• NBA Pick Consensus - Click here for a live NBA Pick Consensus

If you have read along in the series then you know all about the consensus report and how it applies to sports betting. After covering the definition and theory the time has come to move on to individual sports. When looking at football both college football and the NFL were covered extensively. It was deemed that both sports had very good reasons to use the consensus reports as a handicapping tool. However the consensus report covers every sport so it would only make sense to cover all of the sports in this report. For the next section of the report we go to basketball to cover the report. For reporting purposes we will combine both college and the NBA in one report. This report will point out the pros and cons for using the consensus report as a handicapping tool.

Let’s start with the NBA. The NBA is very popular just like the NBA. They have a huge following and they receive plenty of money wagered on the sport. With this in mind the consensus is s a very useful tool when handicapping the sport. The report should be used in conjunction with other tools but it is useful in the NBA. The problem is that it should be looked at differently. Unlike football, basketball is played every day. This has to be taken into account when the consensus report comes out. The favorites will almost always get the most of the public money and the consensus but will not take the schedule into account. Therefore the consensus report needs to be tweaked to account for differences in basketball that you will not find in football. If the sports bettor finds these differences and uses them to the advantage of the bettor in the long run they will make money. This is something that is similar in college basketball, but college basketball also has a very big difference.

We have mentioned that basketball should be treated differently than football but there is one place where they are similar. In college football the key is to pay attention to the lesser known games. College basketball is no different. With so many games on any given day there will be games between teams that are not well known where consensus numbers will be skewed. When looking at a college basketball slate especially on a Saturday there are so many games that smaller schools do not attract the attention the bigger games do. So they will not get allow for a good reading on consensus reports. The consensus report is useful for college basketball, but the bigger games will have better readings than the smaller games.

In a nutshell both the NBA and college basketball have a use for the consensus report but it has to be used differently than football. For the NBA it is important to keep the schedule in mind since the teams play more often than football teams too. In college basketball it is important to realize that the consensus report will not be as effective on all games. The big named schools will reflect more positively in the consensus report than the smaller schools will. If you keep this in mind than in the long run the consensus report will help any sports bettor win money when betting basketball.

Part 8: How to use the MLB Consensus Report