to wait for the wine to breathe?” I whine.
“Ten minutes.”
We wait. Ashley is taking pictures of wine glasses, I’m petting her dogs, and bantering with her mom. We are still waiting for this wine to catch it’s breath. I’m getting impatient. Finally, Ashley tells me its time and pours the wine into one of my glasses, which I instantly scoop up and dive into taking a sip, ready for it’s warm, boozy embrace on my lips.
“WAIT! We haven’t tested it yet! Stop holding it by the glass, you’re going to heat the wine and change the taste,” she scolds, grabbing the glass from my hand. “Jesus, your hands are hot as fuck.” I’m baffled.
“So you’re telling me I can’t drink yet…” What kind of cruelty did I subject myself to? This was my idea, wasn’t it…
“We’re going through the steps. First is sight.” She holds the glass up to the paper, attempting to look through the liquid. “This is a Shebang Ninth Cuvee, which is basically just a fancy way to say ‘a bunch of shit mixed into a barrel together.’ It doesn’t really make any sense to me. The middle is blood red — notice how you can’t see anything? There’s no opulence, but its lighter on the outside. The color hints whats in it, how old it is, the alcohol content. Makes me think that its blended Zinfandel, Petit Sirah maybe…we’ll check later.”
All I know is that I can’t see anything, its red, and kind of pink on the outside rim.
“Swirl it in your glass. Do you notice heavy drippage?” I laugh at the unnecessary sexual innuendo I created in an otherwise unsexy situation.
“Ew,” I giggle. “Drippage.”
“Thank you, Monica. Anyway, the streaks indicate that this has a really high alcohol content.” Good to know, because I need a solid buzz after all of this.
We moved on to the smelling part of the program. I stuck my honker into the glass and started rattling off scents. This is the part I like — early on in Ashley’s studies, we used to just name the things we smelled in wine, no matter how strange or absurd. Cat pee, maple syrup, grass, you name it. No smell was off limits even if it sounded like a strange ingredient for wine, because there was always a reason the wine smelled that way — the soil, or the region, or the grape, or the fermenting process.
“Swirl, smell, swirl, smell, swirl, sip.” Ashley instructs.
I swirl. A deep breath in floods my sense with raspberries and black berries and booze. Swirl again — straight vodka. I feel like my nose hairs are singed. I have a flashback to senior year high school, drinking raspberry Smirinoff in Jonathan’s basement. Mildew and rubbing alcohol and fruit. Lovely. I complete the process and finally, after 15 long minutes of waiting, take a hearty sip of this boozy fruity drink.
Salt walter. It tastes like vodka and salt water and it is disgusting. I swallow and almost gag, my mouth turning immediately into the Sahara Desert on it’s hottest day.
“Oh GOD, that’s fucking terrible,” I spatter, trying to bring moisture back to my cat tongue by guzzling water. “That tastes the salt water and death, and my mouth is SO dry, what is happening!”
“Tannins. It’s a dry wine, so there are a lot of tannins, making your mouth dry. Give it another sip. Let it sit in your mouth, suck some air through your teeth. I don’t think you tasted it right, so try again.”
“Again? Jesus.” I take a less generous sip this time, following Ashley’s specific instructions. The taste is infinitely worse.
“No. This…no, I’m pissed this wine is ass.”
“Yeah it’s not my favorite, but its important that we try the second bottle anyway, so we can determine if allowing the wine to decant actually makes a difference. I guarantee you’ll hate the second bottle more.” Very encouraging.
We now have to go through all of these steps a second time. The sight and smell were mostly the same, but the alcohol aroma was infinitely stronger this go-round. I was not thrilled to be drinking this sandy, boozy wine again, but it was my stupid idea to write about this stupid wine, so might as well complete the task at hand.
Swirl, smell, swirl, smell, sip. Salt water and booze, but less terrible this time. Less dry, more acidity, still intolerable.
