Apparently we’re pleased to stake our money on anything from bullock racing to a bullfight. The consulting firm H2 Gambling Capital released statistics recently which reveal that the standard UK adult or perhaps the US adult will lose around US$400 gambling on a yearly basis. But they are nowhere near the Australians (the most prolific bettors) who will lose more than $1,400 for every adult this year.

All these losses add up and popular sports betting markets like English Premier League soccer, NFL football, NBA basketball, NHL hockey, and MLB baseball turn over billions of dollars annually. And, as in other billion dollar industries, the competition for your custom is fierce. gamble online bookmaking operations today are slick, sophisticated, and making a killing. They employ expert staff to set appropriate starting prices and use complex statistical models to manage their risk in real time.

Alternatively, all this effort from the bookmakers is nothing in comparison with the time expended by punters themselves. Consider the time you spend turning a bet over in your mind before you place it and after that multiply that by the range of bets placed each day. Tens of thousands of man-hours are spent trying to predict the outcome of sports events every day.

But could this effort be better utilised?

There are only two things which determine the expected payout of a bet. The very first will be the probability of the predicted result as well as the second will be the odds accepted for that result. Improving on either one of these factors improves the expected return of the bet. Still, for all of the effort expended attempting to predict the proper result, it seems that proportionately very little effort is expended securing the most effective possible odds.

This really is hardly logical. It really is not possible to anticipate the result of a sporting event with any meaningful confidence as well as guessing at the likelihood of a particular result is incredibly hard. At least some of the time spent trying to predict the outcome of a sporting event could be better spent comparing the odds provided by the many bookmakers and selecting the bookmaker which offers the most effective return on this type of bet. It’s quick and easy to shop around the many online sportsbooks, compare odds, and find a better offer. You will discover even a lot of services available that can do it for you for free.

Professional gamblers often have accounts with multiple bookmakers, pay close focus on the odds offered by each, and seek out the best odds before they place a bet. But the average punter tends to mindlessly accept the odds offered by his usual bookmaker. This is a sizable oversight and a costly missed opportunity.

Bookmakers often post noticeably different odds for the same event and it is common to seek out mismatches of up to 10% from one bookmaker to another. This percentage is there for the taking and it mystifies me that more people aren’t shopping around for better odds.