Point Spread | Sports Betting

Point shaving

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Point shaving, in organized sports, is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of match fixing, sports betting invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and one or more players of a sports team. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]