I managed this year to make money on each of college football, pro football and college basketball (the only sports I bet on). I usually make money in two sports and lose money in the other (or occasionally make money in one and lose in two). Luckily, losing in all three sports is rare, but so is winning in all three. Anyway, I'm not sure I will be able to keep it up going forward, but at least the 2009-10 betting season was a good one for me.

In an earlier post, SI's Wes asked me to share what worked for me this season. Well, I do not want to come off as some kind of sharp, as I am certainly far from it. However, for whatever it's worth, I was somewhat more conservative than usual this year in terms of the total number of bets (just over 200 combined on the three sports), which I think helped. I tried to be more selective and disciplined and to only make bets where I saw good opportunities. I did not always follow this (I admit I sometimes bet on a game just because it was on TV), but overall I think cutting down on the number of bets improved the results.

I continued to rely heavily on SI, although this year I also went back to some of my traditional capping strategies from before I started using SI, relying on SI more as an effective checks-and-balances tool. Basically, if I really liked a play based on my research and SI tools supported it, I made it a fairly large bet. Or I may have decided to bet it money line as well as on the spread. If I was leaning toward making a play but wasn't convinced, the fact that SI tools supported it was often a deciding factor. Also, if I really liked a play and SI tools did not support it, I still bet it, although in some cases for less than I otherwise would have.

Lastly, I virtually ignored parlays. I played only 7 parlays in the three sports combined, all were two-team parlays (never three or more) and nearly all were taking a dog and the under in the same game (I have a weakness for this combo). I think I did far too many parlays last year (and won far too few).

At the same time, I made quite a lot of money line bets (nearly all on dogs) and won a good percentage of them.

I will post the percentages shortly.

FINAL RESULTS FOR 2009-10 NFL SEASON

YTD straights: 48-39-1 (55.2%) +$220
YTD MLs: 9-9 (50.0%) +$815
YTD Parlays: 1-4 (20%) -$409.10
YTD TOTAL: +$625.90

FINAL RESULTS FOR 2009-10 BETTING SEASON

YTD straights: 94-68-2 (58.0%) +$3920
YTD MLs: 16-19 (45.7%) +$780
YTD Parlays: 3-4 (42.9%) +$370.90
YTD TOTAL: +$5070.9