HOW THE SAUSAGE GETS MADE · no gut feel · no hot hands

We bet numbers,
not teams.

Every recommendation walks the same path: validate the market row, compare probability with price, require a positive model stake, and preserve the recorded outcome. Here's the pipeline and the distinction between Board recommendations and the broader benchmark.

01

Build a complete priced signal

A recommendation starts only after the player, game, prop, side, line, and real book price resolve to one verified market row.

The projection and market services join on stable player and game identities. Incomplete or unpriced rows remain research data; they cannot become public recommendations.

The same captured row later receives the closing price and recorded box score, which lets the Market Memory and Ledger compare line versus actual without changing identities after the game.

Player identityGame identityProp + sideCaptured priceRecorded actual
02

Price decides whether it is actionable

Hit likelihood alone is not value. The model compares its calibrated probability with the exact price's breakeven rate.

A heavy favorite can be likely to hit and still be badly priced. A plus-money prop can sit below 52% and still offer value. That is why the likelihood band and the price-relative value edge stay separate.

Prices below the service's minimum payout are excluded. For the remaining candidates, the grading service computes a fractional-Kelly stake. Zero is a real no-bet answer, not a missing value to replace.

P(hit)BreakevenValue edgeServing floorKelly stake
03

Publish the positive-stake subset

The Board shows only complete CORE rows with a positive recommended stake, deduplicated to one quote per physical player-market.

Alternate lines for the same player and market compete with each other; they do not become duplicate recommendations. The slate cap is applied only after every scheduled game has had a chance to contribute.

The Ledger answers a different question: how every eligible priced signal from the currently served CORE formula performed at a normalized flat 1u. Naming both populations prevents a model benchmark from being mistaken for the smaller recommended card.

Positive stakeCORE onlyOne physical propNo invented stakeHonest empty state

HOW WE GRADE · the part most touts skip

A pick isn't real
until it's settled.

Recommendations are time-stamped when posted and settled from the recorded box score after the game. Closing-line value is attached when that feed is available. Here's the same rulebook whether the play wins or loses.

01Exact market row. Player, game, prop, side, line, and captured price must all be present before a row can become a recommendation.
02Graded against the recorded box score — never a "we kinda had it" asterisk. Pushes are graded as pushes (zero units), not quietly dropped.
03Closing line value is preserved when available. It shows whether the captured price beat the eventual close, independent of the result.
04The benchmark scope is named. It is the historical performance of the formula serving CORE today, at today's serving floor—not an immutable claim about which subset was recommended on every past date.
05Empty states keep their meaning. A feed outage, an unpublished card, and a completed check with no positive-stake edge are shown as different states. None is silently called a pass.

PLAIN ENGLISH

The four words
that matter.

Unit
/ˈyo͞onət/ · stake

One normal bet for your bankroll — many use 1% of it. Sizing in units means our record reads the same whether you bet $5 or $500. We never tell you a dollar amount.

Hit likelihood
/hit līk-lē-ho͝od/ · p(hit)

The calibrated probability that the selected side wins. It is not an edge score: price determines whether that probability is worth betting.

Value edge
/val-yo͞o ej/ · probability vs price

The difference between model hit probability and the exact price's breakeven probability. A positive value can earn a model-sized stake; a zero or negative value stays off the recommendation Board.

CORE benchmark
/kôr bench-märk/ · model evaluation

Every eligible priced signal from the formula serving CORE today, graded at a normalized flat 1u. It is broader than the positively staked recommendations shown on the Board.

See the annotated design example

This archived NBA Finals example explains the intended anatomy of a detailed pick receipt. It is a labeled product walkthrough, not a row from the current league's live Board or Ledger, and opening it does not change your selected league.

Read a worked example →

STILL SKEPTICAL? · good

Don't trust us.
Read the ledger.

The method only matters if it shows up in the results. Read the current CORE formula's full eligible-signal benchmark, then compare it with the smaller actionable Board.