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Our
resident online sportsbooks & offshore sportsbetting
gambling expert, James Johnson, weighs in with his
articles on the status of the online gambling industry
and online sportsbooks. Be sure to check WagerOnFootball.com
every week for his next bit of amazing insight on
the world of offshore and online gambling. This
man knows gambling! This man knows his way around
a few sportsbooks too!!!!
Feb 21st
By James Johnson Correspondent
for Wager On Football
Offshore Racebooks - Online
Casino Gambling - Online Poker Rooms
The ancient Greeks, experts
in many branches of mathematics, failed to recognise
the connection between gambling and maths. Instead
they relied on Hermes the god of gambling
for luck. When a pair of dice was thrown they thought
all numbers had an equal chance. Thanks to the calculations
of Blaise Pascal in 1654, today’s craps players
know that a seven is the most likely score. Unfortunately
so too do gambling operators. They use computers
to calculate odds ensuring they give themselves
huge profits. However even with modern technology,
the gambling operators can be as clueless as the
ancient Greeks.
In 1991, British bookmakers found themselves in
the rough with the odds they offered on golf betting.
It was two industry insiders, a pair of bookmakers,
who discovered that the odds offered for a hole-in-one
were ridiculously high. They studied the statistics
for European golf tournaments and found that holes-in-one
were becoming increasingly common due to more skilful
players. They expected to get odds of around 2/1
for a hole-in-one. However, when they checked the
prices offered, they found that odds of around 20/1
and as high as 100/1 were quoted. Realising they
were on to a winner, the pair gave up work and travelled
the country placing bets. They staked around $40,000
and won over $700,000 before their coup was discovered
and the bookmakers drastically reduced the odds.
Golf is unlikely to provide punters with such a
bonanza again but it could happen with another sport.
Casino operators thought they had the advantage
on blackjack. A trio of Americans proved them wrong.
In 1956, Roger Baldwin developed the Optimum Strategy,
which, Julian Braun further adapted. By 1962, Edward
Thorp had invented the first card counting techniques.
A combination of basic strategy and card counting
gives players the edge. Although casinos knew that
their profits were in danger, instead of adjusting
the odds, they tried to make it harder for these
winning techniques to be used. They even blundered
by introducing more decks of cards. Thorpe proved
that this made card counting more profitable. Nowadays
casinos bar suspected card counters.
Special offers are often worthy of attention. When
Blackjack was first introduced to American casinos
it wasn’t a very popular game. To attract
business casinos were offering 10/1 for blackjack
made with either the jack of clubs or jack of spades.
Nowadays they pay a mere 2/1.
Horse racing also provided punters with an unexpected
bonus. Tricast bets, where punters must predict
the first, second and third past the post weren’t
particularly popular. To encourage punters to make
this bet, British bookmakers offered a 33 per cent
bonus for a correct tricast. Some shrewd gamblers
realised that this was a great opportunity to make
money. British racecourses are all different. On
some courses there can be an advantage to a low
draw and on others to a high draw. The punters used
this knowledge and made full cover bets with whatever
draw was favoured. The bonus gave them the edge
to make it worthwhile. The bookmakers retaliated
by reducing the maximum bet but punters simply spread
their bets around different shops. Still losing
heavily the bookmakers withdrew the special offer.
Having the insight to spot something that no one
else has thought of can pay dividends. Joseph Hobson
Jaggers worked in a textile mill where wooden spindles
were used to wind the wool. He noticed that the
spindles got worn. He realised that the spindles
of roulette wheels may also become worn resulting
in an imbalance of the wheel. In 1873, he took a
trip to Monte Carlo. He and six assistants recorded
the numbers spun on roulette for six days.
Analysis of the results showed that a set of nine
numbers on one of the wheels kept on winning. Jaggers
bet on this wheel and won $300,000 in four days
play. The following day he started to lose heavily.
Then he realised that a scratch, which he’d
noticed on the ‘winning wheel’, was
missing. The casino operators had switched the wheel.
He checked round the other tables and found ‘his
wheel’ back. A further gambling session won
him $450,000. The casino operators reacted by changing
the wheel’s design. A removable metal fret
was fitted to separate the numbers. At the end of
a day’s business the fret could be moved to
a different position. Jaggers decided to quit while
he was ahead and netted a profit of $325,000
equivalent to around $3 million today. Unfortunately
casinos operators now ensure that roulette wheels
are regularly serviced and balanced.
Finding these great gambling opportunities can
be like looking for a four-leafed-clover. As Blaise
Pascal showed sometimes it’s a simple case
of doing the maths. However if maths is all Greek
to you, you can still pray to Hermes for luck.
Be sure to visit MySportsbook.com
- VIPSports.com - Bodog.com - and Cybersportsbook.com
your friendly offshore sportsbetting sportsbooks
and bet a game or two. They all have brand new state
of the art Racebooks
as well for your gambling pleasure so check them
out. You'll enjoy their games that much more, and
you might just make a few bucks.
As always Check out my picks for the best offshore
sportsbetting Sportsbooks and Casinos Online.
NFL
Sportsbooks Ratings Guide
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