Bookmakers | Sports Betting

Odds

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

In probability theory and statistics the odds in favor of an event or a proposition are the quantity p / (1 − p), where p is the probability of the event or proposition. The logarithm of the odds is the logit of the probability.Odds have long been the standard way of representing probability used by [...]
Arbitrage betting

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

Betting arbitrage is a particular case of arbitrage arising on betting markets due to either bookmakers’ different opinions on event outcomes or plain errors. By placing one bet per each outcome with different betting companies, the bettor can make a profit.In the bettors’ slang an arbitrage is often referred to as an arb. A typical [...]
Vigorish

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Vigorish, or simply “vig“, or “juice“, is the amount charged by a bookmaker for his services. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for “winnings,” vyigrysh. The concept is also known as the overround.Bookmakers use this concept to make money on their wagers regardless of the outcome. Because of the vigorish concept, [...]
Tic-tac

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Tic-tac (also tick-tack and non-hyphenated variants) is a traditional method of sign language used by bookmakers to communicate the odds of certain horses. It is still used in on-course betting in the UK. A tic-tac man will usually wear bright white gloves to allow their hand movements to be easily seen.A few simple examples of [...]
Bookmaking

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Most people believe that bookmakers attempt to “balance” their action, by adjusting their prices so that they get the same amount of money on both sides of a game. Theoretically, the bookmaker’s only financial interest in the bets it accepts is the vigorish it takes from losing wagers, and it simply wants to ensure that [...]
Fixed-odds gambling: types of odds offered

Friday, January 16th, 2009

There are three widely-used means of quoting odds: Fractional odds Favoured by bookmakers in the United Kingdom, fractional odds quote the net total that will be paid out to the bettor, should he win, relative to his stake. Odds of 4/1 (read “four-to-one” or “four-to-one against“) would imply that the bettor stands to make a [...]
SP bookmaking

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Starting price or SP bookmaking literally refers to taking bets at fixed odds, i.e. a fixed starting price, as opposed to the totalisator model of betting. This form of gambling was only legal in Australia for bookmakers operating on the course or racetrack, and so a large telephone based SP bookmaking industry started, leading to [...]
Types of bets

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Aside from simple wagers–betting a friend that one’s favorite baseball team will win its division, for instance, or buying a football “square” for the Super Bowl–sports betting is commonly done through a bookmaker. Legal sports bookmakers exist throughout the world (perhaps most notably in Las Vegas). In areas where sports betting is illegal, bettors usually [...]
Parimutuel betting

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Parimutuel betting (from the French language: pari mutuel, mutual betting) is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and a house take are removed, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all placed bets.The parimutuel system is used in gambling on [...]
Fixed-odds gambling

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Fixed-odds gambling is a form of gambling against odds offered by a bookmaker, an individual, or on a bet exchange. Calculating fixed odds It is customary with fixed-odds gambling to know the expected odds at the time of the placement of the wager (the “live price”), however this category also accommodates wagers whose price is [...]
Bookmakers

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

A bookmaker, bookie or turf accountant, is an organisation or a person that takes bets and may pay winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds. Bookmaking may be legal or illegal, and may be regulated; in the United Kingdom it was at times both regulated and illegal, in [...]
Betting exchanges

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

A betting exchange is a p2p gambling website acting as a broker between parties for the placement of bets. The concept is similar to that of a stock exchange or a futures exchange, where in this case the commodity being traded is a bet, rather than a stock or futures contract. Most betting on a [...]
Sports betting

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Sports betting is the general activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. Perhaps more so than other forms of gambling, the legality and general acceptance of sports betting varies from nation to nation. In North America, for example, sports gambling is generally forbidden, while in many [...]