We’ve completed the procedure. Twenty-five minutes, two bottles of Shebang, endless complaining on my end, all to conclude that decanting does in fact make a difference in the taste of wine. Ashley confirmed that the grapes she expected to be mixed together, were in fact part of the make up of this wine. The girl has skill. In the end, I preferred the undecanted wine; Ashley chose the opposite. If you’re thinking of giving this wine a taste, you should aim to drink the whole bottle in under 10 minutes. After that, too much air and you’ll be salty. Literally.
It is an amazing process honestly — the knowledge she has obtained and shared with me is so intricate and detailed and sultry and deep. I don’t have the patience for it — I drink wine to unwind. Ashley drinks wine to expand, explore regions of the world she’s never seen; understand a soil her feet have never touched. Her cultural acknowledgement is astounding. Her tastebuds are astute, picking up on flavors and textures my palate recognizes but cannot identify.
When we were cleaning up our mess, Ashley broke out a bottle of white that I could stomach. Pouring a glass, I quipped, “Honestly Ash…that wine was bad.”
“Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad,” she replied, evoking a raised eye brow from my corner of the table. “I don’t mean bad in regard to taste. I mean that your disgust doesn’t mean the wine is bad quality. This wine is intricate and bold and…honestly it smells like booze, but there’s a reason. Nothing is accidental.”
What an astounding metaphor. Nothing is accidental. Nothing would be worth the wait, or the taste or the warmth if we took a liking to everything. Sometimes you wait and you get a mouth full of salt water, like an unexpected crashing wave, slamming you in the face. And sometimes, after you let the moment — or the person, or the wine — breathe, you are met with a mind opening, mouth watering something, worth every second.
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https://medium.com/wine-stories/nothing-is-accidental-two-girls-one-wine-6f2cfa0e4253
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['Monica O Connor']
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2015-11-05 14:07:24.066000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Sommelier', 'Humor']
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An Approach To Relaxation
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Two years ago I gave up my home, gave away my belongings on the street in Chinatown and left New York with only a suitcase, headed into the unknown. It’s been a whirlwind and the dust is only now beginning to settle.
Along the way there have been many lessons and some that rocked my very center and tugged at the strings of my heart until it’s lovely juices happily poured out. There were also many long nights of wrestling with my decision to leave my friends, my home, my job and my city to embark on this journey.
Through it all, one thing became crystal clear: that I am the luckiest girl on the planet.
I have a best friend, I have a creative partner and I have a lover — all in the same person: Richard Betts.
I mean, who knew it was possible, to have all of the best pieces in the chocolate box?
Together we’ve gone deep to find what we both believe in, what we both want to put our collective weight behind. It had to be something we had a crush on, something that we wanted to paw at and take down… It had to be something that included a challenge, with a point of view that we could add to, something that wasn’t already ‘figured out’.
If I’ve learned anything since I left New York two years ago, it’s that a project such as this is really the most valuable kind. Everything is thrown onto the table: suggestions you’re unsure of, ideas you feel strongly about, things you are embarrassed you don’t already know…
You realize it’s not about you or your great idea at all; it’s about this super-cool opportunity to take an idea, and along with your partner, spin it from a lovely momentary gossamer thread into a bad-ass web of strength and purpose.
So yeah, An Approach To Relaxation will make wine. But the end goal is far more rich; we want to give you our all. All of the good shit we’ve mined from traveling over 300 days a year, all the scrumptious stuff we’re making, a peek into our own little world of ideas/ questions/ dreams; but most of all, a fantastic sense of levity in an otherwise dangerously serious life.
So come on! Jump on in!
We may bite, but not too hard.
Carla Rzeszewski
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https://medium.com/@AATR/an-approach-to-relaxation-799cb7ca7786
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['An Approach To Relaxation']
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2015-10-15 22:34:27.202000+00:00
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['Travel', 'Wine', 'Australia']
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A few things I learned from my sister on her vineyard
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Les Arabesques is in the South of France, about 30km west of Perpignan, between The Corbières and The Pyrénées mountains.
In the past year I’ve had the chance to spend more time with my sister Saskia on her vineyard, Les Arabesques. She owns a small estate in the Roussillon region of the South of France. It’s about 30km west of Perpignan, between The Corbières and the Pyrénées mountains. She is committed to growing grapes and making wine in a traditional and natural fashion. It’s still very new, this year was her third harvest. I’ve had the chance to learn more about winemaking talking with her, and occasionally helping throughout the season — so I also got some practical experience of the process.
