A few months ago I ordered the book "Sports Betting For Dummies" by Swain Schepes and I thought the book was a very good read even though I am a mild expert at sports betting

I do have the "Everything Guide to Sports Betting" book as that is a good read too

Any particular take aways from those books, guys?
Anything worth sharing?

From both books, I would have to say that after a few months I was able to make my own power ratings along with creating point spreads and totals which is awesome! I use 20% of the information sites that the book has taught me but over 80% of it comes from the information sites that I use to construct my own lines

I have also learned how to interpret money management with having a bankroll that you are comfortable with and not blowing it all on 1 weekend of (insert sport here)

Finally, from both books, I have kept track of a few systems and some of them are still doing well to this day

This is awesome.
So you have built metrics and then track those metrics, right?

Yes sir
I have built metrics or "models" as I like to call them for Pro Football/College Football/College Basketball and also Pro Baseball

I don't focus on Pro Basketball/Pro Hockey/Tennis/UFC-MMA/Golf/Lacrosse/Rugby/Soccer as there are too many elements to create accurate oddslines and/or just don't have enough data to create lines for

If anyone else has any questions like Dave fire away! I am not saying I am a pro gambler I am saying I am a "special" gambler lol

What I like about your reply is that you are making the effort to... FIGURE IT OUT.
You may win or not win, but over time, doing it this way, you will MOST LIKELY improve.

Thank you Dave!

I've learned a lot about how the sportsbooks operate. How they all are not the same. If you are only playing at one two sportsbooks, you are doing it wrong. Reading the market and dissecting the square money from the sharp money is difficult. I need to learn how to be on the "sharp side" more. And I need to learn what the "sharp sides" really are. I thought both books were good. I still need suggestions from the "sharps" in here, on what to read next. I can go through a book quite fast, so the more the better :)

I can go through a book quite fast, — Chuck Jones

Are you a speed reader?
If so, do you know how fast you read?

I use to be very slow actually when I was young. It would take me weeks to read a book just a couple of hundred pages. I've even avoided books/text of length because of it for a long long time, whether it was/is some form of LD, I don't know. For whatever reason, I can go though books/text now at a pretty good clip as of late it seems, and I have no idea how that happened. So...I am on a "mission for information" as of late, whatever I can find easy and cheap, LOL. I will take one of those tests, I know there are some on the interwebs here, I'm going to Google that. I'd like to see what the improvement is myself....now that you mention it! ;)

One of the smartest things I ever did was to take the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics program just after I got out of the Army. (Age 22)

It all started with a 3-hour mini-lesson at a local Holiday Inn. They promised that you would double your reading speed and improve your comprehension in just 3 hours!

It started with a benchmark test.
National average was like 250 words per minute and like 50% (or less) comprehension. As I recall, I tested at 325 and 60%.

Sure enough, 3 hours later, when they tested us again, I was right at 700 words and and slightly over 70%!

It was really quite impressive. So was the $500 price tag in 1973 dollars!

But I bought. The class was like 3 days per wee for 3 hours per day, for 6 weeks, with a guarantee that you could come back to the classes for life!

Improvement was simply about making the effort to concentrate on the techniques.

After about 6 months I reached my peak of 1,700 words-per-minute, with 85% retention, and for about a decade I read 700 books a year. (Yes, I know that is 2 books a day.)

Years later, I got lazy and lost most of those skills. Then, about 10 years ago, I decided electronic reading was the thing and retrained myself. (The techniques are different with eBooks because there is no physical page turning but that is more than compensated for by the ease of turning pages. Just can't use your fingers to do it.)

I'm now back to around 1,700 wpm, but my retention is like low 70s.

Also, technical materials are MUCH MORE INTENSE. I read about 600 wpm in tech materials.

BTW, Reading Dynamics is still around but the company is pretty much dead. Wouldn't recommend them.

After about 6 months I reached my peak of 1,700 words-per-minute, with 85% retention, and for about a decade I read 700 books a year. (Yes, I know that is 2 books a day.) — Dave Schwartz

Wow!
2 books a day!

I wish I'd known about that when I was in school. I had to earn my degrees the hard way. Long hours of study.

1700?! That's insane! Holy cow! You just nailed something I think. I haven't really thought about it until know....but I can flow through ebooks MUCH faster I think. I think that might be a HUGE key to what happened. Actually, I'm almost sure it is! I can't really explain it scientifically...but the differences in how we read now (e-reading), I think has actually changed almost everything for me. I would be SO VERY intimidated by a large book in my younger days, or a humongous text piece, I avoided it like the plague! I don't really have those feelings on a Tablet or Smartphone. It's a different ballgame for me. That has to be a significant part of this whole deal for me....now that you have me thinking about how different it is, for me! ;)

$500 in 1973 buys a nice car...that's wild for a speed reading session!