Methodology
How a throwaway radio bet becomes a tracked win or loss.
How picks are captured
We pull each show's published episode audio, transcribe it, and use a language model to find genuine betting recommendations — the segments where a host actually says "here's my play." Jokes, hypotheticals, and recaps of someone else's pick are excluded.
Every pick is reviewed by a human before it counts. The model proposes a pick with the exact quote it came from; a person checks that the quote really supports the selection, line, odds, and book before it's published. Nothing is graded on a machine's say-so alone.
How picks are graded
- Spread — the team's final margin is compared to the line. Land exactly on the number and it's a push.
- Total — combined final score vs. the over/under. Exact number pushes.
- Moneyline — did the picked team win the game.
- Props, futures, parlays — graded by hand for now; they're flagged rather than auto-settled.
Final scores come from ESPN. A pick stays pending until its game is final.
Units & ROI
We assume a flat 1 unit staked on every pick. A win pays out at the odds quoted on air
(e.g. +150 returns 1.5 units; −110 returns 0.91); a loss is −1 unit; pushes and voids are 0. When a host
didn't state odds, we assume standard −110 juice. ROI is net units divided by the number of
settled picks.
Closing line value
For game markets (spreads, totals, moneylines) and player props we also capture the closing line — where the betting market finished just before kickoff. Historical picks come from archived odds snapshots (The Odds API); new picks are captured live in the final minutes before each day’s slates close. A pick beat the close when the market moved toward it after it aired: take −2.5 and watch it close −4, and the market ended up agreeing with the pick. Consistently beating the close is the standard test of real forecasting skill, far less noisy than short-term win/loss.
- Which book: the book named on air when our odds source carries it, else the show's house book for that era, else the median across US books ("consensus"). ESPN BET and Hard Rock Bet aren't carried by our source's primary US feed, so historical picks quoting them use the consensus close — each pick's tooltip shows which was actually used. New picks (from July 2026) are captured with the secondary feed included, so those books' own closes are recorded going forward. Re-measuring everything against single books (DraftKings, FanDuel) shifts beat-close rates by well under a point, so the tiering doesn't drive the results.
- CLV units: points for spreads/totals/props; American-odds cents for moneylines (measured from a morning-of-game baseline when no price was stated on air).
- Beat-the-close rate excludes picks whose line never moved.
- Not covered: futures, exotic/derivative markets (halves, quarters, teasers, team totals), events books didn't carry, and picks before mid-2020 (props before mid-2023) — historical odds don't exist for them.
What we track
- UnSportsmanLike with Evan, Canty and Michelle (ESPN Radio) — Play of the Day
- Sharp or Square (iHeartPodcasts and The Volume) — Full Episode
- What's Wright? with Nick Wright (iHeartPodcasts and The Volume) — Full Episode
- The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast (Playmaker and iHeartPodcasts) — Full Episode
- The Action Network Sports Betting Podcast (The Action Network and iHeartPodcasts) — Full Episode
- Get Up (ESPN) — Full Episode
- The Herd with Colin Cowherd (iHeartPodcasts and The Volume) — Full Episode
Disclaimer
This site is unaffiliated with any show, network, or sportsbook, and exists for entertainment. It is not betting advice. Records reflect what was said on air, captured as accurately as we can.