A lot of people new to sports bet Betting ask me to describe to them the basics of handicapping. One of the most common questions I get will be close to «Sportsbooks» so I have decided to write a multi-part series about sports betting, sports investing, as well as how to make sports picks like a handicapper.

Sportsbooks operate by taking wagers. Wagers create income for them in a number of ways. Firstly, most sportsbooks offer a variety of wagers on anything from sports propositions to questions about celebrities and politicians. People can wager on the outcome of games, whether the coin toss prior to the game will be heads or tails, regardless of if the 1st play will be a run (football), regardless of if the total points of 2 teams will go over a given number or under, whether democrats or republicans will win within any election year, whether a given super star couple can get divorced or stay together during a given time frame. The types of wagers proposed through the sportsbooks are numerous, and the odds vary also.

But basically any wager deemed a well liked, will have a number like — 110, -165, -300, etc. The negative means it’s the favorite, as well as the number behind it means that is how much you should bet to win $100. In sports like baseball where there is no spread, if a team is favored to win like the NY Yankees, -300 means betting on them, you must bet 300 to win 100. However, a team like the Colorado Rockies might be an underdog (a team not subject to huge quantities of demand — mostly because they are struggling) may have a line like +250. Quite simply, laying 100$ on the Rockies, pays back $250. This large payout will sway some bettors to take a $100 risk on the Rockies as a result of the large payout. The -300 Line on the Yankees will back off quite a few bettors who will not want to risk the farm to win a pea ($300 risked pays back $100). So demand evens. and the books shall continue to adjust the line until game time, making subtle moves to even demand between both outcomes. after the wagering is close to even, you will notice that

-300 bettors who lay money on the Yankees win the $100 risked by Rockies bettors. If both sides are equal, and Yankees win, the Rockies losses payoff the Yankees winners, who get back their $300 risked plus $100 profit. The sportsbook breaks even.

Now if the Rockies win, they get back their $100 risked, plus $25o since the line was (+250). The $250 will be paid for by the $300 lost by Yankee bettors, and also the sports book keeps the additional $50 which is exactly what we call juice. Juice will be the fee for betting. Sometimes the books break even. Sometimes they make the juice. $300 risked on Yankees plus $100 risked on Colorado = $400 in wagers, and $50 profit.

Divide that by 2, because sometimes the books win, and sometimes they break even. In this particular situation, given both ways the game can end, the books are averaging $25 profit per game for every $400 risked which is 1/16th or about 6% profit per game, based upon what ever volume of business they do. Taking into consideration the billions of dollars in wagers, over and over again, you can find out how taking wagers pays them a lot of money Should they can split the demand properly between 2 teams.

Most people understand this is how the books work, and this is how they make money.

Each bettor bets 110 to win 100, and should the wagers are even on both sides, the 110 lost through the losing team’s backers pays the 100 profit to the winning teams backers. $10 is left as juice to the books meaning in this scenario $220 in wagers pays $10 in juice — the books make 1/22 of all of the business volume taken should the books balance. That converts to between 4 and 5% profit guaranteed.

The sportsbooks goal is to balance their sides, make their juice, and keep customers happy and loyal, by paying ontime, and providing excellent customer support. Then the juice rolls in day after day. You may see that 4 to 8 % profits are small, but taking into consideration the huge number of business volume taken, the profits are unbelievable. A 3 hour sporting event can put thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars within the sportsbook’s bank accounts. It can put Millions of dollars in all of the of the different sportsbooks accounts across the industry, whenever you think about the multitude of sportsbooks where people are betting. Not bad for a 3 hour sporting event, and yet it goes on day after day after day.