BETUS.EXE – Sports betting, the American way

Posted by Ion Saliu on February 24, 2001; revised September 2001.
• He must be a big time sports bettor. The same guy who asked for a sport betting program like TEAMS.EXE sent me another request. Or suggestion, as he puts it.
“I previously suggested a sports program, here is another one. Can you write a sports program were we could enter the teams of our choice say jets vs. giants and the program randomly picks one team. Basically the same concept of your other sports program, but we could enter our own teams. It would still ask how many games etc. I do not think it would be hard for you to write and it would be a good enhancement for your great site, I would even pay for it if you want. People would enjoy putting their own teams in instead of just numbers popping out. Teams exe. is a solid program, excellent for parlay cards, but this program could be just as good. Please take into consideration, Thanks “
Since it is a useful suggestion, useful for myself too, I wrote the program BETUS32.EXE (32-bit software, running under DOS 7+ that comes with Win 9x+/NT 4+). The program is still free for download. In the future, however, I may have to charge at least US$ 100 for any by-request program. If the program is of little use to myself, the charge should be higher.
BETUS.EXE is suitable for betting on American sports. There are two choices only: bet on the favorite to win by more than the point spread; or- bet on the underdog to lose by less than the point spread. This program is an enhancement of TEAMS.EXE. The combinations display team names, instead of numbers.
There two options available: generate open-ended combinations, like in TEAMS.EXE, until the user presses F10; or- generate 10 combinations around the median, like BELLBET.EXE. The user has also two input choices: typing the sport team names at the prompt; or- creating first text files, with the two teams of each game on the same line. The file input makes it much easier to run the program repeatedly. It is also advised to write the name of the favorite in upper cases, and the name of the underdog in lower cases. Here is a file I created for 8 teams, both U.S. professional and college football. The file GAMES.8 represents games from the ending period (playoffs) of last season.
GIANTS, Eagles
VIKINGS, Saints
RAIDERS, Dolphins
Ravens, TITANS
Oklahoma, FLASTATE
ORSTATE, NotreD
WASTATE, Purdue
MIAMI, Florida
Since the games were real and I know their results, I was able to notice the advantage of generating 10 combinations around the median. There are 256 possibilities for 8 games with 2 outcomes. I get consistently more winning situations with “10 around the median” than running the program “until pressing F10”. Actually, the ratio is substantially better in the “10 around the median” case. I received also questions on how to print the combinations. There are two (at least) options. One, you can print the output file at the DOS prompt: You can also load the output file in a text editor and print it. You can use EDIT.COM (free with DOS, in the WINDOWS\COMMAND\ folder); or Qedit, or “MDIEditor and Lotto”.
Read a detailed analysis of the performance of SPORTS.XLS and how to take advantage of the sports betting spreadsheet: Ion Saliu
GIANTS * VIKINGS * RAIDERS * Ravens * Oklahoma * ORSTATE * WASTATE * MIAMI *
Eagles * Saints * Dolphins * TITANS * FLASTATE * ORSTATE * Purdue * Florida *
GIANTS * Saints * RAIDERS * Ravens * FLASTATE * ORSTATE * Purdue * MIAMI *
Eagles * Saints * Dolphins * TITANS * FLASTATE * NotreD * WASTATE * MIAMI *
GIANTS * VIKINGS * Dolphins * TITANS * Oklahoma * NotreD * WASTATE * Florida *
GIANTS * Saints * RAIDERS * Ravens * Oklahoma * NotreD * WASTATE * MIAMI *
The first combination shows the actual results.
COPY BETUS.1 PRN
Two, press simultaneously Shift+Print Scrn after you stopped the program execution (after you pressed F10). Sometimes you can just press the key Print Scrn.
• Analysis of the results of SPORTS.XLS, the sports betting spreadsheet.

Here are some useful sports links. They offer schedules, betting lines, odds, results, and useful information. Things can change dramatically on the Internet. You may need to copy-and-paste the addresses, or google the essential keywords.
sports.dbc.com/cgi-bin/htx.exe/pastscores/files/pastscores.html - Scores & Odds Archive.
www.nss.net/SCORES/ - Sports Betting, Gambling, Handicapping, Live Lines.
www.vegasinsider.com - VegasInsider.com.
www.repole.com/sun4cast/ - Sunshine Forecast Historical Score Request Form.
espn.go.com - ESPN.com- the #1 sports web site in the world.
cbs.sportsline.com - CBS.SportsLine.com – the website of CBS Sports.
NFL.com – the official site of the National Football League.

Resources in Sports Betting: Theory, Mathematics, Excel Spreadsheet



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