The first thing that keeps blowing my mind is the timeline she works to. All she does is dictated by nature and seasons. Every choice she makes has an influence over her potential livelihood for the following 12 to 18 months or so. She creates the best context and environment possible, maybe give things a nudge in the right direction, and lets nature do its work.
I know it’s always been that way, but I’ve never been particularly close to nature. I’ve been used to working in large cities and advertising agency offices where the briefs are due yesterday. Everything needs to happen faster and faster. Everyone is busy and power-walking around. As soon as I arrive in a city, I walk faster from the moment I get off the plane or train. I spend time with brand clients trying to understand and explain the evolution of consumer or purchase behaviours. Peering over new and popular technologies, networks or apps that may well be obsolete or irrelevant tomorrow. Obsolescence is a recurring theme, businesses even bake it in their products, or if not release new goodies on shorter and shorter cycles to always create news and needs.
My sister works with the seasons. The project cycle is a year or more and necessarily adaptive. While the general seasonal pattern is the same every year, and the tasks roughly take place in the same order, there are still a lot of variations depending on the weather. She has a direction in mind for her wines, though has to adapt to what nature throws at her.
Winter is pruning time. While the vines are sleeping it’s time for her to go through all her plots and snip off the unwanted branches. I spent a day with her last winter where I was “pre-pruning”. Basically just cutting off the major branches without going into the detail, which are important choices she makes herself. She told me pruning is the job where the most knowledge and experience is required. There are several techniques she learned while being trained in Burgundy and Provence. As I understood it, she visualises the path the sap will most probably take from the roots to the branches. This guides where she prunes to encourage the growth of branches that will bear the most and/or best fruits for the harvest. It is quite similar to pruning a bonsai actually. Now she is getting to know her vines better in the third year, she also has a better idea of the way they behaved in the last harvest, pruning also based on her experience. Most of that work is done by herself with her dog, in cold, windy yet often sunny weather. She says there’s something meditative about caring for her vines during that time of year that she really enjoys.
In parallel, winter is also time for several professional exhibits and shows. It takes a lot of time to make the wine, and it takes time to sell it too. This year she was invited to participate in what is often considered the best professional show for organic and natural winemakers, Renaissance des Appellations (Return to Terroir). The yearly event gathers many of the best natural winemakers, sommeliers, and wine importers from around the world.
And if that wasn’t enough work already, the wine from her previous harvest is slowly getting ready. She has to watch out for any sudden shifts in temperature that might upset the wine in the cellar, check and taste it on a regular basis. Christmas is luckily a quieter time where she can generally take a few days off, away from her cellar.
The fullrange of Les Arabesques for 2013.
Spring time is mostly about fertilising and treating the vines, caring for them so that they’ll be able to be healthy, and resist trouble from fungi, diseases, or insects. That means going out before dawn to sprinkle the vines, as well as removing rocks and weeds from the plots. I tried removing weeds. It’s hard work. Stooped over with a small pickaxe hacking at the rocky terrain. It was another opportunity for her to make fun of my city like habits and general uselessness when it comes to most manual labour. It’s also bottling and labelling time for the wines from the previous harvest that are ready to be sold and drank. That’s where I’m more comfortable, particularly the drinking part of it.
The spring time work carries over into the summer, and then there’s a quieter time before harvest when many of the local winemakers can take a holiday, around late July or so. The rest is about selling wine, watching out for the weather, checking the progress of the growing fruits, watching out for any trouble that might take place, and generally gearing up for the harvest. I helped on the harvest for the first time this year. It’s tough work for the back, but it’s also a good time. It’s fun to be outside in the beautiful countryside, bantering with other grape pickers under the watchful eye of my sister’s partner. He plays the role of mock tough supervisor, to the tone of “I don’t want to see a single leaf in those baskets! We’re not brewing tea here, monsieur!”
