HANDICAPPER BIO
Age: 48
Years in handicapping: 28 (Yes, the first issue of The Gridiron Report was published shortly before my 21st birthday)
Achievements in handicapping: Editor and publisher of the Gridiron Report; editor of the Sporting Times. Consultant work for all major Las Vegas sportsbooks; an advisor to on-line sportsbooks in 11 different countries; Executive Director of Sports Consultants of Nevada.
Biggest win of the year: We can think back fondly on the Biggest Day, instead of a single win. We absolutely love the college basketball conference tournament cycles because of all of the different handicapping factors that come into play, and how so many of those
factors cause headaches for the oddsmakers. This past March 14th it led to a rare board in which we had three 6* plays the same day, Florida State over
North Carolina, Missouri over Baylor and Louisville over Syracuse, and all three got the money.
Biggest loss of the year: We will always remember back to our "Orange Crush" sequence, and not very fondly. Twice in the span of seven days we had large
plays on Syracuse Totals Under, including one that carried a 6* Rating, and both times we got exactly the pace that we were looking for - the first play vs.
Marquette finished 12 points
below the Total after 40 minutes, and the second vs. West Virginia finished 13.5 points below the Total after 40 minutes. Unfortunately, both games went
into overtime, turning two easy wins into losses with the same team and the same idea in a frustrating cycle.
Systems used when handicapping a game: In order to remain ahead
of the game over time, it means using the entire library of approaches,” Malinsky says. “There isn’t a major academic discipline that does't regularly
come into play.”
Favorite team to wager on or against: There are some veteran coaches that we have done awfully well with, regardless of whether we are playing on or
against them, because of a consistency in the way that they run their programs. Joe Paterno in college football has been great to our pockets for decades,
and the same is true for Tom Izzo in college basketball. We are particularly looking forward to Ben Howland and Tim Floyd settling in at the L.A. schools
for a long time on the college hardwoods.
Team you avoid when wagering: This varies from year to year depending on coaching and personnel, but one of our key focus points is to avoid teams that
do not know how to win. That might sound like an over-simplification, yet with the oddsmaking process being dominated by power ratings, many times these
teams find themselves in pick’em games. Such examples would be baseball teams with weak bullpens; football and basketball teams that lack experience at
the key skill positions that matter at crunch time (QB and point guard). All teams in all sports have some things that they can do well, but performing
well is one thing; winning can often be another matter entirely.
Sports, conferences and divisions he excels at handicapping: College football remains No. 1 over a couple of decades with Major League Baseball at No. 2.
In particular season cycles other sports can have some major runs, but those two still remain at the top.
Quote: “The ability to win requires a unique understanding of all of the processes involved and we have been lucky enough to have been on the cutting edge
of so many of these processes through nearly 25 years in the field,” Malinsky says. “It has created the ability to understand the games from both sides of
the counter and to learn from some true masters of the craft. It also has helped build the discipline needed to maintain navigation over what can be some
rough seas.”
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LAST 10 PICKS
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| Date |
W/L |
Sport |
Pick |
| 10/25/09 |
 |
NFL |
under (ARI at NYG) |
| 10/25/09 |
|
NFL |
Dallas Cowboys |
| 10/25/09 |
|
NFL |
Arizona Cardinals |
| 10/25/09 |
|
MLB |
New York Yankees |
| 10/25/09 |
 |
NFL |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| 10/25/09 |
|
NFL |
Cleveland Browns |
| 10/25/09 |
|
NFL |
Miami Dolphins |
| 10/24/09 |
|
NCAAF |
Illinois |
| 10/24/09 |
|
NCAAF |
Washington |
| 10/24/09 |
|
NCAAF |
USC |
|