One sign telling you how bad is a handicapper.

[probettor1]

First of all being a Tout is already a bad sign, since it is a sign that you can not make a living out of betting but this is another sign:
The ranking of their website in Alexa. It could be to low(high number) or it coul be getting worse over time which is even worse.

For example, among the websites selling picks the best ranking is probably covers with 4,823, second is vegas insider 15,335, in the other hand toptencappers is 1,245,854, they has been getting worse over time which means they are losing their client at fast speed. I believe to remember they were in a rank under 300 000 but their traffic history has been removed from alexa. Toptencappers is owned by Wunderdog and their leaderboard record is a scam, that's probably why they are losing it.

[UNCGQ]

[probettor1]

UNCGQ do we need bad language here? Some grammar or spelling mistakes might be bad but foul language make this forum undesirable.

[Waterstpub87]

The word you are looking for is "Tout", not "handicapper". Handicapper can be anyone who bets, tout is reserved for those who are selling their picks.

[probettor1]

Thanks Water. Sorry for the misleading title.

[k13]

A little bit but Alexa is not completely accurate.

Plus someone could get a lot of traffic with great SEO on a really crappy website and little clients.

Even more so if they use Black Hat SEO.

[probettor1]

k13 great post, I didn't know the term Black Hat <ACRONYM title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</ACRONYM>, that's why I gave you a point but I said a bad ranking was a sign of been bad. I didn't say having a good ranking in Alexa was a sign of been good.

[probettor1]

Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:

• breaks search engine rules and regulations
• creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
• unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.