Everything at that moment is crucial, from the grapes picked or set aside, to the choices made in the cellar. Are these grapes ready to be harvested yet? How much sugar content do they have now and how does that compare with the alcohol level I’m aiming for? How many days should these grapes ferment before being pressed? With or without the stems? These are only a few of the questions she has on her mind at that time of year. There might be more bottling beforehand too, for the wine from the previous year that wasn’t ready for consumption yet, and to make space in the cellar for the new wine.
Grape juice fresh from the press.
I learned that grapes for rosé and white wine are pressed immediately after being harvested. Grapes for red wines can be pressed later, the when and how depends on the kind of wine being made. I tried the age old tradition of stomping on grapes, which is both harder work than it seems and pretty satisfying. It’s not just folklore, it serves an important purpose. Given the grapes have just been picked, the berries are still firm. The press works from the top down and is flat. Stomping the berries helps more grape juice to be extracted. If they aren’t stomped then a lot of berries can be stuck at the bottom without being pressed, and you can lose a lot of juice.
As soon as the excitement of the harvest is passed, it’s already autumn and time to keep in contact with her clients, as well as find new ones. Most wine cellars and restaurants start ordering and stocking up for the end of year holiday season. Meanwhile she also has to watch out for this year’s wine fermentation progress. Update Facebook with new photos from the harvest. Watch out for any press or worthwhile professional show opportunities. Then of course there’s the joys of year-end admin and finance.
And the cycle starts again.
As a strategist an important part of my job in advertising is to synthesise everything I learn from research for a particular brand in order to provide a direction for the creative team. While I might have the chance to do some research with people and try a product or service before a write a brief, I rarely have that much time to really experience it in the way I have with the vineyard in the past year, and even then I’ve probably only skimmed the surface. That said, I certainly have a new appreciation for working with nature that I hope I’ll be able to take into account for future work.
What I’d write in a brief is traditionally called a single-minded communication, or proposition. Most of the time it’s one sentence, as short and inspiring as possible. It encapsulates the main message to be communicated.
In this case It might be a shame to try and summarise something as complex as this process to a single short sentence. It would be near impossible to do it justice. Traditionally made wine like my sister’s should really be tasted (I recommend getting advice from a professional in a wine cellar or restaurant to try a good one). Each one is unique. You won’t necessarily like every one you try, but you’ll find one that you enjoy. If you get into it you might even have a hard time going back to mass produced wines.
Fortunately I don’t have to write a short sentence here. If you’ve read this far you may well be the kind of person that will remember and appreciate the amount of work that goes into these wines when you taste one.
Follow what’s going on with Les Arabesques on Facebook here.
This post was originally published on my blog, Ice Cream for Everyone.
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https://medium.com/@willemvdh/a-few-things-i-learned-from-my-sister-on-her-vineyard-f6425fc7f798
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['Willem Van Der Horst']
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2015-10-15 08:20:46.115000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Winemaking', 'Learning']
|
Saying Goodbye To Fear On The R-Train
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Saying Goodbye To Fear On The R-Train
On the R-train, stopped for half an hour. Someone’s sick in the train in front of us. Tending to the ill means sitting for the rest of us. At least everyone has a seat. It is a Saturday, 12;15 when we left. Some are getting antsy and annoyed, namely the man sitting next to me. “Just take the sick person off of the train. Then we can go. Just take them away”, he pleads. Others are looking around, maybe searching for similar feelings in the faces of those sitting around them? Some are sleeping. I’m listening to a podcast that I’m thankful downloaded before we lost service.
I’ve been feeling anxious myself lately. Lost in the everyday tasks. Struggling with the voices in my head asking questions about the future. What do you want to do? Where/what are your passions? Should it be this hard?
I’ve tried to write. It’s feeling forced. This all started a few weeks ago. When I got back from California. I’ve been going in circles. Write more like this. Write more topics on “that” subject, whatever it may be.
