The Betting Content I Consume

A lot of readers have asked what betting-related content I listen to and read.

As we near the summer betting desert, here’s a Robin Hood reading (and listening) list to pass the time before football sneaks up on us.

I enjoy both educational and purely entertaining content (even if it won’t make you sharper). I’ve split my recommendations into those two categories below.

As always, we’ll close with an attempt to de-mystify the Indiana Pacers and another NBA bet of the week.

Let’s get after it.

🎧 Podcasts I Listen To

For Edge

Bet the Process (weekly)
Hosted by Rufus Peabody (pro bettor, originator of Massey-Peabody ratings) and Jeff Ma (former MIT blackjack team member, inspiration for 21).
This show can be extremely dry—they admit it themselves—but when they have the right guests, it’s one of the best looks at thought leaders and innovators in sports betting. Conversations can drift pretty quantitative, so this is best for those who enjoy the deeper-end math I touch on in more advanced newsletters.

Be Better Bettors (sporadic)
Hosted by Spanky, a legendary U.S. sports bettor known for his role as a top-three market mover in the world. He sounds like Tony Soprano (seriously), but thinks like a quant. The episodes are often solo monologues, with low production value, but he’s very sharp and I feel philosophically aligned with Spanky when it comes to edge, price sensitivity, touts and other betting topics.

Risk of Ruin (intermittent seasons)
Hosted by David Hill (same guy from GAMBLERS, see below), this one’s less frequent but worth looking through the archives. Focuses on gambling stories where someone had a real edge—sports betting, poker, blackjack, or markets. The most recent episode, interviewing one of the best traders on prediction markets, was amazing.

For Entertainment

The Favorites (2–3x per week)
Hosted by Chad Millman (former ESPN betting editor, author of The Odds) and Simon Hunter. This isn’t a sharp betting show even though it’s framed as such—don’t tail them—but it is a fun, trend-aware show. Especially good during the NFL season for keeping tabs on public sentiment and understanding trends.

GAMBLERS (archived, finished series)
Also hosted by David Hill, this Ringer/Spotify series is top-tier storytelling. Think This American Life, but with hustlers, poker prodigies, and underground legends. Goes beyond sports (though there are great sports stories too). Worth a binge for pure entertainment value.

📬 Newsletters Worth Your Inbox

I bounce around a ton of betting and adjacent newsletters, but these are the ones I’ve been reading recently.

How Gambling Works by Isaac Rose Berman
Isaac writes intelligently about the sports betting ecosystem—its structure, incentives, and oddities. But he’s also a legit winning bettor, and occasionally dives into actionable angles and market edges that feel very On the Juice-adjacent. Sharp thinker, great writer, highly recommend.

Silver Bulletin by Nate Silver
You know the name. While most of Nate’s work is politics-heavy, he regularly dives back into poker, sports betting, and decision theory. I’m a paid subscriber, but some great pieces aren’t paywalled. Here’s a recent sports topic I enjoyed that gives you a sense of Nate’s voice before the paywall: “When Should You Fire Your Coach?”.

Stats by Will by Will Warren
Primarily focused on college basketball, this one is analytically sharp and consistently entertaining. It’s behind a paywall for the good stuff, but I stay subscribed because it’s worth it—especially during college basketball season.

📚 Memorable Betting Books

For Entertainment

The Odds by Chad Millman
I read this in college — it’s old. It follows a handful of pro bettors through a season back in the early 2000s—back when Don Best and Pinnacle were king. Very dated now, but still fun as a betting origin story and introduction to the betting universe that produced today’s landscape.

Trading Bases by Joe Peta
Peta was a Wall Street guy who turned his quant brain loose on MLB betting after getting laid off. He built a model, bet it, and won. Reads like Moneyball, but from the outside — especially fun if you like baseball.

For Learning

The Logic of Sports Betting by Ed Miller & Matthew Davidow
The single best book for understanding how and why betting markets work the way they do. Covers synthetic holds, line movement, derivative markets, and price sensitivity in a way that’s digestible for intermediate bettors. If you're reading this newsletter and want to push your thinking, you’re probably the target audience.

Interception: The Secrets of Modern Sports Betting (same authors)
This is the spiritual sequel to Logic, but more focused on the modern landscape—player props, in-game markets, and algorithmic modeling. The authors peel back the curtain on how sportsbooks set and shade lines, how bettors can build models to exploit them, and why pricing inefficiencies still exist even in 2020s-era sportsbooks. It’s more technical than Logic, but valuable if you're serious about building edge.

🚫 Notably Omitted

Circles Off Podcast
While they sometimes have smart/interesting guests, I find the constant inside-baseball drama about “Gambling Twitter” pretty alienating. If you're into the soap opera of who said what about who, it’s your thing — I understand. I personally get turned off by the ratio of drama vs substance.

Many Mainstream Betting Picks Columns (e.g., ESPN Insider, CBS Sports Betting)
“Who to bet tonight” posts can be fun to read, but are not a great way to find a betting edge. These are mass-consumption pieces built for clicks, not closing line value.

If you want to find bets to make, use the Juice Reel marketplace or do your own analysis. It's not realistic to find any edge in a piece read by millions of ESPN.com visitors.

Bet(s) of the Week $$

Last week we went 1-2 and lost 1.6 units.

We lost our Game 1 Thunder bet, when Indiana pulled another miraculous comeback out of their hat.

Fortunately we made a first-half spread bet to protect against that very scenario and came through easily given the Thunder’s strong start.

Even so, since starting the newsletter, bets given out in this section are ahead 13.4 units, at a positive 17% ROI. We’ll update this regularly.

Based on my research, I am making the following bet this week:

• Oklahoma City -5 @-125 (GAME 4) on Fanatics for 1 unit

This is a Zig-Zag theory bet — backing a good team after a loss — that served me well over the weekend by taking the Thunder in Game 2 of this series.

This 68-win team has consistently responded well coming off a loss, only losing back-to-back games twice this season + playoffs.

I believe they are likely to win by more than two possessions and am comfortable going back to the OKC well again despite the Game 1 collapse.

In conclusion -- I’d love to know what other betting content you all love or consume, in addition to the survey, please reply and let me know!