Action Network review: free expert picks, a paid PRO tier and 30-day records

A media site that gives the picks away

Action Network isn't a capper shop in the old sense. It is a betting media company, Action Network Inc. by its copyright line, with odds pages, news, articles, a bet tracker and a team of experts who post picks. The About page says it was founded in 2017 and, a few lines on, that it launched in 2018, and that a larger sports media group bought it in 2021. It also says the site earns from subscriptions and from affiliate deals with sportsbooks. That last part matters, because it tells you where the money comes from. It doesn't come from the picks.

The picks are in the free tier. The plan table lists expert picks, live odds, personal bet tracking and pick alerts for everyone, and puts the rest behind PRO: instant expert pick alerts, what it calls PRO system picks, money percentages, prop projections, premium articles and line alerts. PRO costs $14.99 a week, $24.99 a month or $119.99 a year, as the plans page shows. I didn't see a free trial or any refund terms on the pages I read.

I like a picks section that doesn't charge for the picks. A capper who sells you a play has every reason to call it a lock. A media site that gives it away is selling your attention and a subscription to the tools, which is a different pressure, and a milder one.

What the experts page shows

Every expert on the top experts page carries one line: the last 30 days, in wins, losses, a third number the page doesn't label (pushes, I'd guess) and units. On the day I read it, the top of the list showed 99-85-2 for plus 44.4 units. Further down sat 261-275-7 for minus 28.8 units. The page shows the losing records in exactly the same form as the winners, and that is more than most shops do.

Now look hard at that top line. Ninety-nine and 85 is 53.8 percent. If every one of those plays was one unit at -110, the profit would be about 5 units, not 44.4. To get 44.4 the expert must have been betting plus-money prices or bigger stakes on the winners, and the page says neither. It doesn't say what a unit is, it doesn't show the odds each pick was taken at, and it doesn't show when each pick was posted. Without the price, a units figure is the service's own arithmetic, and you can't redo it.

The About page says the experts have "verified betting records tracked within the Action app." It doesn't say who verifies them, against what, or how a late pick or a changed line is handled. I'd read "verified" there as "recorded by us", which is useful and isn't the same thing as checked by somebody with no stake in it.

Thirty days is a snapshot

The list is sorted by units over the last 30 days, and that rewards the hot hand by design. Somebody is always at the top of a 30-day list, whether he's good or lucky, and a run of a hundred-odd picks can swing 20 units either way on luck alone. At -110 you need 52.38 percent just to break even, so 53.8 percent over 186 picks is not far from a coin with a little vig taken off.

What I'd want is the whole record for one expert in one sport, every pick with the price and the time it went up, over a few hundred plays. Then I'd compare his price with the closing line, because a capper who keeps beating the close is finding something whatever his month looks like. The closing-line value guide says why I trust that test more than a won-lost line.

Before you pay for PRO

The arithmetic here is friendlier than at most pick shops. At $119.99 a year, PRO costs about $2.30 a week, and you aren't paying per pick. Still, work it through as you would any capper: say an expert really does win 55 percent, and you bet five of his picks a week to win $20 each. Each bet is worth about $1.10 to you on average, so the five are worth $5.50 a week. That covers the annual PRO price, and the weekly plan at $14.99 doesn't. The page on what cappers are runs the same sum at bigger stakes.

The questions I'd put to them: what one unit means in each expert's record, whether the record grades a pick at the price he posted or at a price you could actually get, when each pick is time-stamped, and whether a full history beyond 30 days is available for an expert you'd follow. Also ask how to cancel each plan, since the pages I read don't say.

The site's own footer says it is for entertainment and involves no real-money betting, which is fair enough, because you place the bets yourself. No picks service takes the risk away. I'd bet every pick at the same small share of your bankroll and stop at a loss limit you set before the season.

The losers are on the board here. That's the right place to start reading.