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.

 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.

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:

COPY BETUS.1 PRN

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”.

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.

Read a detailed analysis of the performance of SPORTS.XLS and how to take advantage of the sports betting spreadsheet:
Analysis of the results of SPORTS.XLS, the sports betting spreadsheet.


Ion Saliu




• The excitement is higher when it's hard to predict the results. The NFL 2002 season offers great excitement. Valid for college football, too. There are no favorites! Or, every team has a good shot at winning any game, against anybody! Looks like the stats play a minor role. That's not exactly true! The results still follow the stats, within statistical limits, of course. What the fans and especially the bettors see is the discrepancy between the betting lines and the actual results. The betting lines try hard to ignore the randomness.
I use in-house sports betting software. It is founded on the same principles as LotWon. Therefore, randomness plays a very important rule in generating combinations. The programs are applicable to parlays. The 5-team parlay software is clearly more successful than the statistical spreadsheet! The programs eliminate certain patterns from previous results and generate lottery-like combinations. The numbers are replaced with team names. The hit rate is better than 2 out of 3 weeks. I haven't encountered two or more consecutive losses. The playing field amounts from 6 to 16 parlays per week. The payout can be as high as 24 to 1 (25% house edge or vigourish). Thus, the worst winning case comes to +8.

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.

  • NFL Schedule, Results, Scores — Current Season.

    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.


    Football, NFL, Sports betting, bet spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheets, statistics.

    Resources in Sports Betting: Theory, Mathematics, Excel Spreadsheet



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