Editor’s Note: Every week we will review a sports handicapper by analyzing their bets, critiquing their by social media presence and by deep diving into their sports betting world that they share with the public. Also, sorry for the tweets not being embedded.

STORY — I’ve been gambling on sports regularly for the last two years. 

My friends and I have discussed our bets, however, I’ve never paid for any advice or any special service. Mostly because the wagers I place I believe in them. I don’t feel the need to pay for a service while using my other money to place a wager without it guaranteeing a win.

Sorry for using the “G” word.  

That’s just me though and I congratulate any sports handicapper out there that’s able to get people to pay for their services. 

This is starting to sound like something far more sexual than sports gambling. 

Well, a few months ago I thought of the bright idea of keeping track/following handicappers every move on social media. Were they actually making the bets they were tweeting out? Was their record legit? Were they active on social media? Those were some questions I needed answers to and so for the last seven days I followed one sports handicapper and found some answers to my questions. 

Sports Handicapper Review No. 1 — MNgreek @footballguy56

The MNgreek from what I noticed is a football, baseball and soccer handicapper. At least that’s what they bet on during my research period (Sept. 20-26). 

MNgreek’s all-time record on Sept. 20 

Pound IT: 244-163 60%, 2019 CFB: 34-19 64%,CFB Teasers 1-1 50%, 2019 NFL Lines 15-5 75%, NFL Teasers 8-3 72%, 2019 MLB 476-388 55%

MNgreek’s all-time record on Sept. 26 

Pound IT: 249-168 60%, 2019 CFB: 41-23 64%,CFB Teasers 1-1 50%, 2019 NFL Lines 22-6 78%, NFL Teasers 12-4 75%, 2019 MLB 479-391 55%

Now you’ll notice there’s a record for what MNgreek calls Pound IT. From what I could tell in my research these were wagers that MNgreek favored. If you didn’t want to make all five bets, for example, they placed that night at least bet on the Pound IT’s because those were the best bets of the night. I could be completely wrong on that but from following MNgreek for almost a week that’s how I interrupted the Pound IT bets. 

https://twitter.com/footballguy56/status/1173986258726600705

Like I said above I’ve never paid someone to give me their winners and from what I could tell MNgreek doesn’t charge anything for his picks. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I decided to jump on the MNgreek train and placed four wagers. 

Boston Red Sox O6.5 (-110)

Oakland Athletics -1.5 (-140)

Cleveland Indians O6.5 (+100)

Houston Astros O6.5 (+105)

https://twitter.com/footballguy56/status/1176608072439087104

https://twitter.com/footballguy56/status/1176939833891201026

https://twitter.com/footballguy56/status/1176989143060156416

All four of those wagers were labeled Pound IT bets and only one of them was a winner (Boston O6.5). My betting units vary from $10 to $50 so I’m sure they are vastly different than MNgreek’s along with most handicappers. But the one free piece of advice that I received when I start placing bets was this: only bet what you can afford to lose. 

I ended up losing $23.43 following MNgreek for two nights so I mean it wasn’t terrible from a losing money perspective but 1-3 is never the record you’re looking for. 

I obviously used a small sample size from MNgreek. I’m not going to judge a handicapper after just two days (four bets). If you look at MNgreek’s records you’ll notice that they are all above 50 percent. 

MNgreek has placed close to 900 MLB bets this season and has won 479 of them. On Sunday MNgreek went 22-6 and 12-4 on teasers. They are hitting college football picks at a 64 percent clip. The records show someone can make a profit at the free picks MNgreek is tweeting out. 

One of my favorite parts of doing these reviews is seeing how a handicapper grows on social media. 

From what I found MNgreek only uses Twitter. The account was created in 2017 and gained 441 followers between Sept. 21 and Sept. 27. 

(Sept. 21) Saturday: following 411 – 5,425 followers 

Sunday: following 413 – 5,444 followers 

Monday: following 414 – 5,636 followers

Tuesday: following 414 – 5,869 followers

Wednesday: following 416 – 5,895 followers 

Thursday: following 417 – 5,928 followers 

(Sept. 27) Friday: following 417 – 5,866 followers 

If you take a closer look you’ll notice something happened between Thursday and Friday. MNgreek had 5,928 followers on Thursday, however, lost 62 followers on Friday. Other than that there was steady growth throughout the week. 

With close to 6,000 followers one would think MNgreek has to have good engagement on his profile and I’d say he does. On Friday, MNgreek tweeted out nine times and six of those tweets received at least three replies. Of those nine tweets, three of them got 35 or more hearts (likes). So, people are paying attention to the account and seem to be very engaged in the tweets and that shows me that MNgreek has loyal followers. What hurts your handicapping credibility is when you have thousands of followers but very limited engagement. I would say MNgreek passes this test, which is a huge positive in my book.  

Tweets

(Sept. 21) Saturday: 14 tweets 

Sunday: 27 tweets 

Monday: 14 tweets 

Tuesday: 11 tweets

Wednesday: 5 tweets 

Thursday: 6 tweets 

(Sept. 27) Friday: 9 tweets 

*Average of 12.3 tweets per day*

Circa Million

MNgreek is also in a Pro Football Contest during the NFL season. At first I had no idea what the Circa Million was when MNgreek tweeted about it on Tuesday. 

I dug into it a little more and found out that it’s put on by the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. 

— $1,000 to enter 

— Five picks per week (ATS)

— $1,000,000 first prize

— Plus $143,750 awarded monthly and nine additional season-end prizes

MNgreek is tied for 24th with a 11-3-1 record and has to go 5-0 in Week 4 to have a chance at the $143,750 quarterly bonus.

This is also the first year MNgreek has done this contest. 

The Verdict

I have yet to figure out how I want to finish a review. I’m thinking I’ll grade it on an A, B, C, D or F scale but that is still to be determined. So, whatever score I give MNgreek may differ from my next reviews but you’ll all get the verdict the same. Being a sports handicapper and giving out your picks for free can become dangerous. Because if you’re going to give picks out for free you have to for the rest of your existence. If one day you wake up and say I’m actually going to start charging people now well there’s going to be an uproar possible and you might lose your following even though there’s an opportunity there to make some cash. I like that MNgreek is dishing out picks for free. You never once see MNgreek tweet a link where you can send him tips via PayPal or Venmo. I respect it. I’m also a fan of MNgreek keeping the overall records in his Twitter bio. Easy for people to see. I also like how MNgreek pins his plays on Twitter. All the information you need from MNgreek can be seen without scrolling up and down the Twitter page. The social media engagements are a plus, MNgreek doesn’t follow a lot of people so clearly people are seeking the account out and giving it a follow. I realize it’s hard to backup every pick with analysis on Twitter because of the character limit, however, giving out more reasoning to why the wagers were placed could add more spice to MNgreek’s profile. So, that’s a lot of positives and very few negatives. 

Score: B+

I feel comfortable telling my friends to follow MNgreek’s bets because I believe from what I have researched in the last week that this sports handicapper wants to legitimately help people make money through sports gambling.