Several weeks ago I told everyone via the newsletter that I would begin breaking down the feedback from the personal emails I sent out to all The Saturday Edge premium subscribers and I followed that up with this article on the number of weekly picks we will offer this coming season (the quality vs quantity debate), and this article on units wagered per game. 

Today I will address the third and final issue that received a substantial amount of feedback, and that is the timing of when the picks will be released each week. 

2013’s inconsistency 

Through the first few weeks of last year we just fired away and posted picks pretty much willy-nilly like we did in 2012. Of course since we were now charging a fee for our services ….. and we weren’t hitting at an amazing % like the previous season ….. this practice was no longer efficient or useful to the majority of our subscribers. 

One suggestion we received was to set certain times that plays could be posted by handicappers. That way subscribers would only need to check their computers a few times a day and would know exactly when to check and will know the lines are widely available. 

I thought this was a very good and reasonable suggestion, so we started to post our picks at noon, 5 pm and 10 pm EST Monday through Friday, while maintaining our same Saturday schedule (Maggiore’s picks are posted on or before 9 am EST and any “late” picks for Saturday are posted on or before 11 am EST). 

This seemed to alleviate a lot of the problems, and it certainly reduced the number of complaints we received. However in the past few months I have received a lot of feedback about streamlining the process even further. 

2014 Release Times 

I received several suggestions to keep things as simple as possible and release plays once a day, and to have all the plays in by Friday night. 

I have no problem with either of those suggestions, but I do have two caveats. 

1. As I have told several of you, because of his schedule, Maggiore is rarely able to get me his Big Ten plays until ~9 am EST Saturday morning. I understand this is an inconvenience to some subscribers, especially those living on the west coast, but the alternative is to eliminate his plays all together, and I do not consider this a viable alternative. 

2. TWITTER!!!!! 

TWITTER 

Last year we received a suggestion from one of our subscribers (Thanks Nick) to set up a private Twitter account and give access to all our subscribers. We did and it worked like a charm. Instant access to picks whenever they were made. However, for some inexplicable reason, only about 30% of our subscribers signed up for the private account. 

I find it very strange in this day and age of easily accessible, instant information, that anyone should have a problem with receiving the Premium plays in the best way possible, via Twitter. The subscribers that do have a problem should accept it is their responsibility to improve their situation. 

Twitter is about immediate information and TSE private Twitter account is the perfect way for subscribers to get that immediate information if they choose to do so. 

If you have a mobile device that accepts text messages, you can set Twitter up to send you a text from The Saturday Edge as soon as we make a play. You can also set it up to email you if you don’t have a mobile device. 

The point being, if a play is made at say 5 pm PST but can’t be posted on the site until noon (or whatever time we ultimately decide upon this year) the following day, there is a chance that the line moves against subscribers. 

Whereas if the play gets immediately posted to Twitter, everyone then has an opportunity to start searching their various offshore accounts for the best available line. 

In Conclusion 

For the 2014 season we will release plays once per day at a time to be determined later (as we get closer to kickoff). 

All plays except Maggiore’s will be made no later than 10 pm EST on Friday ….. which could mean, depending on the time we choose to release games during the week, that there could be two release times on Friday. 

All plays will be released on the private Twitter the moment they are made. For record keeping purposes the line used to determine the bet will be the widely available number at posting time. However, for those subscribers who take the time to set up a Twitter account, the number will often be quite better. 

Do you agree, disagree, or have additional thoughts and ideas? Leave me a comment below and let’s keep this conversation going. 

Thanks for everyone’s support and listening to my thoughts. 

Pez

---