Friday, September 29, 2006

The New Brunswick Train Keeps Rolling Through Stop #5

Our local boys just did it again. They defeated the University of South Florida 22-20 to remain undefeated at 5-0. And it was one heck of a finish as well.

Ito kicking a career long 53 yard field goal to put Rutgers ahead by 8 in the fourth. Then with USF driving down the field and the old feeling of it's going to happen again started to creep up when Rutgers D rips the ball out and starts a Rice/Leonard drive of its own. After being stopped in USF territory, Ito's 42 yarder gets blocked giving South Florida one more chance.

Wouldn't you know it... they took advantage of two crucial flags on the Rutgers D during the drive and scored a touchdown with 15 seconds left. Now, all of New Jersey was holding it's breath on the two-point conversion which was no good.

But... wait there's more. USF tries an onside kick, which was almost recovered by USF but it was grabbed in mid-air just slightly before the necessary ten yards. After video review showed just that, New Jersians could breathe again, the game was over, and Rutgers won one more time.

Even though we are Rutgers fans through thick and thin, in this game we knew it was going to be Rutgers' toughest competition to date. From a Sports Investor's point of view we knew that it was going to be a very close game and that's why we had our members go with the University of South Florida at 3.5.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Preview: Week 4 (Podcast)

Not sure about who you should start and who you should sit this week?

Let the Positioning Group help you out with their professional advice. Listen to this week's podcast and get the Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Edge to give you those extra little points you need to come ahead in your Fantasy Football League.

Were they right with their PPB Fantasy Starts from last week? To find out, listen in as the Positioning Group reviews their previous suggestions and tackles the PPB Fantasy Questions of the Week: "Is there such thing as a Madden Curse?", "Is Owens a drama queen" and more...

To submit possible questions for next week's episode, either send an email to pete@positioninggroup.com or leave a comment to this post.

The key behind a Sports Investors' success is information, and with the PPB Podcast, we are giving you information that will not only help you in your Fantasy leagues, but in your Sports Gambling as well.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Power Position Betting Sports Investing Notes: Football Week 3

A great week for the Positioning Group's members, with a solid return on investment going 6 out of 8 this week. Games which became PPB Plays for the week were:

Our PPB Play of the Week was the New Orleans Saints at +2.5. Last week we planned on the emotion of Roethlisberger’s return to the field to carry the Steelers, but we were incorrect. We made the same basis for our play this week.

After Katrina, the Saints were returning home in what promised to be a wild affair. Vick versus Bush, a sold out stadium, and the hearts of the devastated placed prominently on the national stage. From the energy created by both Green Day and U2 to the blocked punt which was returned for a touchdown by the Saints on the first drive of the night for the Falcons; Emotion was sky high.

The Superdome was screaming and shaking all the way until the last seconds ticked off of the clock and the scoreboard showed NO 23 - ATL 3. New Orleans, after all you've been through, enjoy it, you deserve it.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Congratulations to the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers!

It took 30 years, and a bunch of frustrated, gut-wrenching years and painful to watch games to get here. After spanking Howard 56-7 Rutgers earned a ranking of 23 on the AP Top 25 Poll. The season is far from over, but congratulations to you Rutgers, and we hope that come bowl time, we will see any number from 25 down next to your name.

Sure, we're biased, but we have to cheer for the local guys. Besides at 4-0  and what can be argued as the weakest of the 4-0 record teams' schedule, one can argue that they might not deserve to be there.

But the way these boys are playing right now is quite good. Ray Rice is turning into a touchdown machine with 9 so far. Then you have Brian Leonard who is just awesome, giving good yardage and some scores, but blocking like a demon for Rice.

Then you also have Mike Teel, who is a local product growing up in North Jersey. Sure he hasn't thrown for killer yards so far, but with a running game based around Rice and Leonard, you don't really have to concentrate on a passing game. But trust me guys, this kid can pass.

