Douglas Farmer

Betting Analyst Years of Experience Icon

17+ years experience

Betting Analyst

17+ years experience

Douglas Farmer spends his days thinking about college football and his nights thinking about the NBA. His betting habits and coverage follow that same pattern. He covered Notre Dame football for various outlets from 2008 to 2024, most notably spending eight seasons as NBC Sports’ beat writer on the Irish. That was also when his gambling focus took off. Knowing there were veteran beat writers with three decades more experience than he had, Douglas found his niche by best recognizing Notre Dame’s standing in each year’s national landscape, a complex tapestry most easily understood and remembered via betting odds.

In 2021, that interest created a freelance opportunity with Covers, a role that eventually led to Douglas joining the company full-time in 2023. In the fall, Douglas will place five or six dozen bets each week, a disproportionate amount via BetRivers because the operator tends to have lines slightly different than the rest of the market. The same can be said of Circa Sports’ futures markets.

While Douglas is an avid NBA fan and covers the league throughout the year, the vast majority of his bets are on college football, because that is the biggest key to sports betting: Know what you do not know.

Favorites

Team: Minnesota Timberwolves
Sport to bet on: College football
Sports movie: Finding Forrester
Sports snack: Whiskey
Covers feature: Line movement tracker

A "return to living" trip to Vegas before the 2021 football season started by seeing value on Georgia to win the national championship at +800. By then, mid-August, the consensus line was +650. So, I took my entire weekend's bankroll and put it on what I affectionately referred to as "Clifford." The logic was, Georgia should make the Playoff and by then, I'll be sitting on great value to hedge out. Except, I never hedged out. I just added to the investment all season long, including with live odds of +140. The joy was not in the win, but in the five months of vindicated conviction.

Best Betting Memory

This may seem trivial, but it is the one that still aggravates me years later. There are few better bets in life than fading a Brian VanGorder defense. So when Bowling Green visited Notre Dame in 2019, I trusted the Irish to run it up on their former defensive coordinator, betting the Notre Dame team total Over 54.5. I think I am the only person in the world who vividly remembers Javon McKinley dropping an open crossing route inside the 10-yard line, forcing the Irish to settle for a field goal en route to a 52-0 win.

Worst Beat