Anyone receive Steele's preview early? I saw on his site a few days ago where you could buy an "early" copy for $25 and you would have it by now. A couple days after thinking how ridiculous it was he was charging nearly 3x the amount just to get his preview a few weeks early, I decided to go ahead and buy it--I couldn't stand waiting any longer. However, he had already sold out of his "early" amount. I think he was selling 50 for the $25. Looks like I have to wait until June 9th but was wondering if anyone happen to receive an early copy... I'd be interested in some of his predictions. Although he often full of himself and sh*t, no one researches more on college football than ole Phil.
He is giving you his Top-40 for free, which is good.
Here is 35-40, and just change the team name / number in the URL to look at old versions.
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/35NEVADA.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/36OREGONST.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/37WESTVIRGINIA.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/38WISCONSIN.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/39TENNESSEE.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/40ARIZONA.pdf
Here is 35-40, and just change the team name / number in the URL to look at old versions.
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/35NEVADA.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/36OREGONST.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/37WESTVIRGINIA.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/38WISCONSIN.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/39TENNESSEE.pdf
http://philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/40ARIZONA.pdf
Yes I got my copy today by FedEx. I paid $25.00. They said they had six left when I placed my order. Probably would not be fair to release too much on line until it comes out later but if you have a specific question maybe I can address something. I am not hording I am just hesitate to release info that is copywirted etc. so I will not do any copy and pasting.
Sorry. He does have a listing he calls his Power Poll Top 120 which I am going to incorporate into my own personal rating. That is a consenus of the nine different power ratings. It will be no surprise that he has Florida rated first.
Phil Steele is, for all intense and purposes, retired. He has little or nothing to do with the publication that carries his name, or any of the predictions that "Phil Steele" or Northcoast make. I have been told from someone who works in the orgnaization that they "buy" their picks from others, and then sell them to the public. This is a commission based job for these guys. When Steele, or Northcoast sells one of these predictions, the employees receive a commission for selling the picks. If it is a recorded message, there is no comissions paid out to employees. This is a common practice amongst some "touts". It is impossible for most touts to have a computer base large enough to keep the statistics needed to predict games between 120 BCS college teams and 32 pro teams. At last guess, there were over 600 alleged "touts" ranging from the more popular ones, (Steele, Feist, Lawrence, etc...) to the unhead of's (Scott, Testinferno, Patrick, etc...)
Like I have stated on many occasions, the gamblers in here could put their heads together, and come out with consensus picks, and do better than 50% of the touts out there. This is exactly what gaming cartels do.
Bqh
That is the only reason I ever got on this forum to begin with was to share information and expand my knowledge. I had access to a consesnus service LY and it was a real eye opener. There would be big touts on both sides of a game, etc. You did not mention that some of these touts have links to off shore casinos and some even advertize them on their own sites as if to recommend their services. You are absolutely right about touts. It may be preaching to the choir to most peole on here but pooling our knowledge is vital to becoming a better handicapper. I plan on doing this full time in a couple of years. That is why I started doing my own research and doing it before the tout magazine previews came out. I did not want to be influenced at all. I quote Steele on here quite a bit because I do trust his stats. As I have mentioned many times, last year 10 of his top 25 were gone at years end. Putting out good stats and providing a quick and easy reference is one thing, putting out reliable picks is another. My biggest fear is that a lot of people on here don't play their picks and are more worried about ATS. I am a hardcore guy who plays parlays and has learned to go with the flow. The more informed you are the better off you are. Just who is Joe Public, sometimes it is you and me but the secret is to look at everything there is to look at before you make a decision. Old school guys like us are way past any inclination to be compulsive and have learned to focus on matchups. This is my first time on a forum and I hope that come week one we have merged into a solid group that shares info and is focused on kicking bookie ass. There will be disagreements and homers but as long as it is all out there for consideration it is up to each of us to separate it all and come to a final decision. I really appreciate your contributions on here and it reassuring to me that we are on the same wave length.
That is the only reason I ever got on this forum to begin with was to share information and expand my knowledge. I had access to a consesnus service LY and it was a real eye opener. There would be big touts on both sides of a game, etc. You did not mention that some of these touts have links to off shore casinos and some even advertize them on their own sites as if to recommend their services. You are absolutely right about touts. It may be preaching to the choir to most peole on here but pooling our knowledge is vital to becoming a better handicapper. I plan on doing this full time in a couple of years. That is why I started doing my own research and doing it before the tout magazine previews came out. I did not want to be influenced at all. I quote Steele on here quite a bit because I do trust his stats. As I have mentioned many times, last year 10 of his top 25 were gone at years end. Putting out good stats and providing a quick and easy reference is one thing, putting out reliable picks is another. My biggest fear is that a lot of people on here don't play their picks and are more worried about ATS. I am a hardcore guy who plays parlays and has learned to go with the flow. The more informed you are the better off you are. Just who is Joe Public, sometimes it is you and me but the secret is to look at everything there is to look at before you make a decision. Old school guys like us are way past any inclination to be compulsive and have learned to focus on matchups. This is my first time on a forum and I hope that come week one we have merged into a solid group that shares info and is focused on kicking bookie ass. There will be disagreements and homers but as long as it is all out there for consideration it is up to each of us to separate it all and come to a final decision. I really appreciate your contributions on here and it reassuring to me that we are on the same wave length.