But here I am, now on a moving train (thankfully) listening to a podcast from The Guild of Sommeliers — the Past and Future of the Sommelier. I start to wonder…why do I keep toying with the decision to deepen my understanding of the world of wine yet almost always move away from it? Brushing aside the innate interest and enjoyment that arises when I watch a documentary, talk to someone at a wine store who tells me about a particular wine that would pair perfectly with my spicy sausage pasta with red sauce, when listening to these podcasts, or the (good) anxiousness of waiting for Into The Bottle to come out and wishing I could go to the Napa film festival to see its premiere.
While stuck on the R, I think I’ve figured it out.
Fear.
The possibility of failing. Not having whatever “it” is to make it. The wine industry was somewhat foreign to me when it came to being a profession. Other than making almost everyone I know watch Somm with me (going on 9 times now) when I find the chance to bring it up in a conversation, I don’t think many people I know are aware of the opportunities either. The unknown can be scary. It’s not accounting, marketing, law, medicine, etc. It’s a somewhat non-traditional path.
So, as I sit here, an hour after I left my house with still 30 minutes till I reach my destination, I realize I need to stop letting fear stop me. I know what I enjoy. I know where my passions are growing.
Now, I just need to get to it. I can do this.
As the beginning of this post reads, I wrote this on a Saturday — a few weeks ago actually. It is now Wednesday night and I’m happy to say I have officially started my journey! This afternoon I signed up for the WSET Level 1 course. The first level will cover the main styles and types of wine, the characteristics of the primary wine grape varieties, wine service and tasting technique to name a few topics. The course doesn’t begin until December (unless I get off the waitlist for November!) but I cannot wait to begin.
Celebrating with that bottle pictured above, carving pumpkins, and listening to a halloween playlist (monster mash, anyone?).
Don’t let fear hold you back from taking that first step. You’ll never know what you can achieve unless you try. Because really, what’s the alternative — wondering if you could have done this or that? Going over the “what ifs”? Not pursuing something that makes you happy? Life is hard but it’s much harder if you settle and don’t go after pure happiness.
So, cheers to saying goodbye to fear and acknowledging my passion while stuck in train traffic, to late night writing, and to a lot more wine in the future!
Thanks for reading!
This post originally appeared on Pardon My French where I share bits of New York living, food, diy projects, and now more wine. Follow along and say hello on the blog, twitter, or instagram!
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https://medium.com/@ashley_cooper/saying-goodbye-to-fear-on-the-r-train-7fa21524529c
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['Ashley Cooper']
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2015-10-29 16:26:23.593000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Life Lessons', 'Passion']
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Interview with Schramsberg CEO Hugh Davies
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Schramsberg is likely the greatest sparkling wine in the business.
This season, keep your eyes on the bubbles. Sparkling wine & the French version, Champagne, are synonymous with celebration. These fabulous concoctions deserve a place in our everyday life. Not reserved solely for celebration. Before you purchase that next bottle, sink your teeth into this: sparkling wines and champagne run about ten calories less per glass than a red or sweet wine. Every day should be a celebration!
Schramsberg has built a reputation out of quality, dedication and vision. Creating the best possible sparkling in the business is what they’re known for. They don’t stop there. Schramsberg also carries quality stills with their Davies, J. Davies and Jamie brands making exceptional quality Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.
Interview with Senior Winemaker, Sean Thompson
https://youtu.be/pt-xV2lNzOQ?list=PL42a5ixs02TwXtGY-HT035pxgv5zaIGer
In 1965 the Davies family was captivated by the idea of building a wine company. Jack & Jamie Davies, along with their young brood, found a beautiful spot in Napa Valley. This winery, now 154 years old, is located on Diamond Mountain. Diamond Mountain is part of the extensive 52 mile Mayacamas Mountain range and is located between Calistoga and St. Helena. It had a house on it and vines that were more of a nature experiment than vines they might use, but they saw the same promise one Jacob Schram saw almost 100 years before their arrival and embraced the chance to put their drive in action. There were just 22 wineries operating in 1965, but the Davies had a vision, a dream, and a family to take care of and were focused on the goal.