This weekend Rutgers has a tough matchup with South Florida, but I have a feeling the Scarlet Knights will come to show that they deserve to be in the Top 25 and will pull out their 5th victory in as many games.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Power Position Betting Quick Hits: Week Three Football Review

This must be the Year of the Linemen. For the second straight week, we saw a 300+ pound heffer return a fumble a long distance, this time for ninety-eight yards and a touchdown—Mike Patterson even made the slightest of cuts at the end of his run as well. Hilarious. This play deflated the Forty-Niners, put the Eagles in cruise control, and even though San Francisco mounted a garbage time attack, there was little fear of a repeat of Week 2.

Same goes for the Giants, throttled by Seattle, who then began to mount another fourth quarter comeback, only to fall far short of their goal. Oh well. They will bounce back next week, no worries.

How about Brett “if only this team had Walker” Favre? Second quarterback to hit 400 touchdowns (he is only behind Dan Marino at 420), he was in a slugfest against Jon Kitna and the Lions in the fantasy game of the week with great performances from the two QB’s, Roy Williams, Kevin Jones, and Ahman Green.

And, on the topic of old and seemingly over-the-hill quarterbacks up against weak defenses, how about Mark Brunell? Everyone was out against this guy, everyone, including me—but the Texans are the curiously strong balm for a struggling team.

Completion after completion, with the jeers of all Redskins fans hanging around his neck, Grandpa Brunell sets the record for most consecutive completions. Twenty-two for twenty-two, he finished 24/27 for 261 yards. Oh, and Portis came back for 164 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. Go Texans.

Perhaps the most shocking thing that happened today was that the Raiders did not lose to their bye week. Hopefully they can build off this momentum.

The Jaguars returned to earth a bit, playing a hell of a half, only to fall to the Colts. Maybe if this were the playoffs the Jags would have won, but in the regular season, Manning and company can belittle any defense—eventually. Making the necessary adjustments on both sides of the ball, Indy pulled out a tough win that will have everyone calling them the team to beat in January. Again.

That honor also belongs to the Seahawks this week, who play Chicago next week in a huge test for both squads.

Something is wrong with Culpepper. If he cannot produce against the Titans, who can he produce against? This was the question of the week in our Podcast, and James and I both said we believed Daunte could bounce back. The Dolphins won, but he did not.

What happened to the days when Jamal Lewis would rush over the Browns, reverse, and then rush over them again? Last year he had difficulties against them, attributed to the prison time he served, so this year it is true—Jamal Lewis and the Ravens are not the team they used to be. Still, 3-0 is 3-0. Let’s see what happens next week against the Chargers.

Speaking of next week, Browns versus Raiders. Very interesting.

The Jets are in first place. On average, most experts gave the Jets around four victories, and three games into the season, they are halfway there. Chad did not have a 300-yard game, but he did enough and the Jets scored their first rushing touchdown of the season in a solid victory over the Bills.

My computer friend Dave, Jets fan, started to laugh when the Bills recovered the inside kick. Worried, I asked, all too familiar with the pain of Jets fans. Nope, he said. The Bills have J.P. Losman.

And so they do. So they do.

Carolina has their first victory and Steve Smith played in his first game. Coincidence? Tampa Bay gave everything they had, Chris Simms had a spleenectomy, and Jon Kasay was the hero of the game easily, receiving mention in Chucky-Face’s, a.k.a. Coach Gruden’s post-game comments. Anyway, Steve Smith is back so expect happy times down in Carolina.

Happy time should also be expected in Chicago, though I hope most of you out there took the over on the number of heart attacks amongst their fans. What seemed an easy game at the beginning turned into a long grind, and once Grossman hit Rashied Davis—I’m sure the place exploded. Literally. They have a good tradition of fans there in Chicago, and we here at PPG expect good things for the city. Well, good things for all matters football related at least.

What is wrong with Big Ben? Something is just not right. Willie Parker and the Steelers gained the lead in the fourth, but then two quick viper strikes to T.J. Who’s-Your-Mama? and the Bengals are 3-0 as well.

Carson Palmer, while not as sharp as he was obviously last year, is back and the Bengals are once again contenders. Oh, and do not expect another performance like this from Chad Johnson, he will be back.

