After being in sports betting for about 23 years you have come to see many things such as a hairy chimpanzee putting down the winner for a horse race 10 times in a row, leaving me with a severe insomnia problem. I have also experienced the amazing growth of the internet and especially seen the difference it made to the sports betting community.

When I started out on my sports betting journey in the beginning of the 80's my father took me to the local bookmaker/pub "The Winning Post". This became the centre of my life for a year or so until I by accident saw that the odds for some races and games were very much different at a different bookmaker in the neighbouring town. I saw that I could make up to 30-40% more on my winnings on some games, so I started to compare.

Today instead of taking my bike to the neighbouring town for odds comparison I unhealthy as it might be just sit down in front of my laptop and use one of the beautiful creations called odds comparisons tools. These tools resulted in me being unfit but better off financially so that I can afford a treadmill.

I am always surprised when I meet people that bet online but do not use these comparison tools as it is easy and can increase your winnings with up to 40% on some games. Take for example Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagle (20:00 (ET) 8/15/2005), Betcris offered +132 and Pinnacle Sports +145, a 13 point difference on the same outcome. (www.sportUS.com).

Nowadays when the withdrawal fees are disappearing and depositing is getting easier, there is very little stopping you from switching to the sportsbook with the best odds. Furthermore the sportsbooks actually give you rather good bonuses when signing up! Simply pick your game and go to a comparison tool, there you choose amongst all the major sportsbooks and follow the link to the one offering the best odds and /or signup bonus.

There are of course several comparison tools out there, two great ones are SportUS.com and Sportspunter.com. These are both very extensive and easy to use. As I live in the US nowadays I really like www.SportUS.com that focuses on American sports betting, so much in fact that I do freelance writing for them from time to time. Sportspunter.com is also a very good source, especially for UK bettors.

We all do it when we are buying electronics, so why not shop around and find the best deal when betting?

Nigel Kerry
Portland, Maine ? August 2005
http://www.sportus.com