Daily Blog - Weekend of June 20th-21st
HELP WANTED
Yesterday I touched on a new formula I came up with that gives a rating to each team’s individual games for the season. I will have a complete blog on that in the next 2 weeks. Other upcoming blogs are...
The NFL Draft Day Party Hangover in Reverse - How do teams fare that usually have a lot of players selected vs those that have very few?
Offensive Line ratings - I’ll give you all the numbers that went into my offensive line ratings for the year and rank each of the 120 teams in all the different categories.
Coaching Changes - The past couple of years I have done an article on coaching changes and what type of situation each new coach is stepping into for the upcoming year. I ran out of room in this year’s magazine but will have it up here on the website.
2009 Coaches on the Hot Seat - Last year I listed 12 coaches on the Hot Seat prior to the year. Of the 12 coaches I listed as being on the hot seat, 8 were let go either during or after the season. Three rebounded with winning records to keep their jobs (although Charlie Weis barely hung on in December) and only ONE managed a losing record and kept his job.
Offensive and Defensive schemes for each individual team - This was requested by my friends on Facebook and I will comply with a breakdown of the offensive and defensive formations each team uses.
Big Game Matchups - I will break down the matchups in some of this year’s biggest non-conference games and give you my summer prediction on each.
I will have many other blogs with added statistical analysis that I did not have room for in the magazine.
Today's blog is about Help Wanted. On Thursday I talked about help wanted in landing advertisers for the magazines so that I can continue to increase the amount of football coverage we put out CLICK HERE.
Two weekends ago I asked for help getting quality bloggers for each team that would put their stuff up on my site CLICK HERE.
Over the past few years we have received hundreds of resumes wondering if we have any job openings. We have not really had any openings the last few years. Now, with me expanding my publications, including increasing the coverage of all FCS (IAA) teams we actually do have a couple openings. Most of the openings are for what I call Conference Coordinators. If you are in charge of a conference, basically you read each team’s local papers every day and keep me up to date on everything that is going on with your conference. You assist me on power ratings, All-Conference teams, etc. On Saturdays you chart games (write down the play by play in my format) for all of your conference games and chart other games as needed. During the offseason (Jan-June) we work hard on producing the magazines. We also have a spot or two open in our graphics department. If you have knowledge of Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and are familiar with MAC computers that is a plus. If you have worked with Adobe Dreamweaver that would also be a plus. The openings do require you to be in the office, which is located in Cleveland, OH. If you are interested you can email your resume to rolf@philsteele.com or mail it to Phil Steele Publications, 25935 Detroit Rd., Ste 183, Cleveland, Ohio 44145.
HELP WANTED
Yesterday I touched on a new formula I came up with that gives a rating to each team’s individual games for the season. I will have a complete blog on that in the next 2 weeks. Other upcoming blogs are...
The NFL Draft Day Party Hangover in Reverse - How do teams fare that usually have a lot of players selected vs those that have very few?
Offensive Line ratings - I’ll give you all the numbers that went into my offensive line ratings for the year and rank each of the 120 teams in all the different categories.
Coaching Changes - The past couple of years I have done an article on coaching changes and what type of situation each new coach is stepping into for the upcoming year. I ran out of room in this year’s magazine but will have it up here on the website.
2009 Coaches on the Hot Seat - Last year I listed 12 coaches on the Hot Seat prior to the year. Of the 12 coaches I listed as being on the hot seat, 8 were let go either during or after the season. Three rebounded with winning records to keep their jobs (although Charlie Weis barely hung on in December) and only ONE managed a losing record and kept his job.
Offensive and Defensive schemes for each individual team - This was requested by my friends on Facebook and I will comply with a breakdown of the offensive and defensive formations each team uses.
Big Game Matchups - I will break down the matchups in some of this year’s biggest non-conference games and give you my summer prediction on each.
I will have many other blogs with added statistical analysis that I did not have room for in the magazine.
Today's blog is about Help Wanted. On Thursday I talked about help wanted in landing advertisers for the magazines so that I can continue to increase the amount of football coverage we put out CLICK HERE.
Two weekends ago I asked for help getting quality bloggers for each team that would put their stuff up on my site CLICK HERE.
Over the past few years we have received hundreds of resumes wondering if we have any job openings. We have not really had any openings the last few years. Now, with me expanding my publications, including increasing the coverage of all FCS (IAA) teams we actually do have a couple openings. Most of the openings are for what I call Conference Coordinators. If you are in charge of a conference, basically you read each team’s local papers every day and keep me up to date on everything that is going on with your conference. You assist me on power ratings, All-Conference teams, etc. On Saturdays you chart games (write down the play by play in my format) for all of your conference games and chart other games as needed. During the offseason (Jan-June) we work hard on producing the magazines. We also have a spot or two open in our graphics department. If you have knowledge of Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and are familiar with MAC computers that is a plus. If you have worked with Adobe Dreamweaver that would also be a plus. The openings do require you to be in the office, which is located in Cleveland, OH. If you are interested you can email your resume to rolf@philsteele.com or mail it to Phil Steele Publications, 25935 Detroit Rd., Ste 183, Cleveland, Ohio 44145.