Also back is Jake the Snake. He and Brunell shared the title of most hated by their fans (and the Broncos were 1-1 as well), and he responded with two great throws to Javon Walker—the second TD catch was a serious Madden-Juke between two defenders, I loved it. Best TD catch of the day I say, and there were some nice ones.

As for Brady, his stats look good, but anyone who watched the game could see that the Patriots didn’t look alive until the fourth quarter. I don’t know what to make of it, but it was strange.

Strange as football in China next year? Stranger. Of course, football is going to China, the NFL one day will probably become the GFL one day, but the Patriots not not showing up to play the team that beat them in the playoffs last year—in what was a very controversial game—well, what else can I say.

What else can I say about the Cardinals-Rams game? Are you kidding me? Bulger fumbles the ball within Rackers range, then Warner makes a mistake on the snap and the ball goes right back—well, that’s football for you. Any given Sunday, any sort of play can happen.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Preview: Week 3 (Podcast)

Not sure about who you should start and who you should sit this week?

Let the Positioning Group help you out with their professional advice. Listen to this week's podcast and get the Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Edge to give you those extra little points you need to come ahead in your Fantasy Football League.

Also, starting this week, we are introducing a new section, the PPB Fantasy Question of the Week. This week's question is "Whether or not to start Daunte Culpepper?"

To submit possible questions for next week's episode, either send an email to pete@positioninggroup.com or leave a comment to this post.

The key behind a Sports Investors' success is information, and with the PPB Podcast, we are giving you information that will not only help you in your Fantasy leagues, but in your Sports Gambling as well.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Power Position Betting: Separation Saturday Results

Sorry for the delay, but I'll go through briefly on how PPB Plays turned out during Separation Saturday. Not only did many schools separate themselves from the others in skill, we feel the Positioning Group has separated itself from other investment options as well. Let the results of this past weekend of College Football speak for themselves.

We started with West Virginia over Maryland Thursday night at -17.5

From the Saturday games we had sent our members the following:

  • Boston College at -6.5
  • Ohio State at -28.5 (yes, we did think about it a good deal but in the end we felt confident, even at such a large number)
  • Iowa St at +14
  • Georgia at -17
  • Louisville at -4.5
  • Oklahoma at +5
  • Arizona St at -12.5
  • Notre Dame at -6.5
  • Clemson at +4

9 out of 10. Needless to say our members were all extremely happy this weekend. This happiness continued on to our Professional Football plays which also yielded great results.

Our members are off to a very positive start in growing their return on investment with this Football season. Now just think that Basketball, both Professional and Collegiate, is only a few weeks away, which means even more investment options during the week than just on Saturday and Sunday. So don't miss out on your opportunity to invest wisely.

To find out how you too can become a member visit http://www.powerpositionbetting.com today, or send me an email at pete@positioninggroup.com and I'll get you all the info you need to go from a Sports Gambler into a successful Sports Investor.

Power Position Betting Sports Investing Notes: Football Week 2

A great week for the Positioning Group's members, with a solid return on investment going 6 out of 7 this week. Games which became PPB Plays for the week were:

Two of our plays came from local knowledge. Being from the New York area we know the Patriots-Jets and Eagles-Giants rivalries very well. Both games were close and to the very end, but really, as if anyone from the New York area would have said it would have been played out in any other way.

Local knowledge is one of the big factors in becoming a successful Sports Investor. Knowing a local team inside and out is priceless information that other people from across the country might not know. They are probably placing wagers on a game involving your team without the in-depth knowledge that you have and the sportsbooks odds will end up reflecting this. That's where you take your knowledge and use it to your advantage. This is especially useful and important with College Sports.

Just ask the people from Jacksonville about whether Monday Night's victory over the Colts (our only loss for the week) was any surprise to them. Yes, a lot of them would have said so using pure local emotional attachment (which can be very harmful), but there was also a bunch of statistical data that would have backed up Jacksonville's performance.

Our original Play was with the Jags but then last minute we did the unthinkable and switched. We thought Big Ben's return would be that extra little push for The Steelers. Unfortunately, the emotion was there, but the gameplay execution just wasn't.

