PredictEm review: free picks with the record on the page, paid for by sportsbook ads

Why the picks are free

PredictEm answers the question before you ask it. "Why would we give away our picks for free?" the home page says, and then: advertisers pay for the traffic, so "all we ask from you, is to read our site and consider signing up at our advertising sportsbooks, as that is what pays our bills". It also says it accepts tips. I'd rather a site said that than pretended the picks were charity.

It also tells you who makes them. The picks are by two handicappers, Kevin West and Rich Crew, whom the site says have 25 years or more in the business each, with others covering horse racing and the columns. The home page says "we quit our day jobs in 2001". The contact page says "for over 17 years". Those two don't agree, and the site says nothing else about the company, where it's based or who owns it.

The record, as posted

This is the part worth your time. The picks page keeps the current picks at the top and the past ones below, each with a result beside it: "Won 34-7", "Lost 30-34", "Covered 38-41". Each sport carries a season figure. For the NFL it showed Kevin West at 12-4-1 for +6.35 units in 2026, and for college football 6-1 for +4.90. For baseball, West at 13-7 for +7.40 and Rich Crew at 83-51-2 for +16.55, with 50-41 for +11.71 in 2025.

Those are the site's numbers, not mine, and they're small samples. Seventeen football picks tell you very little. A coin-flipper with 16 decided picks goes 12-4 or better about 4 times in 100, and there are a great many people posting free picks. The baseball record is bigger and more interesting: 83-51 is 61.9 percent, but on the moneyline that means less than it sounds, because a run of short favorites can win 62 percent and lose money. The +16.55 units is the figure to look at, and it only means something if you know the size of a unit and the prices.

Some picks show the price: "Minnesota Vikings Money Line -120", "Denver Broncos -3 (1/2 point buy -135)". Others are a bare spread with no price. A half point bought at -135 is a real cost, and a record graded at -110 when the bet was -135 would flatter itself. I can't tell which way PredictEm grades it.

The units aren't defined. Most plays carry no rating, but one baseball pick was a "3 Unit BEST BET" and one NBA pick a "2 Unit Top Play". If a 3-unit winner and a 1-unit loser count the way they're rated, the units won depend on how big the capper said he was going to bet, and that's a choice he made, not a result.

Loose ends

When I read the page on 14 October, the NFL picks for 8 to 12 October and the college picks for 8 to 10 October were all still marked "pending", days after the games. The baseball pick for 14 October carried the same write-up, word for word, as the 13 October pick on a different game. Only one pick I saw said when it was posted ("Posted on 9/2 at 6:18PM ET"). None of that means the record is false. It means it's kept by hand and not always kept up, and a record that's late to grade is a record you should grade yourself.

Using it

I'd take PredictEm's picks as a second opinion with the reasoning attached, and I'd write down each one I followed with the price on the page, the price I got and the closing price. The closing line value guide shows why that last column matters more than a 17-game record. If you want to understand the reasoning behind the picks rather than tail them, start with what a sports betting strategy is.

The ads around the picks are for offshore and other books, with bonuses on top. Where you can legally bet depends on where you live, and a bonus doesn't change it. A free pick can still lose your money, and nothing about following a handicapper takes that risk away. Set the loss limit first and bet each play at the same small part of your bankroll, whatever number of units he puts on it.

The losers are on the page. That's why I'd read it at all.