Since time immortal, one of the favorite pastimes of sport freaks has been gambling. Gambling is exciting, taking into consideration the risk involved, the luck factor and the chance to make lots of money in a few of hours. Online gambling is becoming popular with millions of people around the world, with more visiting betting sites and online casinos popping up via the internet than before. One great benefit from having this facility online is simply, which 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 has been a boom within the online betting industry and the sort of profits many sites are enjoying now is unimaginable. Online casinos are not to be left behind, as there has been a rapid explosion of these as well. In fact, online poker gives gambling, a glamour quotient by roping in celebrities for high profile tournaments. It indicates reaching out to a whole new market in itself.

But simply, the most successful story will be 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 aid of these sites. A whole new number of sporting events are cropping up to encourage the already soaring popularity of online betting. It may be correct to say that audiences are now enjoying the betting experience without being at the field themselves. Welcome to the world of virtual reality.

There are actually innumerable so-called gambling experts prepared 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 for you to use (or forget) while you see fit.

The first thing to mention is the fact that the majority of people who engage in gambling will be net losers over time. This really is the very reason you can find so many bookmakers making so much money through 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 study the probability of that event occurring. To do this they us various statistical models determined by data collated over years, sometime decades, about the sport and team/competitor in question. As always, if sport was 100% predictable, it would soon lose its appeal, and while the bookies tend to be spot on with their assessments of the probability of an event, they may be sometimes way off the mark, simply because a match or contest goes against conventional wisdom and statistical likelihood.

Just look at any sport and also you shall find an occasion in the event the underdog triumphs against all the odds, literally. Wimbledon beating the then mighty Liverpool within the FA Cup Final of 1988, by way of example, or perhaps the USA beating the then mighty USSR at ice hockey within the 1980 Olympics are two examples of when you might have got handsome odds on the underdog. And could have won a good wedge.

The big bookmakers spend a lot of time and money ensuring they have the right odds that ensure they take under consideration the perceived probability of the event, and after that add that extra little 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.

In contrast, 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 will benefit from people betting on this selection. It’s 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 way is to get very good at mathematical modelling and setup a model that takes into account as many of the variables that affect the outcome of an event as it can be. 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’s 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 produce them the most money, generally found to be excellent 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 among the clubs, or are married to among the players or managers, it really is very likely the bookmaker setting the odds shall have further information than you.