“We’re going to carve our niche as the ultimate producer of sparkling wine in the United States”
With a Harvard MBA under his belt, Mr. Davies knew that focus on a unique offering could make this new business a success. He and Jamie determined a sparkling California wine was one they could embrace using old world methods to ferment. Méthode Traditionelle is a labor intensive and more expensive, involving a -secondary fermentation- and is also known as “The Champagne Method”. First, a base wine is fermented in steel or oak barrels and then it is moved to bottle for secondary fermentation. The devotion and focus Jack & Jamie Davies had on producing sparkling using this method paid off significantly. They set a precedent for others to follow.
“The one thing we don’t want to lose sight on is the initial vision we started out with.”
The thing about a start-up, then or now; it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you are always gambling. Prohibition left vineyards and the industry in an abominable state. With time the industry started to turn around. Jack and Jamie Davies had the vision, tenacity, and determination to make this work. The hard work would not go unnoticed. It was about the time the man landed on the moon that the Davies family got their first landmark recognition. It arrived at one of the most historic meetings the world would see.
Their Blanc de Blancs was the first American made wine served at an official U.S. State function, and it made an outstanding debut for the historic meeting of the minds with global leaders between the U.S. and China in 1972. Today, it continues to be a mainstay of the White House.
www.schramsberg.com
Thanks for reading
The Wine Siren
|
https://medium.com/@kellymitchell/interview-with-schramsberg-ceo-hugh-davies-75fe7f8e35c8
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['Kelly Mitchell']
|
2016-12-30 02:23:38.927000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Sparkling Wine']
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Gone Grapes
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After enjoying (and attempting to translate) Nico Orengo’s Of Violets and Licorice (Di viole e liquirizia), a novel set in the Langhe wine region of Piedmont, Italy, I’m now slowly working my way through another of his novels, The Anchovy’s Leap (Il salto dell’acciuga). This one is set in the western part of Liguria (the “Riviera di Ponente”), and it’s a short, rambling novel about anchovy fishermen, smugglers, and the salt monopoly in the old Republic of Genoa.
In one scene, three anchovy fisherman talk about figs, fish, and grapes:
During the lowering of the nets, if the sea was calm, with Ernesto at the oars, Giga at the nets, and Rebissu standing on the seat to lay them in the water, they paraded between Grimaldi and Ventimiglia, the land of the far Ponente. Rebissu looked at the coast and launched into a litany: “ You still see some Pissalutto figs, a few Porcasso, not one Berorfo — and it’s a good thing because they suck — but the Arbicone, as well as the Turco, Merlenco, or Carabroncin, are worth keeping.” Giga shrugged, “It’s the same way with fish. All of a sudden some disappear and you can’t find them anymore. Take the Girella. One time this was a sea of Girella. And now? You can’t buy one.” “Like grapes,” Ernesto added, “it wasn’t just Rossese or Vermentino, it was Negron, Barbarossa, Tabacca, Marcionira, Isoarda, Triglia, Tetina, Coasseu, Alicante. Many grapes…” “And many wines,” Rebissu and Giga replied.
When it comes to wine, I am merely a curious amateur. The list of grapes aroused my curiosity, but this amateur only recognized (however vaguely) the two main varieties, Rossese and Vermentino. I checked Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours. Besides Rossese and Vermentino, only Barbarossa and Alicante were listed. I confess that I don’t own the book — I only checked a list of grapes that happened to be available in the Amazon preview. Perhaps they are mentioned elsewhere as alternative names, but the book is too expensive for a casually researched article like this, so instead I looked elsewhere.
In Wikipedia’s list of Italian grapes, of the lost grapes mentioned by Ernesto, only Barbarossa is included. The online Vitis International Variety Catalogue, which has 23000 varieties of cultivated grapes (cultivars is the term they use), included Negron and Tabacca, but none of the other lost grapes.
But then googling the grape names turned up a 20-page document, I vitigni liguri dall’inizio dell’800 a oggi (Ligurian grape varieties from the 800s until today). It references the diaries of Georges Gallesio, an Italian botanist who traveled through Liguria in 1829 and 1830 and made notes on the grape varieties he encountered. Below is my rough translation of a section about the grapes of western Liguria. All the grapes cited by Ernesto appear in this list, and I’ve put their names in bold. (How accurate are my translations? I’m certain they’re not 100% correct, 75% sure they’re 75% correct, and 100% sure they’re at least 50% correct. I hope that helps.)