Not all was lost though; as a PPB Bonus Play we suggested to take the under. The game ended up being the lowest scoring Monday Night Football game in history at 9-0.

To find out how you too can become a member visit http://www.powerpositionbetting.com or send me an email at pete@positioninggroup.com and I'll get you all the info you need to go from a Sports Gambler into a successful Sports Investor.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Power Position Betting Quick Hits: Week Two Football Review

Wow. What a Sunday. This is one of those days I’ve been waiting for, a lazy Sunday full of great games and good food. Forget about fantasy football, forget about sportsbooks results, forget about everything and just let this day soak in.

It all began with the Giants versus the Eagles, in Philly. I’m a Giants fan, been one my whole life, and at halftime, you should have seen me—head hung low, quietly sipping a beer, looking like I just found out I had to put my dog to sleep. It wasn’t good. The third quarter came and went and we were going to be oh and two.

Then Eli woke up and the Eagles fell asleep in the fourth, and slowly but surely, the comeback started. Westbrook fumbles, we recover, Toomer touchdown! Toomer touchdown! What a monster game he had, and how about Feely? Everyone was betting on whether he would hit or miss but I stayed away. I do not put my karma on that, and when he hit it, I knew we won—even after we gave the Eagles the ball in OT. No worries. What a game, first time they came back like that since 1970…what a game.

The other games weren’t too bad either, as could only be expected of a day featuring loads of divisional matchups. Two OT games—and when do officially stop calling the Rams the greatest show on turf? In Baltimore, we got to see a 310-pound lineman return a fumble almost sixty yards, a sight that always beings a smile to my face. Peyton lit it up, throwing for 400-yards and giving us a good show against a Reggie Bush-less Texans squad.

Vick cracked a hundred rushing yards against a defense that usually gives him fits, and the rest of his crew rushed for three hundred—a new club record. Duckett who? Chambers made a nasty catch, in garbage time, but it showed how great his hands are.

Speaking of hands and legs, how good was Laveranues Coles today for the Jets—we all thought we were going to see two comebacks today, though we are still split on whose td-catch was nicer, his or Cotchery's.

I knew the Bears D was good, but come on. You didn’t think they would be even better than last year, did you? And with an actual offense? I know, I know, wait for a good team like Seattle in week 4—but still, I like what I see. This is the football of the old days, a.k.a. championship ball.

Monster QB games all around, starting with the afore-mentioned Manning’s, but McNabb, Carson Palmer, the ageless wonder (looking a lot less lost, though still in a losing effort), and don’t count me out just yet Pennington all broke three hundred yards. It’s good to see McNabb, Palmer, and even Pennington healthy and playing well again. It’s good for the NFL, and good for us fans.

Speaking of good for us fans, can someone tell me what Carolina was thinking? That backwards pass was unintentional comedy gold for anyone who got a chance to see it. That play was worse than what you can see in a Pop Warner league. And speaking of Pop Warner, I would like to spend this space to declare the Oakland Raiders as the “team that sucked my soul out of my bones.”

They got me. I fell for Art Shell and Aaron Brooks, thought he would be the missing link for Moss, Jordan, and company. I thought they would all rise above their pasts, would forge on ahead to a bright silver-and-black future—but instead, this is what I get. It’s like falling for that girl who cooks, cleans, and looks like a supermodel, only to discover she’s a crazy hungry lizard in disguise, hell bent on your destruction.

I hate the Oakland Raiders, though I do hope they turn it around, because why not. We are all football fans, and we do not all want to watch games like the Chargers versus the Titans (glimpse of Vince Young notwithstanding)—for everyone who read my fantasy draft preview, was I right about Tomlinson or what? I knew something smelled a little fishy in Kansas City—and by fishy, I mean what you do to a fish after you catch it.

I do hope the Raiders turn it around, but even if they don’t, as long as the rest of the Sunday’s are of similar quality, then let the good times keep rolling. Here’s hoping T.O. heals quick, that Favre builds from this game to another Favre-like year, that Chad Johnson has many more great catches, semi-great dances, and that there are tons of more crazy games for us to talk about.

All right then, enough for now. Enjoy the games—that’s why they are there.

