Anyone here into sports betting?

Looking for a resource or some general information about how odds are set.

Presumably the initial odds are set by the bookies based on form, history, results etc.. and only then are gradually manipulated as punters place their bets?

Thats correct yes, te TAB brains trust will set then manipulate the odds as money comes in if they are taking too much of a risk on a certain result. Contary to popular belief however they do NOT set it so "they cant lose". They often take a hiding/make a killing on single results. Essentially they are sports bettors themselves. They are just better at it than the majority of the field (us), mostly because they understand of the value of and aggressively seek relevant information. Where as the average punter bets for all kinds of stupid reasons

Betting exchanges work more like a stock market however as they are pitting punter against punter and the exchange takes a small percentage of the winnings. In an exchange you can back or lay, back is your standard TAB bet, whereas laying means you are betting against the result - if you back Auckland to beat Wellington and the match is drawn the layer wins because they were not beating that Wellington would win they were betting that Auckland would not win. The odds are generally always better for the backer and the layer stands to lose more money (2-1 the backer will only lose the inital stake whereas the layer will lose twice the initial stake), but with an exchange you can set your own odds as long as someone else is willing to take the bet.

In NZ you will find there will be odds setters who set initial odds and adjust for form etc and where the money is going.

In the UK it can work much the same, but in some cases the odds are adjsuted to reflect the odds on the likes of Betfair (exchange betting). A bookie at the races will base their odds on the back price on Betfair, add a margin and offer that, they then lay that against that particular horse (at a lower price) on Betfair. What this means is that they cannot lose (in theory).

If you've ever seen bookies at the horses in the UK they all have a guy just working the laptop, while someone else takes the bets from the punters, dude on the laptop is monitoring the betfair odds, adjusting their own odds and laying off their bets to minimise risk.

I've probably explained this really poorly, it's far easier to explain when in front of a computer and if you understand exchange betting.

Once you discover Betfair and know how to use it, betting till never be the same.

Sports betting is the only kind of gambling I do usually. It's the one area that I feel I know enough about to be able to make some reasoned informed decisions on where I put my money.


Thinking about whacking some cash down on Souths to win the NRL premiership. The odds are still quite good on them. $13 atm iirc..