Since time immortal, among the favorite pastimes of sport freaks has been gambling. Gambling is exciting, taking into consideration the risk involved, the luck factor and also the chance to make lots of money in a couple of hours. Online gambling has become popular with millions of people throughout the world, with more visiting betting sites and online sports gambling casinos popping up on the web than ever before. One great good thing about having this facility online is bear in mind, that it is accessible from any place which has an active internet access. This has made gambling a sport in itself, available to millions of new people.

There’s been a boom in the online betting industry and the kind of profits many sites are enjoying now is unimaginable. Online casinos are not to be left behind, as there’s been a rapid explosion of these also. In reality, online poker gives gambling, a glamour quotient by roping in celebrities for high profile tournaments. This implies reaching out to a whole new market in itself.

But of course, the most successful story is the rise of sports betting. Fans who have enjoyed betting on games like soccer, football, polo, baseball, hockey and horse racing, can now do so online with the help of these sites. A whole new number of sports events are cropping up to encourage the already soaring popularity of online betting. It may be correct to claim that audiences are now enjoying the betting experience without being at the field themselves. Welcome to the world of virtual reality.

There are innumerable so-called gambling experts ready to dish out information of their systems to ‘beat the bookie’ or to make a second income from gambling, for a price of course. I won’t do that. I will simply give you information regarding bookmakers, odds and gambling that you can use (or forget) as you see fit.

The first thing to mention is that a large proportion of men and women who engage in gambling will be net losers over-time. This really is the very reason there are actually so many bookmakers making so much money throughout the world.

While bookmakers can sometimes take big hits, as an example if a favourite wins the Grand National, they spread their risk so widely and they set up markets that incorporate a margin, so they are going to always make money over the medium to long term, if not the short-term. That is, as long since they got their sums right.

When setting their odds for a particular event, bookmakers must first evaluate the probability of that event occurring. To do this they us various statistical models according to data collated over years, sometime decades, about the sport and team/competitor in question. Simply, if sport was 100% predictable, it could soon lose its appeal, and while the bookies are often spot on with their assessments of the probability of an event, they can be sometimes way off the mark, mainly because a match or contest goes against conventional wisdom and statistical likelihood.

Just look at any sport and also you will find an occasion in the event the underdog triumphs against all of the odds, literally. Wimbledon beating the then mighty Liverpool within the FA Cup Final of 1988, by way of example, or even the United States of America beating the then mighty USSR at ice hockey within the 1980 Olympics are two illustrations of whenever you would have got handsome odds on the underdog. And could have won a quality wedge.

The big bookmakers spend a whole lot of time and expense ensuring they possess the right odds that ensure they take note of the perceived probability of the event, and after that add that extra tiny bit that gives them the profit margin. So if an event has a probability of, say, 1/3, the odds that reflect that probability will be 2/1. Which is, two to one against that event occurring.

Alternatively, a bookie who set these odds would, over time, break even (assuming their stats are correct). So instead they would set the odds at, say, 6/4. Within this way they have integrated the margin that ensures, over-time, they’re going to benefit from people betting on this selection. It is the exact same concept as a casino roulette.

So how can you spot the occasions when bookmakers have got it wrong? Well, it’s easier said than done, but far from impossible.

One of the ways is to get very good at mathematical modelling and set up a model that takes into mind as many of the variables that affect the outcome of an event as is possible. The problem with this tactic is the fact that however complex the model, and however all encompassing it seems, it can never account for the minutiae of variables relating to individual human states of mind. Whether a golfer manages to hole a major-winning five foot putt on the 18th at St Andrews it is as much down to their concentration as to the weather or day of the week. Additionally, the maths can start getting pretty darn complicated.

Alternatively you can find yourself a sporting niche. Bookmakers will concentrate their resources on the events that make them the most money, generally found to be football (soccer), American football and horse racing. So trying to beat the bookies while betting on a Manchester United v Chelsea match will be tough. Unless you work for one of the clubs, or are married to one of the players or managers, it’s very likely the bookmaker setting the odds will have additional information than you.