A very good post, but let me remind you of one thing. You NEVER beat the book. All the books does is handle a transaction between you and another person who wants to wager on a game and takes different teams. Baasically they are a collection house. They take your wager and others. They charge a fee for this service, called Vigorish, the vig, the juice,or other names for their serivce charge. In the perfect world, the book gets enough action on both sides to make his profit from the vig. The books that do not do this are the ones that often run into trouble.
There are books that advertise on tout's sites and vice-versa. If these books are found to be in business with these touts, they could be closed. This is why I prefer to do my business in Vegas. There are never any questions asked in Vegas, nor are their any delays in money transactions, no matter what the amount. Offshore books are dangerous because the gambler has little or no recourse if they disagree with the book, or if the book folds up. I know of many people who still have not received their money from offshore books who folded up or were nailed by the U.S. Government.
The bottom line is this. If you wager in a book that know's what it is doing, you are not wagering against the book. You are wagering against the other gamblers who are taking the opposite team that you are, or the opposite total. Joe Pub is the name commonly used to describe the number of gamblers who wager more on one team, than their opponent. One of the biggest falacies that I see on the net is the fact that because 65% of the people may gamble on one team, tha majority of the money is going on that team. If I wager $100.00 on a game amd take Team "A", and 9 other people wager $10.00 on that same game, but on Team "B", some books will report that 90% were on Team "B", while the truth of the matter is that there was actually more money wagered on Team "A". That is just one of the tricks that some books will use to try and sell a team, if they have an interest in it. I never trust books who publish that information. We, as gamblers, have no proof that the figures are correct. This is why line movement is the ONLY stat you can depend on. Jim Feist used to have a site where you could follow the line movement on many different casino's. I have not seen it recently. That is too bad, because it was a valuable tool.
bqh
I don't know when we don't wise up and legalize online gambling in the US.
They force us to go offshore. It is stupid. I don't mind paying taxes, in that way it is not any different than betting on the horses,etc. How do you handle your account in vegas? Do you do it online or do you live there or have someone there to handle your account? You don't have to answer if you want to take the Fifth. Just curious to see if there is another way and maybe even get better lines.
I don't know when we don't wise up and legalize online gambling in the US.
They force us to go offshore. It is stupid. I don't mind paying taxes, in that way it is not any different than betting on the horses,etc. How do you handle your account in vegas? Do you do it online or do you live there or have someone there to handle your account? You don't have to answer if you want to take the Fifth. Just curious to see if there is another way and maybe even get better lines.
This was suppose to have been done last year, but Barney Frank, the Democrat in charge of this, has not gotten off his dead ass and led the charge, like he was suppose to do. It would be a great tax revenue for the Government.
I, along with others, have formed a cartel. We have someone who works for us place the wagers, collect the funds, do the banking, the accounting, etc... Part of this person's salary is her (our employee is a female) ability to wager on the same games we do. In effect, she is a partner, but her wagers are separate from the rest. She also receives a small salary. I think she does it because she likes being in the limelight. All the guys at several Vegas books know her. Since we do not wager on any other sport as a cartel, this is kind of a part time job for her.
I am really suprised that no one else has done this on the various sites. Get several people together and form a gaming cartel. I guess it is a matter of trusting someone with a large amount of money.
I, along with others, have formed a cartel. We have someone who works for us place the wagers, collect the funds, do the banking, the accounting, etc... Part of this person's salary is her (our employee is a female) ability to wager on the same games we do. In effect, she is a partner, but her wagers are separate from the rest. She also receives a small salary. I think she does it because she likes being in the limelight. All the guys at several Vegas books know her. Since we do not wager on any other sport as a cartel, this is kind of a part time job for her.
I am really suprised that no one else has done this on the various sites. Get several people together and form a gaming cartel. I guess it is a matter of trusting someone with a large amount of money.
don't blame Mr. Frank, he's got a lot of other stuff on his mind right now, like keeping the housing and banking industries going and keeping them a bit more honest.
It may not be next week, next month or next year, but the ban will eventually go.
Look what's happening in Ohio, where slots and casino gambling have been consistently turned down by voters. The governor said "never, never, never!" But now the state needs cash and the governor has changed his tune. Slots are part of his budget proposal...
Uncle Sam needs cash even worse. Legalized 'net gambling will happen eventually as part of the solution.
It may not be next week, next month or next year, but the ban will eventually go.
Look what's happening in Ohio, where slots and casino gambling have been consistently turned down by voters. The governor said "never, never, never!" But now the state needs cash and the governor has changed his tune. Slots are part of his budget proposal...
Uncle Sam needs cash even worse. Legalized 'net gambling will happen eventually as part of the solution.