PPB Monday Play—

Steelers in a close one. Why bet against the Champs? Big Ben will return, I just know it, and I expect a good football game. It will not be an easy win, but if the Steelers are going to be any sort of team, it begins here. This is the game where they show why they are the champs, and that all the drama of the past few months is behind them.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Podcast Week 1 - 09/14/06

Having trouble deciding on who to sit and who to play this weekend in your Fantasy Football League?

It's not a problem any longer now that The Positioning Group, has released for FREE, the weekly PPB Fantasy Football Podcast. Tune in to the Power Position Betting Fantasy Football Podcast for all the latest Fantasy Football News to help you make the most informed decisions you can.

This was the first episode of what will be a continuing series of podcasts for the rest of the football season. Check back regularly and listen to the latest podcast prior to setting your lineups. You'll not only get some sound advice on upcoming games, but you'll hear a Fantasy based weekly review of the previous weeks games with the impact, of any big player/team events, on future weeks.

The key behind a Sports Investors' success is information, and with the PPB Podcast, we are giving you information that not only will help you in your Fantasy leagues, but in your Sports Gambling as well.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

What a Way to Start the Season for the Sports Investor...

Wow! What a crazy week of football we had my sports investing friends. Were to even start? How about the "Manning Bowl".

What more could you ask for in a game. Big brother versus little brother, and overall two solid and premier teams of the NFL colliding on Sunday #1. Going back and forth, both sides had their chances to get in, and couldn't really do so when they needed to. In the end, yes we had the "phantom call", but Peyton walked away with the V.

Staying local to NY, how about Chad Pennington. Questions about arm strength were answered. He looked very impressive, as did the rest of the team. Granted it was going against Tennessee, but we'll see how he does against the much tougher D in New England.

Speaking of which. Poor Tom. I'm sure he'll pull through, but truly unbelievable. He lost his threat and go-to guys. First you had David Givens go through to the Titans. Now, you have Deion Branch, after holding out long enough, he ends up going to the Seahawks.

What about the Fantasy consensus top three, how did they do?

Larry Johnson - 17 rushes for 68 yards, adding 5 receptions for 80 yards, but no touchdowns. So overall basic fantasy points, but nothing crazy, and definitely not close to what everyone is looking for him to do this year. Larry is going against Denver so we don't see him having a monster game, and something more along the lines of this week's performance, but hopefully he can pound one in at the line at some point of the game.

Shaun Alexander - Was he even on the field? Come one Shaun, you need to do a lot better then 19 attempts for 51 yards and 2 receptions for 1 yard, and of course no touchdowns. But he did have 2 fumbles, one of which ended up being a turnover. Have no fear though Fantasy Owners, we have Arizona coming up. If he doesn't go CRAZY now, then the Madden curse is in full effect this year once again.

LaDainian Tomlinson - At least LT performed and had the best of the three by far, ending up with 131 yards on 31 attempts and 18 yards on 3 receptions. But most importantly he did have 1 touchdown. The titans are next so we look for LT to have a big game here.

Investing Notes:

How did we do on our sports gambling investments this week. Let's run down our picks real quick:

NG - Broncos -3
G - Jets +3
G - Bills +10 1/2
G - Ravens +3
G - Bengals +4
NG - Seahawks -3
G - Eagles -3
G - Saints +3 1/2
NG - Cowboys +3

That gave us 6 out of 9 for a 66.6 winning percentage on the straight plays. But we are investors and we look for the winning angles and the smart plays. To protect our investments we went and suggested the following halftime hedges:

Jets, Bills, Ravens, Bengals, Seahawks, Eagles, and the Saints

This investment protection strategy made it a very successful investor's week for Football for us and for all our members. The PPB Play of the Week was the Eagles.

To find out how you too can become a member visit http://www.powerpositionbetting.com or send me an email at pete@positioninggroup.com and I'll get you all the info you need to go from a Sports Gambler into a successful Sports Investor.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Charlie Batch ... Backup to the Rescue!

