Ricky Dimon

Pickswise Expert

Ricky is Deputy Editor at Pickswise who lives in Atlanta, Georgia – although he spends much of his time travelling the world visiting his brother in Africa and covering professional tennis tournaments such as in London, Paris and Melbourne. Ricky has been handicapping tennis for more than a decade and other sports for 5+ years. Futures plays are his favorite targets when it comes to the sports betting market, while he also likes to hit point spread (or game spreads in the case of tennis).

Live Picks 4

Live Parlays 0

Weekly News Articles 5

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Favorite Sports

Favorite Teams

Greatest Betting Win

Hitting Kvitova at 100/1 odds was a fun one – and for multiple reasons beyond just the cash supplement. First, my confidence in it could not have been higher at the beginning of the Miami tournament. When I saw Kvitova going off at 100/1, I asked two of my friends who cover the WTA Tour full time what the heck was going on. Was she injured?!?! No, in fact it was just a gross pricing failure by the market. Second, I naturally gave out the pick at Pickswise in my pre-tournament best bets article. Winning bets yourself is fun; handing them out for many others (hopefully!) to benefit from is even better!

Greatest Achievements

100/1 play on Petra Kvitova to win the 2023 Miami Open Winner of the USTA Georgia Media Excellence Award in 2015

Education

Ricky graduated from Davidson College (Davidson, North Carolina) with a bachelor’s degree in history. That’s where he began his sports-writing endeavours, covering college athletics for the school newspaper.

Experience

Ricky has been sports writing as a profession for the last 15 years. In addition to Pickswise, his current roles include covering high school sports (mostly football) for a local paper in Atlanta and covering the professional tennis tour for various websites – including his own blog. Ricky first got into the sports-writing world as a fantasy football analyst and he continues to be an avid fantasy football player. Representing Pickswise, Ricky won the 2022 Sirius XM Indepence Day Invitational league in his debut appearance.

Favorite betting market / type

Futures and Point Spreads.

Favorite bookmakers

Ricky's Picks

Game Totals Pick

Under 213.5(-115)

Reasoning

The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks will wage a crucial contest as the NBA playoffs continue with Game 5 of this Eastern Conference first-round series at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. The 2 teams have taken turns leading this series, which is now all tied up at 2-2 heading back to New York. Neither offense has been doing much of anything through four games, and I expect that trend to continue. My Hawks vs Knicks pick is Under 213.5. Atlanta is averaging just 104.0 ppg so far during these playoffs and has not exceeded 109 points in any game, while New York (110.3 ppg) has not been much better and has not exceeded 114 points on any occasion.

What’s especially concerning for the visitors is that Jalen Johnson’s production is down across the board. During the regular season, Johnson averaged 22.5 ppg on 48.9 percent shooting from the floor and 35.2 percent from 3-point range. Through four playoff games, the former Duke standout is averaging 19.5 ppg while shooting 41.9 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from downtown. Nickeil Alexander-Walker has also been held in check by the Knicks. He went 5-for-10 from deep in Saturday’s loss but contributed nothing else and finished with just 15 points. Alexander-Walker is averaging just 13.8 ppg after contributing 20.8 ppg during the regular season. For New York, Mikal Bridges has been a complete disaster. His playoff point totals are 11, 10, zero and 8.

Hawks vs Knicks prediction: Under 213.5 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Super Bowl 61 Winner Pick

HOU Texans to win Super Bowl 61(+2000)

Reasoning

Despite starting the season 3-5, the Texans rallied and were arguably the most in-form team heading into the playoffs, winning 9 straight to close out the regular season. They finished 12-5, destroyed Pittsburgh in the first round and were just a halfway decent performance from CJ Stroud away from beating New England and being favored over Denver in the AFC Championship. This defense is unbelievable, and you have to think that Stroud can’t possibly be as bad in 2026 as he was in 2025. He should also have a lot more help, as Nico Collins will be back and perhaps even Joe Mixon will return to the field. Moreover, the AFC South is always winnable – and the first step toward the Lombardi Trophy is winning your division.

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Point Spread Pick

DET Pistons -2.5(-110)

Reasoning

Just like in the Knicks vs Hawks series, the higher-seeded team lost Game 3 to fall into a 2-1 hole only to be favored by more in Game 4 than it was in its previous loss. The oddsmakers are just begging you to take the underdogs at an inflated price. Hopefully you didn’t fall for it in the Hawks’ case, as they got blown out as +2.5 underdogs by the visiting Knicks. And you shouldn’t fall for it in the Magic’s case, either, as they are the far inferior team despite currently holding the upper hand in this best-of-7 showdown. I’m rolling with the favorites to restore order to the proceedings, so my Pistons vs Magic pick is Detroit -2.5.

It’s hard to see Orlando shooting 11 percentage points better than Detroit from 3-point range like it did on Saturday. Similarly, the Magic — even at home — probably won’t attempt 9 more free-throws than the Pistons. Detroit is by no means an elite 3-point shooting team, but it is far better from downtown than its 30.0 percent effort from downtown so far in this series. The Pistons also attempted the third-most free-throws in the NBA during the regular season, so count on them matching the Magic’s aggressiveness on Monday. There is also no reason to think that Jalen Duren will remain in this slumber (9.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg in this series) for long. This is a guy who averaged 19.5 ppg and 10.5 rpg during the regular season. In 4 meetings with Orlando, Duren averaged 17.8 ppg and 11.0 rpg — so it’s not like this is some kind of matchup issue for Detroit’s star big man. Give me the visitors in Game 4.

Pistons vs Magic Game 4 prediction: Detroit -2.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Super Bowl 61 Winner Pick

LA Rams to win Super Bowl 61(+900)

Reasoning

Matthew Stafford is coming off an MVP-winning campaign and announced during his speech that he would return for at least 1 more season. That’s enough for me. The Rams’ offense should continue to cook with Stafford under center, and their defense is stacked with young talent. They also own 2 first-round picks — #13 (from Atlanta) and #29 (their own).

LA really wasn’t that far off from winning this year’s Super Bowl. It lost an overtime thriller to Seattle in Week 16 that pretty much decided the NFC West and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. Head coach Sean McVay’s squad then lost at Seattle in another thriller in the NFC Championship – a game that really should have been played in Los Angeles if not for the Rams’ 4th-quarter meltdown in Week 16. Give me Stafford to potentially go out on top next year.

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