One of the favored bets by those of us who treat sports betting as if it were stock trading, is the futures bet. While as a standalone bet a sports futures wager is generally a sucker bet with the books generally targeting a comparably high hold (win) percentage on that pool of wagers, for the investment minded folk they are a beautiful bet-hedging tool.
From the sportsbook’s perspective the ideal sports futures wagers would look more like a pari-mutuel horse betting pool, where the tracks take the total betting pool, subtract out their profit percentage from the total betting pool, then pay out the winning bets based on the ratio of bets made on the winner to the remaining money left in the pool.
However, unless you are betting pari-mutuel sports, when you make your sports bet you are getting the odds offered at the time of the bet, which requires the sportsbook to constantly examine their pool exposure and make decisions about moving odds to attract wagers to other parts of the pool to try and balance their risk.
As most everyone should know by now, the Vegas Golden Knights were at one point 500 to 1 to win the Stanley Cup…
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Gaming Today’s The Analyst is an experienced gaming industry executive who offers insight each week on events and issues affecting the industry. The Analyst’s opinions are his own and may not reflect those of Sports Handle.
