Sunday, October 01, 2006

Sporting Exchange

I have been researching the methods behind which "Bookies" make their money. They set their odds so that whatever outcome happens they make a profit. Take a soccer match just as an example: You have 3 outcomes. Win, Loose or Draw, with odds of 1.5, 2 and 3 accordingly. If you bet on all 3 odds you will loose 75% of your money. I will tell you how I worked that out in a second. So the bookie happily takes in the money knowing that he will make a profit out of the odds he has given. So what happens if You become the bookie?...

There are various sites out there that work on a betting exchange method. So basically you have the choice of setting the bets or betting on them. The most famous is BetFair.com, famous for winning over PayPal as a Payment and withdrawal service. PayPal is very cautious when it comes to programs that are have a lot of money tied within the network so this is quite an achievement. But anyway, this got me thinking. Its fine to play bookie on these sites and set your odds. But in a way it was just as risky as the betting itself.

I needed to be able to work out how I could set all the odds so that whatever the outcome is I make a profit. This got me in to days of trying to work out the formulas needed to make the method flawless and riskfree. To which I have acheived. Once I add the finishing touches I will make it available to the public. If you are interested or want more info feel free to contact me.

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