March Madness tips from Dr. Bob

Need picks for the office pool? Customers pay as much as $2,495 a year for the sports statistician's insights.

Ian Mount

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- "Dr. Bob" Stoll is a bookmaker's nightmare. So many customers subscribe to his website, DrBobSports.com - where they can access the 41-year-old sports statistician's insights for anywhere from $15 for a day to $2,495 for a year - that casinos have often had to recalibrate their point spreads after he posts new picks.

Seeking an advantage in our office pool, FSB asked Stoll for some March Madness advice. Stoll recommends looking at the overall tournament as a combination of likelihoods.

For instance, maybe you think the No. 6 seed has a 70% chance of getting out of the first round, while the No. 3 seed is 95% likely to beat its first-round challenger. In forecasting a second-round matchup, even if you think the No. 6 has a 55% chance of beating the No. 3 seed, you should still pick the No. 3, because when you multiply the two rounds together, the No. 3 has a higher percentage chance of making it into the third round.

Stoll's personal March Madness pool experience suggests he's onto something.

"If I don't win, it looks bad. But the good thing is, I usually get part of the pot, usually in the top five," says Stoll.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.