On August 30th the Count traveled to Menton, passing through Ventimiglia. Here’s the entire list of the grapes in Ventimiglia in 1829, which includes some varieties that still exist and others that we’ve lost track of: 1) Rossese: deep-red color, early ripening, medium-size, bunches of irregular shapes, with grapes mostly uniform and medium sized, producing deep-reddish wine, sweet or tart depending on how you want it, and mostly alcoholic. 2) Negron: pyramid-shaped bunches, berries tightly packed with a glossy-black color, short stems; the wine is more alcoholic and bitter, but good, better for aging and for sea voyages. 3) Crovaireura: irregular bunches, oblong grapes, black, good wine, alcoholic. 4) Caglian: almost similar to Rossese in color, larger and rounder grapes, darker on the inside, good and alcoholic wine. 5) Bruna: black, small bunches, elongated, small grapes, mostly uniform, alcoholic wine 6) Aleatico: almost similar to Rosesse in its shape; excellent wine, similar to the Aleatico from Tuscany. 7) Alicante: black, medium-sized bunches, excellent wine, strong, similar to Alicante, improves with age. 8) Barbarossa: rose-colored, large bunches and grapes, makes a lot but the wine is low alcohol. 9) Moscatello nero: shiny black, with small bunches, medium-sized grapes, strong wine with the taste of moscato. 10) Tabacca: white grape, huge bunches, some are 8 to 10 pounds, large and elongated grapes, produces many grapes, the wine is powerful and spirited. 11) Vermentino: white, large bunches, as are the grapes, wine not too alcoholic but excellent, mixing with Moscatello removes the harshness and makes it pleasant. 12) Marcionira: white grapes, early ripening, produces a lot of wine, even more than Tabaca, sweet and low alcohol 13) Rossese bianco: white grape, it has but a dissimilar color 14) Caglian bianco: large bunches, grapes also, low alcohol wine and subject to spoiling 15) Isoardo: white, long bunches, medium grapes, tightly packed; excellent and alcoholic wine 16) Coasseu: white grape, long bunches, thin, round grapes, medium, gathered, excellent taste, consistent skin; not very suitable for wine, stays fresh a long time. 17) Tetina: white grape, large bunches, long grapes, arched, almost without granules, not suitable for making wine, delicious taste, consistent, they keep in brandy, it is an excellent invigoration during winter. 18) Moscatellon: white grape, large bunches and grapes, elongated, very good, with the taste of moscato, not suitable for making wine, which comes out weak; it also keeps well in brandy. 19) Triglia: black grape, large bunches, large oblong grapes, stays fresh in the winter and also in brandy. This remarkable list of grapes deserves some consideration. First of all, there is the presence of different red varieties, now disappeared, and the definitive citation of Rossese as a valid red wine varietal — one that still exists and is much sought after — instead of as an exclusively white varietal. It will later appear in an entry published in the Pomona Italiana, that Rossese, even according to the same Gallesio, was a varietal made exclusively from white berries well known and esteemed in the Cinque Terre, in the hills of Savona, Albisola and Finale in properties owned by the same family. Furthermore it takes into account some particular characteristics of some varietals such as the capacity to produce wines destined to be preserved a long time on boats (after all, we are in Liguria), to produce elevated levels of alcohol, to yield large quantities of grapes for wine and for the table, and for keeping a long time in brandy or dried out.
Some of the grapes listed are “table grapes” unsuited for making wine, and it’s possible that some of the “lost” grapes are well-known grapes given different names, but it’s still a lot of varieties for such a small and relatively obscure wine region. I can’t help thinking that the 1368 varieties in Wine Grapes are just the tip of the wine-grape iceberg.
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https://medium.com/@tjoyner/gone-grapes-a63be2d4f0b
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['Tom Joyner']
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2016-12-16 19:02:13.134000+00:00
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['Wine', 'Novels', 'Italy']
|
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