Was that Big Ben in disguise last night? How about that. Charlie Batch stepped up big time and instead of Daunte leading the Dolphins to victory in the 4th like I thought he would, good ol' Charlie did the honors for the Steelers in the season opener last night 24-17.

First there was the 87 yard catch-and-run TD pass to that speed demon TE otherwise known as Heath Miller. Ok, so we all saw he was out at the 1 or so, but come on Coach Saban, don't you remember the saying "You snooze, you lose."

Then to seal the deal, we had Troy "Not tonight Daunte" Polamalu making a key interception. Also in the 4th quarter we had Joey "Hey Daunte throw it to me too" Porter deciding to get in on the picking fun with three minutes left in the game.

Not much more to be said here. We had Charlie with a QB rating of 126.5 with 3 touchdown passes and on the other side we had Daunte with a QB rating of 49.5 and ZERO touchdowns to go with the 2 picks.

Fantasy wise, I feel for those who went with Daunte and for those who took a chance with Charlie... Bravo! Heath and Hines Ward, props to the both of you as well, since you both did quite nice on the stats.

Ok, so I had said I was going with the Dolphins to start a good sports investing season. Yes, that's a loss. But that's ok. you see, there was more... there is always more. Boise St's performance more than made up for this game when they rolled over Oregon St. 42-14 :)

The play on Boise St. was a pure trend play where Boise St. was 46 out of 48 at home, and Oregon St. had lost it's last 5 non-conference road games. And besides with the cool looking field they have, how can you go against them.

So yes Miami lost, Boise St. won so overall it is still a good start. All I, and all of you, have to do is Stay Sharp and Play Smart and the winnings will come.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Football Season Opener Sports Gambling with the Super Bowl Champions

Football is here again my sports investing friends. We are less than 24 hours away from kickoff. I hope you're all excited because I know that I and everyone else at the Positioning Group is.

It should be a good matchup here with the Dolphins getting the first crack at the defending champions. But they won't be the same champions as last year though.

Big Ben won't be starting so the Steelers will have to rely on Charlie Batch to lead the team, but he will do so without too much prep time. Then the champions are also without The Bus and in this game he will end up being missed a lot.

For the Dolphins we have Daunte looking to continue a fine preseason and we will keep an eye out on how his knee handles the regular season punishment following his surgery. We are looking to Chris Chambers to form a dynamic duo with Daunte throughout the whole season.

Now, we know that it is early, I mean it can't get earlier than the first game, so it is hard to come up smelling roses on your picks for the first week. I like to wait till at least the first two weeks are played. This lets players get more into their season groove, and you can better see how they will play.

Three games is what I like to use as an early basis for some seasonal trend forming. But we can go with some historical trends for the first week if were inclined to. I want to have some fun this week, so I am inclined.

Over the last few years, the lines makers have gotten better, where it's been pretty much a 50-50 split between home and away teams on the lines. This is opposed to being close to 75% for the home team roughly 5 years ago. So in this case the Steelers are home, so the very slight edge would go toward the home team.

But if we look at the teams themselves, like we did above, I start to lean the advantage more to the visitors. If we look at points it's pretty much a pick here. But like I said I want to have some fun and start the season on a good start so I will do a something I usually do not and that is go against the trend, and the stats and go with the handicappers' hunch when looking at the team itself.

I'm going to start the Football Sports Investing season going with the Dolphins. Why? Because this should be a good old fashioned bone crushing game and because of this Bettis will be missed. On the other side the Steelers "D" shouldn't let Ronnie Brown run wild on them. So this will mean that it will come down to a game of field position and to which side has the better QB. Look for Daunte to put the Dolphins over the top for good in the last half of the 4th with a TD pass to either Chambers down the side to the back corner or McMichael on an inside slant.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Any Given Day the Best Team Can Lose.

I know I and everyone else at The Positioning Group stress all the time that there is no such thing as a lock. A lock, for those who are new to the game, is when some team is without a doubt in no way to lose game. Why would we say there is no such thing as a lock? Wouldn't the best team in the world always beat a weaker team? NO.

