Sam Avellone

CBB & CFB Contributor

Sam was born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area and now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina after spending nearly a decade in Nashville. He is a sports information and statistics aficionado, providing content to help improve your thought processes and decision-making when it comes to sports betting. He has been handicapping college basketball, college football and NFL for 10+ years, while growing his passion for golf, soccer and F1 in recent years. Sam considers himself a Cleveland sports fan, and, as an alum of South Carolina, is an avid Gamecocks fan - though he's not afraid to bet against his teams if the price is right!

Live Picks 1

Live Parlays 0

Weekly News Articles 0

Location

Nashville, TN

Favorite Sports

Favorite Teams

Greatest Betting Win

My favorite sports betting memory was during March Madness 2018 when Seton Hall hit a “meaningless” buzzer beater to cover the spread against Kansas. It was my first time being in Las Vegas for the tournament, and Hall was quite an unpopular pick in that game. The rollercoaster of emotions between Seton Hall backers and Kansas backers during the game was incredible.

Greatest Achievements

+53.83 units, March Madness 2023 69.23% winning percentage, NCAAF Bowl Season & Playoff 2021 +36.95 units, PGA matchup bets 2020 following COVID break Over +120 units across all NFL wagers since 2018.

Education

Sam hails from Cleveland, OH where he graduated from Saint Ignatius High School in 2010. In 2014, Sam graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Marketing and a minor in Sports and Entertainment management.

Experience

Sam’s love for fantasy football and poker blossomed into a passion for sports betting in 2014 right around when he graduated from college. His focus quickly became college basketball, college football, and NFL in 2016 and he began handicapping those sports daily. Sam started recording his bets publicly in March of 2018 and has maintained overall profitability across all sports in that time. He even created his own sports blog in 2018 and contributed to it for a season, which ignited his passion for sports writing and content. Sam’s first year with Pickswise was in 2021 when he started as a college basketball writer, and he now covers college football as well.

Favorite betting market / type

Underdog Money Line, Anytime TD Scorer (NFL)

Favorite bookmakers

Sam's Picks

Money Line Pick

CLE Guardians Win(-124)

Reasoning

After losing a home series to the Washington Nationals, the Cleveland Guardians will look to rebound with a winning effort in a weekend series with the Boston Red Sox. The Guards have now lost 3 of their last 5 after winning 7 straight, while the Sox have been even worse – losing 5 of their last 6 after a 3-game win streak.

Cleveland will send Slade Cecconi to the mound, who has struggled this season. He is 3-5 with a 5.18 ERA and 1.48 WHIP, but there have been signs of slight improvement of late – aside from the 3-0 loss the Guards took to the Phillies in his last outing. His 4.00 ERA in May highlights his best month of the season thus far, which is a positive ahead of a matchup against a lineup that struggles to hit righties like Boston’s.

Tyler Samaniego will act as an opening left-hander for Boston before Brayan Bello takes a bulk of the innings. For what it’s worth, Samaniego has yet to allow an earned run on the road, usually appearing for an inning or less. The same can’t be said for Bello, who has struggled on the year as a whole. Like Cecconi, Bello’s best work has come in the month of May, where he boasts a 3.47 ERA compared to 9.00 in May and 6.32 on the season. That said, Bello really struggles on the road, where he carries an 8.01 ERA – allowing 27 earned runs on 45 hits, 9 home runs and 12 walks in 30.1 innings. He has only struck out 16 batters in that sample, which is less than ideal.

Cleveland struggles against righties, but Bello’s poor road form and overall season performance is hard to ignore, even if his career baseline is much better than he has shown this year. With a better barrel rate, hard-hit rate and home-run rate for Cecconi, I’m going to side with the Guards in this one.

Red Sox vs Guardians prediction: Cleveland Guardians ML (-124) at the time of publishing. Playable to -135.

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Sam Avellone