Sports betting is a world that is based off of numbers, From odds to wagers the entire world is essentially engrossed in the knowledge, use, and understanding of numbers. All of the numbers are important but recently a new set of numbers have emerged and they have taken the sports betting world by storm. Those numbers are percentages known as a consensus. The consensus took the sports betting world by storm several years ago and since they been a main stay in the wagering world. The truth of the matter is that many people use a consensus report to handicap sporting events. While all handicapping methods are different the use of the consensus reports may also be different. Before anyone can use them as a handicapping tool they must know several key components to the reports. They have to know what a consensus report is, where do find them, and how do use them to your advantage. It all begins with understanding what exactly a consensus report is.

Here Are the Current Sports Pick Consensus Reports / Or continue reading on our 8 part series on Sports Pick Consensus

• NFL Pick Consensus
• Football Pick Consensus
• NBA Pick Consensus
• College Basketball Pick Consensus
• MLB Pick Consensus
• NHL Pick Consensus

This is the definition of the word consensus as found in the dictionary.

1. majority of opinion: The consensus of the group was that they should meet twice a month. 

2. general agreement or concord; harmony.

From this definition it would seem that the consensus report is a positive thing but in actuality when the intended use is for sports wagering the consensus report is negative. The consensus report will show you the percentage or actual number of wagers on a certain side or total. These percentages or numbers are derived from opinions on the game or the actual wagers depending on where the sports bettor gets the consensus report from.  Even these numbers are useless to the novice bettor unless they know how it equates to sports betting. The sports bettor has to understand the theory behind the numbers and how it applies to the consensus report and how it affects choosing the correct side or total in a game.

The theory is simple. The majority of people that wager on sports are wrong. This has been proved due to the fact that casino’s and bookies always make millions of dollars every year. This is possible because the majority of people are wrong and the goal is to be against or on the other side of the majority of sports bettors. Since bookmakers win more than they lose the assumption was therefore concluded to be that the consensus is an automatic fade in the betting world. When this theory was introduced to the sports betting world in the forms of consensus reports, the online world went crazy! Several sites started exploding on to the scene offering their interpretation of the report. They offered them in different formats. Some choose to base it on the actual number of wagers placed on a game and others used a percentage of the overall public on a particular side. These sites rose significantly in popularity and many of them have sold since for millions of dollars in profit just based off of this idea. The reason the concept of consensus reports was so widely accepted is because they are easy to understand. Find the game that everyone is betting and bet on that team to lose. It made handicapping simple and allowed even the novice bettor to understand a quick way to make money. This made them immensely popular and everyone wanted in on the bandwagon.

Gaming sites, forums, sportsbooks, contest sites, and sites that just focused on consensus reports have taken advantage of the popularity of the concept. Many of them try to offer different displays for the report so they can stand out above the competition. While plenty of these new sites offered a new way to look at the numbers from a consensus report very few of them offered a different way to read them. The Consensus was born and rising in stock but the interpretation of the numbers was never looked at. The numbers were taken for granted and assumed to be legitimate in every sense of the word. They were introduced as a failsafe to winning and handicapping was thrown out the window. This is where the public went horribly wrong.

It is important to realize what a consensus report is, but understanding how to use the report is even more significant. What good is it to own a car, if you can’t drive it? After a sports bettor discovered the consensus report they began using them without knowing anything about the sincerity of the report or how to use it. In the next section of the real consensus report the discussion will turn to using the report to make a profit in sports betting.

Read How To Use A Sports Pick Consensus Report