Fixed Odds Sports Betting: Statistical Forecasting and Risk Management

Author: Joseph Buchdahl
Publisher: High Stakes
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depend to a large extent on the aims and interests of the sports bettor. Whether he considers his sports betting to be gambling or investing will be governed by his approach to sports prediction and money management, the level of professionalism attributed to both, and even by his view of what it actually means to gamble or invest.

What Is Sports Betting?

To have a bet is to make an agreement between two parties that the one proved wrong about an undetermined outcome of a specified event will forfeit a stipulated payment, most often a sum of money, to the other. Sports betting, then, is concerned with bets or wagers agreed where the specified event central to the betting terms involves a sport, for example a football game, a tennis match, a golf tournament or an athletics race. Horse racing is perhaps the oldest and most popular form of gambling, with more money changing hands in this betting market than in any other. Increasingly, however, and particularly since the advent of Internet gambling, sports including rugby, cricket, tennis, golf, snooker, cycling, swimming, athletics, skiing, motor racing and, most popular of all, football, are gaining more attention as a medium for betting.

Sport is about settling arguments: arguments about who is the fastest, strongest, most accurate and so on. Betting is about settling arguments too, and that is why sport lends itself so easily to betting. Wherever the element of competition is present in sport, a speculation can be made on the outcome of a particular event. Furthermore, sport has become increasingly popular as entertainment in recent years, with viewers becoming progressively more knowledgeable about the teams and players they are watching. Being able to speculate on a sporting event, and confirm one's convictions about the likely outcome with a financial reward, is a natural attraction that adds to the viewing excitement.

Sports Betting: Gambling or Investing?

Gambling and investing have one primary aim in common: to make a profit. Furthermore, both gamblers and investors speculate on the chances of making a profit, by taking a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage. Perhaps the most obvious apparent difference between gambling and

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