Readers ask me about the best sports betting books regularly. I like this because it gives me a chance to turn somebody on to the world of knowledge available in the best books about sports betting.
Sports bettors are always looking for an edge, and once you burn out on the information freely available online, books are the next frontier.
I have a nice collection of sports gambling books, both digital and analog. About a quarter of my physical library is dedicated to housing various gambling tomes, and I’d say about the same chunk of my digital downloads are gambling-related.
I wrote this post to guide people toward the best books available on sports betting.
Table of Contents
How to Pick a Sports Betting Book
Picking a good sports betting book is a lot like picking a place to do your betting. If you know how to find a bookie, pick a Vegas casino, or vet an online sportsbook, then you already know how to find a decent book about betting on sports.
Let me explain.
When I pick up a book about sports gambling, I go through a three-step process.
First, I look up the author. Is this someone who has worked in the gambling industry? Are they a math nerd? I’m vetting them in terms of their trustworthiness.
Next, I consider the content. I look at the chapter titles. I read the introduction or a few pages of the first few chapters. And even though I can’t read the whole book while considering a purchase, I still try to read enough to get a sense of what the author is trying to say.
Finally, a look at the price. If I’m in a used bookstore and I can pick the book up for under $5, I’ll probably buy it, provided it passed the first two tests. If I’m looking at a new book, I have to consider the value of the purchase. Will it improve my betting enough to make the expense worth it?
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This is no different from the process I use when comparing offshore gambling sites. I look at the site’s bona fides – that’s like looking up the author. I make sure the site has the markets I want – that’s like previewing the content of the book. And I also consider the site’s bonuses and fees, which is the same as considering the price of the book.
4 Indispensable Sports Betting Books (The 4 Best Sports Gambling Books)
If I had to cull my collection to just four books, I know exactly which four I’d choose. The four books below are the four best sports gambling books in the world.
If you start your sports gambling reading with just these four books, you’ll be off to an incredible start.
I’ve listed them in order of publication, from oldest to newest. I’ve also included a short review of each.
1 – Sharp Sports Betting by Stanford Wong (2001)
The author of Sharp Sports Betting put himself through grad school playing blackjack. The book represents the application of his knowledge of statistics and probability to the sports betting industry.
Sharp Sports Betting is for beginners. It begins with a breakdown of the basic types of sports bets and odds formats. Readers will learn sports gambling jargon along the way.
The book continues into more advanced territory. Wong applies statistical analysis to things like betting trends, the probabilities of various game scores, and win-loss totals at various spread points. There’s a big section on money management alongside a simple explanation of how to read the sports betting board.
The math eventually gets kind of advanced, though I never felt abandoned by the author. Having said that, this isn’t exactly Sports Betting for Dummies. If you want to learn about Poisson distributions and how they can be used to make better NBA spread bets, this is your book.
You’ll have to hold your nose through one weird detail. Stanford Wong doesn’t exist. That’s just John Ferguson’s pen name. He chose the name to remain anonymous.
“Stanford” was chosen because that’s his alma mater. But “Wong” was specifically chosen to give the anonymous author “the mystique of the Orient.” In Ferguson’s defense, it was the 1970s, which was a different time in terms of race relations. I’m sure he’d pick a different name now.
2 – Fixed-Odds Sports Betting by Joseph Buchdal (2003)
The full name of this book is Fixed Odds Sports Betting: Statistical Forecasting and Risk Management. If that makes it sound like a college textbook, good. That’s kind of what it is.
If you want to learn about sports gambling as an investment, here’s your book.
The author has spent 20 years collecting and analyzing sports data looking for a profitable advantage. He was trained in environmental science at Trinity College Cambridge and applies what he knows about statistical analysis to sports gambling.
I like this book because the author’s stated goal is to turn the high-risk activity of gambling into a low-risk investment. The suggestions in this book are all about risk management, as the subtitle implies. Buchdal wants to do two things – first, to teach you how to protect your profits, and then to show you the math that proves he’s right.
Joseph Buchdal’s patient and thorough takedown of various betting systems are worth the sticker price all on its own.
3 – Mathletics by Wayne L. Winston (2012)
Less like a textbook than the previous two books on this list, Wayne L. Winston’s Mathletics describes the mathematical methods used by coaches and managers to evaluate players and teams. It’s designed to give fans the math tools that will help them understand sports better. This information is easily applied to sports gambling
After you read this book, you’ll know why the NFL’s overtime system is mathematically the worst in all pro sports. You’ll also know why you can’t analyze NBA talent through pure counting stats alone. Baseball fans will enjoy the section on why teams should never bunt.
Several sections of the book are dedicated to explaining how pro teams use analytics to succeed. I love the explanation of the Dallas Mavericks’ unlikely 2011 NBA title, mostly because I think sports bettors can improve their game by reading it.
If you want your sports betting strategy peppered with real stories from the world of sports and you don’t mind a little pop-culture math reading, this is the book for you.
4 – The Logic of Sports Betting by Ed Miller & Matthew Davidow (2019)
As I’m writing this post, The Logic of Sports Betting is the #1 best-selling gambling book on Amazon. That’s a big deal, and it’s partially a reflection of how relatively new this book is, and partially just because the book is that darn good. It sells more copies than Sports Betting for Dummies, which is impressive.
The newest book on this list, The Logic of Sports Betting is a relatively-slim analysis of how sportsbooks operate, along with notes on the application of logic to betting decisions, and instructions on how to bet logically in different sports markets.
This book is the closest thing to a beach read on this list. The text is designed to be easily digestible, even though it introduces and analyzes some high-minded concepts. Inexperienced bettors may shy away from stuff like “0% synthetic hold,” but the authors give it to us in terms that we can understand.
People looking for a book that cuts through the noise and salesmanship of online sports betting strategy will enjoy The Logic of Sports Betting. I like the easy-to-read style combined with the teaching of complex math.
Honorable Mention: The Signal & the Noise by Nate Silver (2012)
Nate Silver is a math and statistics nerd famous for predicting the correct result in all 50 states in the 2012 election. His blog, FiveThirtyEight.com, is practically a household name. Silver also lucked out, having published a book the same year the world came to see him as The Man Behind the Curtain.
His book, The Signal & the Noise, was required reading among a certain set after his miraculous prediction came to light. It’s a discussion and analysis of the art of prediction, with a particular focus on something called conditional probability.
If it sounds dry, then I’m doing an awful job describing it. Silver’s writing style is straightforward, his language accessible, silvered with anecdotes and self-effacing references like a good local newspaper humor columnist.
It’s not exactly a book about sports betting, but if sports bettors want to learn more about the art of prediction, they’d do well to include The Signal & the Noise in their next stack of book purchases.
Conclusion
The best sports betting books give you insight into sports gambling that isn’t available in a free YouTube video or anonymous blog post.
The four books I chose to highlight in this post (and the fifth one, too) will improve your sports gambling skills for under $20. If you find them at a used bookstore, not only are you supporting a cool local business, but you’ll save a lot of money, too.
Pick up the books in this post and dedicate an hour a day to reading them. You’ll be a better sports bettor in just a few months.
For more recommendations, check out Jim Wagner’s list of good books on the same subject.
