If Duke won that game (which they should have) I would have won the March Madness pool at my work. It wasn't much money, but now I lost out on the bragging rights.
Oh I see. He makes a shot at the end of the game that does not change the actual outcome of the game, but does change the outcome for those who bet on the game with the point spread.
I find it pretty strange that point spread sports betting is still in such wide use because of exactly this sort of thing.
I find it pretty strange that point spread sports betting is still in such wide use because of exactly this sort of thing.
In my opinion there are two main reasons point spreads are so popular:
i) Most casual sports betters like betting the favourite but they want a sizeable return on their bet so instead of risking $500 to win a potential $100 on the Packers beating the Lions, they give up 9.5 points so that they only have to risk $110 to win that same $100. (This is stupid but who am I to complain - cause i just take Det +9.5)
ii) [Donning flame repellant suit] Americans don't understand the money line calculation and find spreads easier to compare. Heavy action on the spread is by and large an American phenomenon. In Europe/Australia sports bets are almost all money line bets with soccer being the most popular. Even in the Canadian sports lotteries, it is PROLine which uses a money line format that is more popular than the Point Spread lottery. I think one of the reasons for this is that Europeans and Canadians express money lines as decimal values. E.g. The line for the Vancouver/Calgary NHL Series is Van 1.57 Cgy 2.55 in Canada or Van -175 Cgy +255 in the US. Leafs/Senators is 1.8/2.05 in Canada or -125/+105 in the US. Now if you wanted to parlay the Leafs and Canucks, in Canada you just multiply 1.57*1.8 and get 2.83. In the US it's time to get out your algebra text book and realize that the parlay odds are calculated as follows:
Let Xi be the US moneyline odds for team i where i = 1 to n and n is the number of teams in the parlay.
Let D be the decimal odds of the parlay
Let M be the US money line odds of the parlay
If Xi > 0 then Yi = Xi/100
If Xi < 0 then Yi = 1 + ( 100/Xi )
D = Y1 * Y2 * ... * Yn
If D >= 2 then M = (D-1) * 100
If D < 2 then M = 100 / (D-1)
Therefore in the Leafs/Canucks -125 parlayed with -175 obviously equals +183
Good points, especially about sports bettors' (irrational IMO) aversion to "laying" money.
Even in the Canadian sports lotteries, it is PROLine which uses a money line format that is more popular than the Point Spread lottery
I'd agree with you that Pro-Line is proabably more popular than Point Spread. I'd bet it's because you get the chance to make a "big score" on a single ticket. I always like it when someone tells me that they just won $150 on a Pro-Line ticket, I ask them what their net profit is playing Pro-Line is in the last 3 months, and they look at me like I'm from Mars. 8)
The house edge for all the OLGC sports betting games is pretty ridiculous actually. Don't they realize that people can get on the internet (or even phone if they're low tech) and make sports bets with a much more reasonable vig?
Comments
Me neither.
I think we're going to need a little information before we can join in on the flaming.
ScottyZ
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?id=1775505
And Duke sucks by the way.
I find it pretty strange that point spread sports betting is still in such wide use because of exactly this sort of thing.
ScottyZ
In my opinion there are two main reasons point spreads are so popular:
i) Most casual sports betters like betting the favourite but they want a sizeable return on their bet so instead of risking $500 to win a potential $100 on the Packers beating the Lions, they give up 9.5 points so that they only have to risk $110 to win that same $100. (This is stupid but who am I to complain - cause i just take Det +9.5)
ii) [Donning flame repellant suit] Americans don't understand the money line calculation and find spreads easier to compare.
Let Xi be the US moneyline odds for team i where i = 1 to n and n is the number of teams in the parlay.
Let D be the decimal odds of the parlay
Let M be the US money line odds of the parlay
If Xi > 0 then Yi = Xi/100
If Xi < 0 then Yi = 1 + ( 100/Xi )
D = Y1 * Y2 * ... * Yn
If D >= 2 then M = (D-1) * 100
If D < 2 then M = 100 / (D-1)
Therefore in the Leafs/Canucks -125 parlayed with -175 obviously equals +183
I'd agree with you that Pro-Line is proabably more popular than Point Spread. I'd bet it's because you get the chance to make a "big score" on a single ticket. I always like it when someone tells me that they just won $150 on a Pro-Line ticket, I ask them what their net profit is playing Pro-Line is in the last 3 months, and they look at me like I'm from Mars. 8)
The house edge for all the OLGC sports betting games is pretty ridiculous actually. Don't they realize that people can get on the internet (or even phone if they're low tech) and make sports bets with a much more reasonable vig?
ScottyZ