Winning at sports betting involves knowing as much as possible about how the industry works. You need to be able to find the best value bets if you are to make a consistent living out of betting on sports. So with that in mind, how do bookmakers calculate the sports betting odds that they make available for their customers? Let’s take a look!
1. Prices are set to protect profits
The first thing to keep in mind when thinking about sports betting odds is the profits that bookmakers record. Like all companies across every type of industry, bookmakers have to make sure that their bottom line is protected. What this means is that sports betting odds are carefully calculated. They do this to ensure that bookmakers will always come out on top at the end of the day.
People will spot this for markets where there are only two options, with the house edge clear to see in these cases. The margin that is retained by most bookmakers is around the five percent mark. While it is in the interest of the bookmakers to offer sports betting odds that are attractive enough to catch the eye of the punters, profits are the main thing that these businesses are considering.
2. Insider knowledge key to sports betting odds.
Another thing for sports fans to consider when it comes to how odds are set is the industry knowledge that the best bookmakers in the business have. Bookmakers have insiders in all types of sports that can help them to make money. It also ensures they can prevent themselves from losing out to their customers regularly. For example, in horse racing, a bookmaker might get some inside information on an injury a horse is carrying ahead of a big race. What this means is they can use this detailed information to ensure their odds are set to protect their profits.
3. Prices move when people bet on specific markets.
Bookmakers’ odds are not fixed at the same price, of course. Markets will move depending on where sports fans are gambling the most money. Let’s stick with the example of horse racing that we mentioned above. In the days leading up to the big race, two horses are clear of the field when it comes to the sports betting odds. However, on the morning of the race itself, a flood of money comes in for one of the horses. The other does not appear to be particularly fancied by fans of the sport.
Bookmakers will respond to such a move by lowering the odds available for the horse that has seen large bets placed on them, while the price for the other horse might be increased as a result. Sports betting odds are tweaked constantly for bookmakers to protect the house edge that we mentioned above.
4. Tempting customers with special combinations and promotions.
Sometimes, bookmakers might deliberately offer sports betting odds on a specific market that seems as though they are too good to be true. The logic behind doing this is quite simple. The bookmakers will be hoping that customers place bets with them and then come back to the same site again, rather than using a rival.
Loyalty is hard to come by in the betting industry. So giving punters a reason to return is one of the critical things on the mind of the best bookmakers at all times. Special combinations and promotions may, therefore, not be as appealing as they seem to be at first glance!
