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to learn all of the several hundred College Basketball teams for which wagers are available; pick the conferences that cover your local teams or that you follow in general. These are typically larger conferences, but need not be as long as you have access to information on the teams and can see games on a regular basis, either in person or on television. For example, a college basketball fan on the West Coast may follow the Pacific 10 conference (UCLA, USC, Stanford, etc.) and also the smaller West Coast Conference (Gonzaga, St. Mary's, etc.).

The actual spreads set by the oddsmakers on games are not intended to predict the actual outcome of the game, although this will be approximated; the intent, as you may have gathered by the discussion on the "vig" above to is to set a betting line where wagering on a given game will be roughly even on each team or "side" in the game. That way, the oddsmakers risk is minimized and regardless of which team wins, the sports books pay out $10 to the winners, while collecting $11 from the losers. This is where you come in. Ideally, from following teams and noting their players, trends and ongoing performance, you will reach a point where a team is favored by two points, but you believe will win the game handily - by 10 points or so, or on the other side of the coin, lose the game entirely.

I briefly mentioned the concept of "buying points," properly the subject of another, detailed article. In short, the bane of the bettor's existence is the dreaded "hook," in basketball the 2.5 point spread where a win on the favorite by 3 points is a winner, but a win by two points loses your wager for you. As a matter of personal preference and also borne out by the mathematics, I always buy off the "hook" - wagering an extra 10% on my wager to turn this spread into a 2 point line on the favorite or into a 3 point line on the underdog or "dog." So, where I would typically need to bet or "lay" $11 to make $10 on the 2.5 line, by wagering $12 to make $10, I can move the line to 2 points. This is an option available on practically every on-line site and with very few local bookies, although a few that cater to larger customers may offer this option on select games of their choosing. Bearing in mind the concept of avoiding losing wagers whenever possible, this approach will pay for itself if it only comes into play on one wager in every 12 - that is, for all winning wagers, you suffer no penalty as you receive your $12 back plus the $10 you

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