Apparently we are pleased to stake our cash on anything from bullock racing to a bullfight. The consulting firm H2 Gambling Capital released statistics recently which reveal that the typical UK adult or the US adult will lose around US$400 gambling per year. But they’re nowhere near the Australians (the most prolific bettors) that will lose more than $1,400 for every adult this coming year.

All these losses add up and popular sports betting markets like English Premier League soccer, NFL football, NBA basketball, NHL hockey, and MLB baseball turn over billions of dollars each and every year. And, as in other billion dollar industries, the competition for your custom is fierce. quality online football gambling bookmaking operations today are slick, sophisticated, and making a killing. They employ expert staff to set appropriate starting prices and use complex statistical models to manage their risk in real time.

On the contrary, all this effort from the bookmakers is nothing in comparison with the time expended by punters themselves. Consider the time you spend turning a bet over within your mind before you place it and then multiply that by the number of bets placed each day. Tens of thousands of man-hours are spent trying to predict the outcome of sports every day.

But could this effort be better utilised?

You will find only two things which determine the expected payout of a bet. The very first is the likelihood of the predicted result as well as the second is the odds accepted for that result. Improving on either one of these factors improves the expected return of the bet. Nonetheless, for all of the effort expended attempting to predict the proper result, it seems that proportionately very little effort is expended securing the best possible odds.

This is hardly logical. It is not possible to anticipate the result of a sporting event with any meaningful confidence as well as guessing at the probability of a particular result will be extremely hard. At least several of the time spent trying to predict the outcome of a sporting event will be better spent comparing the odds provided by the many bookmakers and selecting the bookmaker which offers the very best return on this particular bet. It’s quick and easy to shop around the many online sportsbooks, compare odds, and locate a better offer. You will find even plenty of services out there which will do it for you for free.

Professional gamblers often have accounts with multiple bookmakers, pay close attention to the odds offered by each, and seek out the very best odds before they place a bet. Though the average punter tends to mindlessly accept the odds provided by his usual bookmaker. This is a big oversight and also a costly missed opportunity.

Bookmakers often post noticeably different odds for the same event and it’s common to seek out mismatches of up to 10% from one bookmaker to another. This percentage is there for the taking and it mystifies me that more individuals aren’t shopping around for better odds.