Doug Fleming is a quick study when it comes to sports betting.
The longtime Michigan high school basketball coach participated in his first handicap football competition in Las Vegas six years ago while in town for a travel team tournament.
“Getting out there for summer basketball is what really started it,” he said.
Fleming, 64, recently won the inaugural SuperContest college football contest, finishing a scorching 65-31-2 against the spread to top a field of 1,080 entries and turn his $500 entry fee into $216,000 in prize money.
“The money is great. But I was more interested in winning the race. You get so far, you just want to win,” he said. “I know how difficult it is to handicap. I have been in various competitions over the years.
“You drive at that level (with a 67.7 percent winning percentage), that’s pretty good. So I was very, very happy with that.”
He took his first lead in the 14-week contest in Week 13, with a point, and clinched the title by going 5-1-1 ATS in Week 14, helped by UNLV’s 42-17 blowout win over UNR as a 7½-point favorite. An entry called Black and Purple went 62-34-2 to settle for second place and a prize of $108,000.
Fleming went 24-10-1 ATS over the final five weeks of the contest where contestants make seven weekly picks ATS (no totals). He is proud of the fact that he is a recreational player who has a full-time job in real estate development, primarily in affordable housing, and competed in the competition for fun.
“I’m a competitor at heart,” he said. “The fact that I knew I was there with big groups that have a lot of money and sophisticated guys behind them with computers and everything, I’m a one-man show. It’s just me doing the handicapping.
“I had some friends and we sat together at happy hour on Thursdays and they gave me some ideas over beers. But that was about it. It’s just me and my own process.”
Trust the process
Fleming guided East Lansing High School to the Final Four of the 2008 Michigan State Tournament, when they lost to a Saginaw High team led by future NBA champion Draymond Green.
He said his 30 years of coaching experience was an important part of his weekly process for making picks, which were submitted by the Winners Circle Proxy Service.
“I listen to VSiN a lot and (host) Gill Alexander said a few years ago that there are two types of handicappers. There are statistical handicappers and they play on their own numbers. And there are information players who take information about games and bet on it. I like to think I’m a combination of the two,” he said. “I have Kenny White’s newsletter. He would come out with his statistical numbers early in the week and I would call in 10 or 12 games where his numbers said there was a statistical advantage. I also subscribe to Brad Power’s weekly newsletter, where he puts a piece on each game, so that was my information part of it.
“Once I’ve done the statistical and informational, I’d inject some coaching experience and those are the three things in my mental process. … I’d like to think what I did was put on my coaching hat and I’d say, ‘OK, if I’m coaching that team, where are they right now?’ What’s the locker room like?” So I would use my experience as a coach to factor that into my handicap.”
Back to school
Fleming finished in the top 20 in the Golden Nuggets Ultimate Football Challenge a few years ago that combined college and NFL picks. He won SuperContest College with his own single entry, while also ending up out of the money on another entry he shared with a friend.
He also participated in the Circa Survivor (where he was eliminated) and the Million competitions this season. But he prefers the college competition.
“The NFL is so hard,” he said. “I like college because you have so many more games to choose from.”
He chose wisely.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
