So you wanna be a handicapper?

So you wanna be a handicapper? You think you have what it takes to go through the grind and beat the almighty 52.38%? Then read on!

This article isn't going to talk a lot about what a professional sports handicapper has to endure, not so much about how to become one, but we'll cover that a bit as well.

For starters, you will need to make yourself a somewhat attractive trustworthy looking website. Advertise your true records on the site. Nobody believes false claims of 70-90% winners. Don't bother using the word lock either, because today's internet sports bettor has become more astute and knows there is no such thing. Lastly, don't bother with cheap lines like "I've got inside information." Be legit as the cream always rises to the top. If you do things right in the first place, it will all come back to reward you in the end.

Next, you will need to establish your worth as a handicapper. If you were to go tell any major service or portal on the web that you hit 60% in all sports, your probably going to get ignored. We've all heard it before and we'll hear it again, too many times in fact.

Your best bet in getting started is to fork out the loot to get monitored at one of the web's better sports monitors. This means entering your picks daily at sites such as bigguy.com, Trackpicks.com, Sportsmonitor.com, FreeSportsMonitor.com or NevadaSportsMonitor.com. You are going to need to prove yourself before anybody believes your claims. That's just the way it is.

After you've spent time proving yourself and assuming that you have a nice website, contact some major sports handicapping information portals on the web and ask them if you can have a page to give away free picks on a daily basis. This will give you some cheap exposure. In exchange, their going to probably ask you to put their banner or link on their homepage. Keep in mind that their established and your not, so this is a very fair deal for you even if your not on their homepage.

Assuming you've gotten some exposure from the sports monitors and portals, offer to give out your picks for a free week. This is a great hook to get guys in the door. Keep their email addresses in a file and market to them from time to time. Don't expect them all to buy from you, even if your hot. Something we haven't gotten to yet is that this is a very competitive market and it's not easy to make a buck.

Provide analysis with your picks. Some say it doesn't matter as long as your producing winners but by providing analysis with your selections, it proves that your legit and did your homework. Oh, and speaking of homework? Expect to handicap 12 hours a day or more if you want to be a long term winner. It's surely a marathon, not a sprint and it's one hell of a grind.

Have a family? You should probably pass on this career. It's not fair to them. Don't you dare bring kids into this world and then ignore them. No dollar is worth that, especially this dollar because it's one that you'll be chasing. Only a few big names in the industry have dollars thrown at them and it's because of a ton of marketing and years of hard