A great deal of individuals new to Sports Betting ask me to describe to them the basic principles of handicapping. One of the most common questions I get will be close to “Sportsbooks” so I have decided to write a multi-part series about sports betting, casino online sports investing, and how to make sports picks like a handicapper.

Sportsbooks operate by taking wagers. Wagers create income for them in a range of ways. Firstly, most sportsbooks offer a variety of wagers on everything from sports propositions to questions about celebrities and politicians. People can wager on the outcome of games, whether or not the coin toss before the game will be heads or tails, whether or not the 1st play will be a run (football), whether the total points of 2 teams shall go over a given number or under, whether democrats or republicans will win in almost any election year, whether a given celebrity couple will get divorced or stay together during a given time period. The kinds of wagers proposed by the sportsbooks are numerous, as well as the odds vary as well.

But basically any wager deemed a popular, shall have a number like – 110, -165, -300, etc. The negative means it is the favorite, and the number behind it implies that is the amount you have to bet to win $100. In sports like baseball where there’s absolutely no spread, if a team is favored to win like the NY Yankees, -300 means betting on them, you must bet 300 to win 100. Conversely, a team like the Colorado Rockies may be an underdog (a team not subject to huge quantities of demand – mostly since they are struggling) may have a line like +250. Essentially, laying 100$ on the Rockies, pays back $250. This large payout will sway some bettors to take a $100 risk on the Rockies as a result of the large payout. The -300 Line on the Yankees will back off quite a couple of bettors which will not want to risk the farm to win a pea ($300 risked pays back $100). So demand evens. as well as the books continues to adjust the line until game time, making subtle moves to even demand between both outcomes. once the wagering is close to even, you will notice that

-300 bettors who lay cash on the Yankees win the $100 risked by Rockies bettors. If both sides are equal, and Yankees win, the Rockies losses payoff the Yankees winners, who get back their $300 risked plus $100 profit. The sportsbook breaks even.

Now in the event the Rockies win, they get back their $100 risked, plus $25o since the line was (+250). The $250 is paid for by the $300 lost by Yankee bettors, and the sports book keeps the other $50 which is what we call juice. Juice is the fee for betting. Sometimes the books break even. Sometimes they make the juice. $300 risked on Yankees plus $100 risked on Colorado = $400 in wagers, and $50 profit.

Divide that by 2, because sometimes the books win, and sometimes they break even. In this particular situation, given both ways the game can end, the books are averaging $25 profit per game for every $400 risked which is 1/16th or about 6% profit per game, according to what ever volume of business they do. Thinking about the billions of dollars in wagers, over and over again, you can find out how taking wagers pays them a lot of money Should they can split the demand properly between 2 teams.

Most people understand this really is how the books work, which is how they make money.

Each bettor bets 110 to win 100, and should the wagers are even on both sides, the 110 lost by the losing team’s backers pays the 100 profit to the winning teams backers. $10 is left as juice to the books meaning in this particular scenario $220 in wagers pays $10 in juice – the books make 1/22 of all of the business volume taken in the event the books balance. That converts to between 4 and 5 percent profit guaranteed.

The sportsbooks goal is to balance their sides, make their juice, and keep customers happy and loyal, by paying ontime, and providing excellent customer service. Then the juice rolls in day after day. You can see that 4 to eight % profits are small, but considering the huge number of business volume taken, the profits are unbelievable. A 3 hour sporting event can put thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars within the sportsbook’s bank accounts. It can put Millions of dollars in most of the different sportsbooks accounts across the industry, whenever you think about the multitude of sportsbooks where people are betting. Not bad for a three hour sporting event, and yet it goes on day after day after day.