• Internet gambling

    Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

    With the arrival of the World Wide Web, many bookmakers have an online brand, although independently owned bookmakers often still maintain a “bricks and mortar” only operation and others operate a “skin” or “white label” operation which they purchase from one of the large firms as is the case with BetDirect and Betterbet . The [...]

  • Arbitrage using bookmakers

    Monday, June 7th, 2010

    This type of arbitrage takes advantage of different odds offered by different bookmakers. Assume the following situation: We consider an event with 2 possible outcomes (e.g. a tennis match – either Federer wins or Henman wins), the idea can be generalized to events with more outcomes, but we use this as an example. The 2 [...]

  • Legality of sports betting

    Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

    In the USA, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 makes it illegal to operate a scheme except for in a few states. In many European nations bookmaking (the profession of accepting sports wagers) is regulated but not criminalized. The NCAA has threatened to ban all playoff games in Delaware if the state [...]

  • United Kingdom gambling industry

    Thursday, May 6th, 2010

    Traditionally, bookmakers have been located at the racecourse, but improved TV coverage and modernisation of the law have allowed betting in shops and casinos in most countries. In the UK, on-track bookies still mark up the odds on boards beside the race course and use tic-tac or mobile telephones to communicate the odds between their [...]

  • Arbitrage betting in theory

    Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

    There is a number of potential arbitrage deals. Below is an explanation of some of them including formulas and risks associated with these arbitrage deals. The table below introduces a number of variables that will be used to formalise the arbitrage models. Variable Explanation s Stake in outcome 1 s Stake in outcome 2 o [...]

  • Bookmaking

    Sunday, March 21st, 2010

    The general role of the bookmaker is to act as a market maker for sports wagers, most of which have a binary outcome: a team either wins or loses. The bookmaker accepts both wagers, and maintains a spread (the vigorish) which will ensure a profit regardless of the outcome of the wager. The Federal Wire [...]

  • Legality of the bookmakers

    Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

    Bookmaking may be legal or illegal, and may be regulated; in the United Kingdom it was at times both regulated and illegal, in that licences were required but no debts arising from gambling could be enforced through the courts. Now, since the inception of the National Lottery, not only is it completely legal in the [...]

  • Exchanges and traditional bookmakers compared

    Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

    Most exchanges make their money by charging a commission which is calculated as a percentage of net winnings for each customer on each event, or market. Gamblers whose betting activities have traditionally been restricted by bookmakers (normally for winning too much money) have found these sites a boon since they are now able to place [...]

  • Operational procedures of the bookmakers

    Thursday, February 18th, 2010

    By adjusting the odds in his favor or by having a point spread, the bookmaker will aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a ‘balanced book’, either by getting an equal number of bets for each outcome, or (when he is offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds. [...]

  • Bookmakers

    Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

    Bookmakers on a greyhound race course, Reading, UK A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds. Range of events Most bookmakers in the United States bet merely on college and professional sports, though in the United Kingdom and Ireland they offer [...]

  • Betting strategy

    Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

    A betting strategy or betting system is a structured approach to gambling intended to counter the inherent bias held by the house in casino and card games and by bookmakers in horseracing and sports betting. A successful strategy should increase the odds of winning in order to produce long term profits from a pursuit which [...]