By Sam Oconnel
All over the internet there are discussion forums for just about anything you want to talk about. Sports betting is no different. But what is the value of a sports betting forum and what is the best way to find and use a forum to help you profit from sports betting?
To use forums effectively, the first thing you have to do is find one or more to join. I recommend that you sign up to at least two, and preferably three internet discussion forums specifically for sports betting. It only takes a few minutes to register to each one, and you only have to do it once.
As you go to some of the older more established sport betting forums you will find many users who have made thousands of posts over years. Some have threads where they faithfully list their plays over a season. These are great sources of information, but be careful who you follow. Do not let anyone else bet with your money, so to speak.
You can use also forums to get second opinions on your systems and bets. Even though the vast majority of the people who see your posts will not bother to reply, the ones who do are the most valuable anyway. Those who participate will answer, and they are likely the most knowledgeable because they do participate.
Still , best way to use a forum, and the only way to benefit from it, is to participate. Don’t just hang around and read what others have to say. Start your own threads. Respond to the questions of others, or comment on their picks. Point the other members to good free stuff you find. Acknowledge other members when they post something you find valuable.
How do you know when you have found the right forum? First look at how many posts have been made. If there are tens or hundreds of thousands of posts, you have a lively forum with a lot of participants. This would be a good primary forum to join. You can then make a test post to see what kind of response you get. It can be a pick on a certain day, or a general handicapping question. The response will give you an idea of how many posters are active in the forum. Some forums get a lot of views and very little posting. You would want to avoid those forums.
There are many forums that, for whatever reason, don’t seem to get a lot of traffic. There are generally two reasons for that. Getting a forum started and building some active members is a lot of work, so many forums end up dying but stay up for a long time after their death. You can identify them by the date of the last post, or the spacing between posts. If the last post is old, or it was made well after the previous post, it is a dead forum and the owner is no longer trying to make it work.
The second type of low traffic forum is the new forum. You can identify a new forum by the posting dates of the first posts. You can also see how dedicated the owner is to making it work. A dedicated owner will answer every post you make, and will make a lot of their own posts. This type of forum can be of great benefit, especially if one of the posters or the owner is an expert.
For sports betting, here are the forums I recommend and why.
1) SBR Forum
This is a great primary forum, with high traffic and high participation. There are many threads from members making and tracking their own picks. Your questions will get answered. The problem is that too much of the discussion is off topic and trivial, and the threads are difficult to follow. This type of forum is best used to gather information. It should be your primary forum for information, but your secondary forum for posting and participation.
2) Lefty’s Sports Betting Club –
This is a new forum, started last month, by a friend of mine. He has been planning for a while and is trying to get a few active members to join the club for this NFL season. There are participation bonuses, which is unique among forums. I have offered my betting systems as one of the bonuses, and he is working on others. I have also joined and will be posting almost daily, including all of my NFL plays this 2011 season.
Using forums is a great way to share, as well as increase, your knowledge and the enjoyment you get out of sports betting. But it requires more than registration. It requires participation and a willingness to help those who have helped you in the community.
Join Lefty’s Here
