What Did Oddsmaking Look Like in the “Old Days”?
Think of contemporary oddsmakers as risk management professionals, as well as expert sports predictors. In a perfect world, a sportsbook receives equal betting volume on both sides of a wager then, win or lose, they’ll make 5-10% on the juice (or ‘vig’).Īs such, it’s integral to understand that the chief function of oddsmakers isn’t to create an accurate (and probable) picture of reality-it’s to mitigate your sportsbook’s risk. Odds are engineered to attract equal action on both sides of a betting line. After all, one of the best strategies to getting an edge over your sportsbook is making a wager when you think there’s a discrepancy between the real probability of an event and the implied probability determined from a betting line. However, betting lines aren’t designed to reflect the real and accurate probability of either outcome.
