Visiting an online casino - Sports Articles | Betting Articles | Sports Betting Information | Gambling Articles | Sports Betting Articles

• • Patriots release WR Underwood
• • Detroit QB Stafford named Comeback Player of the Year
• • Ravens center Matt Birk named Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year
• • Miller, Newton garner rookie awards
• • Baltimore LB Suggs honored as top defensive player

• Articles Home |
• Articles 2 |

Sports betting from the bookmaker's perspective

Understanding how the sports betting industry works from the bookmakers' perspective is not just useless trivia for players. Sports betting is a two player game, and if you choose to ignore the bookmaker, the party which possesses the edge in the equation, you're not going to break the bank for sure.

The one thing that can turn your wager into a positive EV one, the hidden value, comes directly from the bookmaker, or better said, from the lines that the bookie moves around.

In an ideal world, the bookmaker's task is extremely simple. All he needs to do is to balance each and every single match-up perfectly and at the end of it all he can collect the vig (vigorish) without any kind of risks whatsoever. As you probably know though, in the real world, things are as far from ideal as can be. There are a thousand little, intricate subtleties about everything, and the effects of these pile up, sometimes making things look downright impossible.

The same goes for sports betting. While on paper, balancing a matchup is such an easy feat, in reality, it's so difficult it's almost beyond a layman's comprehension.

The theory goes that the bookie balances his match-ups by moving his lines around. If he gets too many bettors on one side of the proposition, he moves the line to make the other side look more attractive, and presto: the balance is restored. This is the theory. In practice though, the bookmaker can't just swing his lines around as the balancing of the bet requires it. He runs the risk of getting middled. Suppose he has a line set and then he moves it too much in one direction. The match falls between the two lines and he ends up having to pay both sides. A push is not exactly smooth sailing for the bookie either, as running the operation means certain costs and in the case of a push he ends up dropping all that money.

As you can see, the vig has little to do with the poker rake. The poker rake is a sure-shot affair: the poker room can't possibly lose on it. That's why some poker rooms can afford to give their customers rakeback (for example the Entraction rakeback or the Full ilt rakeback). You will not see a bookie offering "vigback" though because, unlike a poker room, the bookmaker can end up in the red at the end of a weekend for instance.This is the reason why the bookmaker will sometimes decide to go up against the mass of squares by covering their bets from its own pockets. In such cases, the bookie is just as interested in the outcome of the games as the bettor is.

As you can see, bookmaking is by no means a risk free activity. In addition to the perils presented above, the bookie can shoot itself in the foot in other ways too. It's not had to imagine a scenario where the bookmaker spends all day carefully balancing match-ups and at the end of it all, one lop-sided game blows the whole thing up in his face. The second the bookie steps into the arena to go up against the bettors, what he does or doesn't do, becomes extremely interesting for the bettors.

The bookie can induce hidden value into the games by moving his line (within reasonable limits of course to avoid getting sided or middled) and as soon as the hidden value rears its head, sports betting ceases to be a negative long term expected value setup for the savvy bettor.

---

Related Sites

Sports betting bonus All the Sportsbook Bonus Codes ensure maximum sports betting bonus at the most respected sports books of the world.

Top Bookmakers Online Bookmaker Reviews - Find the Best Betting Sites on The Daily Punt