Updated: Nov 8, 2019 8:00 am
The internet has the credit of almost revolutionising the concept of personal entertainment. Users now have the opportunity to watch stuff, interact with people and indulge in Phone gaming in ways that would have been impossible a few decades ago. A part of this development in the online entertainment industry is online gambling and sports betting. Popular websites like sporting pedia provide punters with an opportunity to wager small sums of money and win.
Sports betting online is another avenue where betters can harness their knowledge of the sport and the teams they love for monetary gains. People can win money by placing bets on the possible winners, the number of points or goals scored, etc. There are several websites today that provide people with the opportunity to indulge themselves and test their luck in terms of sports betting.
The efficiency of the sports betting market
Most people today believe that the sports betting market today has come a long way from what it was a few decades ago. The availability of a lot of information regarding the stats and the history of the sports, the matches, the players involved, etc. and the availability of innovative statistical and mathematical tools are helping bookmakers attain a level of efficiency that was unheard of previously. This has resulted in strategies that were considered 100% efficient previously, to become completely redundant.
How the bookmakers decide odds
When the concept of sports betting was new and especially during a time when the internet was not a thing, it was possible to predict and win by observing the trends at a popular bookmaker and see how the lines changed. But today a lot has changed on how this all plays out.
Bookmakers are either soft or sharp; soft bookmakers have low payouts and low limits while sharp bookmakers deal with high payouts and higher limits. Pinnacle or CRIS generally open betting lines by carefully considering all the available data and statistics. Within minutes the early betting lines begin with soft bookmakers being the ones to get involved at this point. As the bets start to come in, the betting lines are adjusted to ensure that the action isn’t lopsided. Once a balanced dynamic is established, the sharp bookies come into play.
This concept of betting lines getting adjusted depending on the bets means that bookmakers now have the information and the tools to take the market to near efficient levels. The way it works is through the knowledge and experience of the people betting. If any of the bookmakers put up a bad line, the professionals, arbitrage players, and market cappers will start putting in the bets to capitalize until the line is adjusted.
Thus, looking at the process, it is evident that sports betting has come a long way from “Fade the Publis System” days and betters today have to fine-tune their skills and learn new techniques to succeed in the current, near-efficient sports betting market!
