Starting From Scratch

This might be the most ambitious and potentially fool hearty undertaking of my life.  My goal is to become the world's best sports handicapper starting from scratch.  I have no statistics background.  I have no programming knowledge.  And I have little idea of how I"m going to get from knowing next to nothing about sports handicapping to being the best sports handicapper in the world.  But it won't stop me from trying.

I love sports and I love sports betting.  And quite honestly I'm tired of losing.  I'm willing to do whatever it takes to turn myself into a profitable handicapper.  These are my ideas right now and I realize I'll likely look back at this and find them laughable but nevertheless:

-Self educate myself on everything there is to know about statistics.  Essentially I want a degree in statistics through self education and without stepping foot in a classroom.

-Master Excel.  I need to figure out how to translate statistical sports data into betting ideas through Excel.  I realize I may want to use more sophisticated programs as my knowledge advances but for now I'd be happy with using Excel as my medium for translating sports statistics into profitable betting opportunities  Essentially I want to create sports models that predict the outcome of games or contests.

I must admit the primary reason for writing this blog is to store all my information in one place.  Initially I was going to use a pen and paper but that's much more time consuming and not as "pretty" as having everything written in a blog.  It should be easy to come back and reference things I've learned or forgotten this way.

A secondary reason for creating this blog is if in the extremely unlikely chance I'm successful in this insanely monstrous undertaking, that the framework for others to do the same will be there to see.  One thing about sports handicapping/modeling is that there's very little useful information out there.  And for good reason.  People don't want to share their secrets otherwise people will copy their methods and cut into their profits.  This may become a consideration for me at some point as well, but for now I'm not even remotely worried about it.

Enough talking, time to get to it!
-