Investing in College Basketball

Introduction

Investing in men’s college basketball can generate an excellent return that consistently exceeds that of almost all other types of assets including stocks, bonds, and real estate.

Gambling on men’s hoops is a waste of money.

The difference between investing and gambling is the difference between winning and losing.

Investing in men’s college basketball—more commonly known as wagering—is not significantly different from many other types of investments. Success depends on high-quality timely information, insightful analysis, and the discipline to make investments only under advantageous conditions.

Most investments in men’s college basketball and many other types of sports wagering share a fundamental trait with trading stocks and other types of financial instruments. While there are intermediaries that connect buyers and sellers, winning or losing depends on how well you do relative to others in the market. While it doesn’t seem like it, you are really competing against other investors—not sports books. If you are trading stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, you are competing against other investors, not the stock exchange. For each investment that generates a gain—whether in stocks, bonds, or college basketball—someone else incurs a loss.

8. Investment Summary

The methodology and techniques that have been described throughout this book were used for the entire season for A-10 Conference teams. This was the true test of its effectiveness. The tables at the end of this chapter display each investment in each game and the results. They also indicate the cumulative results with respect to unit win rates.

Chapters 10 and 12 provide the detailed analysis of each investment as represented in the actual working papers created before each game.

The primary result was a 71% unit win rate—winning 65 of 92 investment units. This translates to an average return of $1.35 on every dollar placed at risk and a return of at least 300% on an initial bankroll. If one had invested $1,000 for every unit, the return (winnings) would have been $35,300. An average investment of $2,000 per unit would have yielded a return of $70,600 and so on.

Further, the level of effort to gain this result was 360 hours for the entire season—about 90 hours a month. With an average investment of $2,000 per unit, this translates to a rate of $196 per hour for my efforts.

The secret was specialization and selectivity. Only 35 games were invested in during the entire season—about one game in seven played by A-10 Conference teams.