On Any Given Day the underdog has a chance to beat the best team there is. Least we ever forget that, we get reminders thrown our way all the time. This last reminder was pretty big. Greece slamming the US in the semi finals of the World Championships 101-95 yesterday.

Ok granted, the Greek squad is not the worst team, I mean hey you don't get to the finals by being horrible. But the squad does not have one single athlete who plays in the NBA. Why is that a factor? It is considered the premiere league for basketball, where all the greatest from the world want to come and play.

The US squad was a killer squad on paper with new blood both on the team and in their coach, Coach K. Come one, Lebron, Carmelo, Wade on the same team alone tilts the odds totally to one side. Who in there right mind would have laid down some money on Greece when on paper they shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence.

The Sports Investor, the handicapper would have. He would have seen that the US squad for the last few years has always lacked some heart in international play. They knew they were good, too good, and that took away from their game. The Greeks came out with nothing but heart. No big names, just plenty of heart and desire to win for their home country.

Their pride pushed them to a superior shooting display. Shooting from the three-point range so proficiently that the big stars of the NBA just could not match and keep up with. Yes, the US got some consolation by beating Argentina in the bronze medal match today, but it wasn't Gold.

The country with the bigger heart, pride and desire to win will be playing for the gold tomorrow. So remember guys, no matter how good a team is, no matter how many times they have won in a row, no matter how weak their opponent is... on any given day, the outcome can and is decided by the intangibles. Skill and stats are not enough to guarantee a victory any longer.

For the sports investor, this means you need to prepare better and look beyond the field when doing your homework. For the beginning sports gambler, this means to always stay away from "the lock". It'd be the same as if I were to tell you that I can flip a coin 100 times and I guarantee you that it will land on heads each time. Unless it's a coin with heads on both sides, the only guarantee is that I have a fifty-fifty shot on each flip for it to be heads on that flip.

Remember that the next time you get told about laying some big money on a lock. One gust of wind, one lucky bounce, the desire of one single player pushing his game up just one single notch is all it takes for the person betting on the lock to go from looking like a sure winner to a sorry loser.

BTW I was advising anyone who asked and in a PPB Play update email, to take Greece over the US. Even as sick as I was this week, didn't let me fall for the hidden lock trap here. This is an example of some of the investors picks our newsletter subscribers get. If you're interested in becoming a member visit www.powerpositionbetting.com for more information.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Football Season is Around the Corner, Are You Ready to Make Money?

First off, I would like to apologize for my lack of activity this week. I was fighting a summer ending flu all week. It was a reminder to take care of myself more. With Football season coming up, I was spending a lot of time preparing for the season and all those up till the morning nights of review and taking notes finally caught up to me. Remember, Sports are FUN but use in moderation.

Anyway, when I last left off, it was draft day. The draft went very good, we had some last second no-shows and ended up with an 8 team league this year. Strategy had to be changed on the spot, since everyone was pretty much guaranteed at least a real decent team. Personally I think the Positioning Group's team is solid.

I know it was only preseason but it was awesome watching Carson Palmer look perfect against the Colts earlier in the week. It makes it better that he is on the Positioning Group's Fantasy Team. We're very excited to have him be our QB, and we have a feeling he'll be hooking up with his buddy Chad Johnson a lot this year.

So a few days away from the real deal, the season opening kickoff between the Steelers and the Dolphins is September 7th, at 8:30 EST and there is still so much to do. So much to prepare for another season of Football Sports Investing.

By now, I hope everyone has had a chance to open an investment account at a good sportsbook following my advice. If funding the account is a little hard right now a review of Sports Investing with ZERO Money Down post should definitely help you out in that department. You should also definitely check out The Sports Gambler's Traps to be able to spot them and avoid them.

For those of you who still haven't had a chance to get the Positioning Group's FREE report about the 7 Deadly Sins of Sports Gambling visit http://www.powerpositionbetting.com/ or send me an email and I'll get you a copy immediately.

Besides the above, come back here regularly where we'll talk about the games each week. We'll go over how the week's performances affected Fantasy Teams. We'll also go over some investment strategies for upcoming games. But most importantly, we're going to help everyone make some money this Football Season and to have FUN while doing so.