Best free pick handicapper sites
Free picks are the sample tray at the front of the shop. A handicapper gives them away to sell you the paid ones, so the question is never whether a pick is free but whether it is any good, and that you can measure.
Why they're free
A capper's business is subscriptions. Free picks bring in the traffic, build a following and give him a record to point at when he asks for money. There's nothing wrong with that, and some of the free picks out there are as good as the paid ones from the same service. But the free pick is a marketing cost, and it's chosen to market.
That shapes what you see. A service has every reason to post its free winners loudly and its free losers quietly, and a long shot that comes in is the best advertisement there is.
The record over time
One good week tells you nothing. A coin-flipper who makes 20 free picks goes 14 and 6 or better about 6 times in 100. Put 20 such services side by side and the chance that at least one shows 14 and 6 or better is about 70 percent. That one is the service you'll hear about.
So I'd want the whole record of the free picks, every one, posted with a time before the game, over a few hundred plays at least. Then I'd check that at -110 it beats 52.38 percent, which is what it takes to break even, not 50.
The price you could get
A free pick is posted at a price, and a well-followed one moves the line. If the pick is given at -110 and you can only get -120 by the time you bet it, you now need 54.55 percent to break even, not 52.38. A record graded at prices nobody following it could get is a record of the capper's timing, not your results.
The closing line
This is the test I trust most. Note the price on each free pick when it's posted and the price at the close. A capper who regularly gets a better number than the closing line is probably finding something, whatever his won-lost record says this month; one who regularly gets a worse number is probably not, however hot he's running. The reason is under closing-line value.
The traps
The free pick is often the doorway to a "lock" or a "sure thing" sold at a premium, and there is no such thing. Watch for a record quoted in units with no unit size, and for streaks quoted from a start date that happens to leave out the bad run before it. A service that shows its free losers as clearly as its winners, with the time and price on each, is worth a closer look.
The reviews below are of services that offer free picks. Each one is scored under our review methodology, and records that have been independently checked carry the ATB Verified mark.
Free or paid, I'd bet each pick at the same small slice of your bankroll and keep your own record of it. Your record is the only one you know nobody edited.
17 reviewed
ActionNetwork
From our review: Action Network lists expert picks in its free tier and keeps instant pick alerts, system picks and projections for PRO subscribers.
BetFirm
From our review: BetFirm posts free daily picks from about 20 handicappers, most with the line and price, and says they are the lowest-rated plays from each service.
Free daily picksRead the review
BettingPros
From our review: BettingPros says its free tier includes daily expert picks and articles, with a rating on every prop and game kept for paid plans.
3-day free trial on yearly plansRead the review
Covers
From our review: Covers gives away expert picks, computer picks and community consensus picks, and says its core products are free with no signup or subscription.
Free picks, no subscriptionRead the reviewDoc Sports
From our review: Doc's Sports posts free daily picks against the spread, written by named staff handicappers, with the line and the date on each.
Free $60 account credit for premium picksRead the review
GameAdvisers
From our review: GameAdvisers gives limited daily picks to anyone with a free account, and sells the full board on fixed-term passes.
Free account with limited daily picksRead the review
Pick and parlays
From our review: Picks and Parlays posts free picks from its handicappers by sport, alongside the paid plays it sells by the pick.
Pick guarantee: credit if the day's picks don't profitRead the review
PickDawgz
From our review: PickDawgz says it gives out a limited number of free picks each day, with previews across more than a dozen sports.
Free picks dailyRead the review
Pickwise
From our review: Pickswise says all its picks, analysis and predictions are free, paid for by commissions from sportsbooks.
Free picksRead the review
PredictEm
From our review: PredictEm says it gives away picks daily for baseball and basketball and weekly for football, paid for by sportsbook advertising.
Free picksRead the review
ScoresAndStats
From our review: ScoresAndStats says every prediction on the site is free to read, with the spread, the total, the moneyline, its own number and the call.
Free predictionsRead the review
SportsCapping
From our review: SportsCapping posts free picks from its handicappers in every sport it covers and says they are left out of the official records.
Free picks; profit guarantee in subscription timeRead the review
SportsLine
From our review: SportsLine offers a free newsletter with expert picks, game projections and analysis, according to its site.
The parent company's streaming service included with new Pro plans, says the siteRead the review
VegasInsider
From our review: VegasInsider posts free picks on its own pages for each major sport, with paid VI Premium needed for every expert's picks.
3-day pass $4.99, then $19.99 a monthRead the review
WagerTalk
From our review: WagerTalk posts free picks every day with the line, the price and a written case for each, according to its site.
7-day Flex Picks pass $69, listed at $99Read the review
WinnersandWhinners
From our review: Winners & Whiners posts free picks from several of its handicappers with the price, the game time and a written case, according to its site.
WunderDog
From our review: Wunderdog says it sends a top-rated pick with detailed analysis free every day.