How the bookies allways make profit?

Question

I would like to know how it works. When the bookies publishes odds until they close the market...how they managed the odd to come out near allways with a profit whatever will be the results of the game.
It would be great if you could explain in details how they manage to do that.

Answer 1

when a bookmaker prices an event they price it to what we call the 115% market (110% on the internet because they have fewer overheads). this means that no matter who wins they will pay out 100% and keep the 15%.

for instance in a world cup final (outright betting is used for the example) there are to possable outcomes, home win and away win. if they were evenly matched the prices should be even money on each team (1/1). but they wont be, they'll be priced at 5/6 each.

5/6 is given on the condition that both teams are perfectly matched, that way the bookmaker will take half there bets on home team and half on the away team, they'll pay out at 5/6 on half there bets so for every £100 that is staked on each team they'll pay out £183.33 giving them £16.67 profit, roughly 15%.

of course, no world cup finals are totaly evenly matched which is why you get the variation in pricing, ie:

11/8 home team and 2/1 the away team, roughly speaking.

this pricing shown above takes into acount the home teams advantage against the away team, say england vs USA, england or more likely to win. Obviously, england have a higher chance of wining against USA than the other way around (no offence intended for our foreign cousins), because they have a higher chance of winning they will take more money on england, hence the lower odds, USA are effectivly the long shot of the two teams, hence the larger price.

If however the bookmaker takes a huge amount of cash on USA the will adjust the priceing, say 11/10 england and 6/4 USA. this will correct the original price error and will encorage people to bet on the home team (england), therefore correcting the "book". this is an extreme scinario however, because normaly the bookmaker will restrict betting on the outsider when they get a large influx of, what is really unusual betting.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

If there were 10 runners in a race, the bookies would give you odds of 8/1 each, and if you bet £1 on each, you would only collect £9 losing £1 in the process. The bookies would collect £10 before payout, thus making a profit of £1 or 10%. It is not so simple in practice, but works on the same principle. The odds you get are also affected by the size of the bets placed, hence the term 'weighing up the odds.'

Answer 3

they work out the odds , man, and then make sure they are not too generous with the odds they offer.
Say for example there are two horses in a race one is the favourite at 11/10 on and the other horse is 11/8 against , the bookie will change the odds he offers depending the amount of money being bet on one horse. He will not always win against the punter, sometimes he will take a hit. When favourites win the bookie can lose money on a race. When an outsider wins (long odds) the bookie always wins.

Answer 4

The odds are set based on how likely the outcomes are, based often on past experience versus odds in gambling which are mathematical. Betting on 1:10 odds means the assumption is that there's about a 10% chance. If you bet 1 doller and win you get 10. Since there are normally a number of possibilities, such as who wins, who places, etc with multiple options the majority of people betting will not make money, or make a rather small amount. The math is pretty close to the same of you buying a lotto ticket, you might make money, but normally if you do it will be just enough to get another ticket. So the short answer would be they don't do anything, it's the basic math behind gambling and the habits of gamblers that say there will normally be more money bet than won.

Answer 5

It depends on what type of gambling you are referring to. If, for example you are talking about horse racing, then the track has a "tax" that is automatically taken before the race is even run. So, if there are 8 horses in the race, and there was a total of $100K bet on the race, the race track automatically takes any where from 10-25% of the "pool". So they get their's before the winners do. If you are talking about sports, their is a 10% vig (vigorish) or juice. The bookies/casinos/sports books don't care who wins (typically), whether team a or team b wins, they still get their 10%.

Answer 6

I am not but am considering going on it so I won't have to work. I have anxiety and have not taken up laziness and prescription drug abuse (maybe drinking) because of my work schedule. Welfare and disability will allow me to stay home all day and do nothing. My goal in life is to live off the government for school was too stressful and I don't want to be married so I have no family obligations. All I have to do is describe what happened to me between the ages of 8 and 14 with school and my parents' divorce and I can life off disability and welfare. By no means am I playing down mental health disabilities as they are very real. But, I am noting this because it is what I must use for disability as I do have anxiety and some PTSD from my parents' divorce and school. I learned in the 2000 presidential election from the father of my mother's boyfriend (the man was staunch conservative) that the government will pay lazy people to sit on their buttoms (he used the word that starts with an A and ends with S with another S in the middle). I am so greatful he taught me that for I didn't know it. He also taught me in one of his rants that since I lean Democrat I don't have to waste time soluting the flag or carrying about national security as all I need is that government check. He is still alive (though the boyfriend was arrested in a corporation scandal and I haven't seen him since) so the older man can pay for me to sit around all day. I am so greatful for that man (now aged 86) who pays taxes so the government can take care of me. While his son may be a crook, he works hard and is honest so I can get money from him even though I no longer know him because his taxes come to me.

Answer 7

First of all, the juice. Bet 10 to win 9. Second of all, the line adjusts as bets are placed. Team X starts out getting bet heavily at favored by 7, soon they will be favored by 8. But the odds makers are good, and they are all the same or almost the same as each other.

Answer 8

Of the odds, only a small proportion win so all other bets are banked. Only if a outsider comes in (providing it is backed by many punters when original odds are low) will they see a serious dent in their profits.

Answer 9

they dont' always make a profit, but clearly they generally do

I mean, I don't see how it's hard to work out how .... there's only one winner, and maybe 8 horses in a race, different people are betting on all of them, and they only have to pay up on one

even if it's the favourite the odds will be priced accordingly due to supply and demand.

Answer 10

vigorish (THE VIG) it cost 110 dollars to bet that the Yankees will beat the red sox it cost 110 dollars the red sox will beat the yankees..the winner recieves $210.00 the loser loses $110... the bookie gets ten dollars.