Since time immortal, among the favorite pastimes of sport freaks has been gambling. Gambling is exciting, considering the risk involved, the luck factor as well as the chance to make a lot of cash in a couple of hours. Online gambling is now popular with millions of men and women around the world, with more visiting betting sites and online casinos popping up via the internet than ever before. One great good thing about having this facility online is simply, that it is accessible from any place which has an active internet access. This has made gambling a sport in itself, available to millions of new people.

There's been a boom within the online betting industry and also the sort of profits many sites are enjoying now is unimaginable. Online casinos are not to be left behind, as there has been a rapid explosion of these as well. In reality, online poker gives gambling, a glamour quotient by roping in celebrities for high profile tournaments. Therefore reaching out to a whole new market in itself.

But of course, the most successful story is the rise of sports betting. Fans who have enjoyed betting on games like soccer, football, polo, baseball, hockey and horse racing, can now do so online with the help of these sites. A whole new variety of sports events are cropping up to encourage the already soaring popularity of online betting. It may be correct to state that audiences are now enjoying the betting experience without having to be at the field themselves. Welcome to the world of virtual reality.

There are actually innumerable so-called gambling experts willing to dish out information of their systems to 'beat the bookie' or to make a second income from gambling, for a price of course. I will not do that. I will simply give you information regarding bookmakers, odds and gambling that you should use (or forget) when you see fit.

The very first thing to mention is that the majority of people who engage in gambling will be net losers over-time. This really is the very reason you will find so many bookmakers making so much money throughout the world.

While bookmakers can sometimes take big hits, by way of example if a favourite wins the Grand National, they spread their risk so widely and they set up markets that incorporate a margin, so they're going to always make a profit over the medium to long term, if not the short-term. That is, as long because they got their sums right.

When setting their odds for a particular event, bookmakers must first study the probability of that event occurring. To do this they us various statistical models based on data collated over years, sometime decades, about the sport and team/competitor in question. Of course, if sport was 100% predictable, it would soon lose its appeal, and while the bookies will often be spot on with their assessments of the probability of an event, they may be sometimes way off the mark, simply because a match or contest goes against conventional wisdom and statistical likelihood.

Just look-at any sport and also you will find an occasion in the event the underdog triumphs against all the odds, literally. Wimbledon beating the then mighty Liverpool within the FA Cup Final of 1988, for example, or the United States of America beating the then mighty USSR at ice hockey in the 1980 Olympics are two instances of when you might have got handsome odds on the underdog. And could have won a reliable wedge.

The big bookmakers spend a great deal of time and expense ensuring they have the right odds that ensure they look at the perceived probability of the event, and then add that extra tiny bit that gives them the profit margin. So if an event has a probability of, say, 1/3, the odds that reflect that probability would be 2/1. That is, two to one against that event occurring.

On the flip side, a bookie who set these odds would, over-time, break even (assuming their stats are correct). So instead they might set the odds at, say, 6/4. Inside this way they have integrated the margin that guarantees, over time, they're going to benefit from people betting on this selection. It really is the same concept as a casino online roulette.

So, just how can you spot the occasions when bookmakers have got it wrong? Well, it's easier said than done, but far from impossible.

One of the ways is to get excellent at mathematical modelling and set up a model which takes under consideration as many of the variables that affect the outcome of an event as possible. The problem with this tactic is the fact that however complex the model, and however all encompassing it seems, it can never account for the minutiae of variables relating to individual human states of mind. Whether a golfer manages to hole a major-winning five foot putt on the 18th at St Andrews it really is as much down to their concentration as to the weather or day of the week. On top of that, the maths can start getting pretty darn complicated.

Alternatively you may find yourself a sporting niche. Bookmakers will concentrate their resources on the events which make them the most money, generally found to be football (soccer), American football and horse racing. So trying to beat the bookies while betting on a Manchester United v Chelsea match will be tough. Unless you work for among the clubs, or are married to one of the players or managers, it is very likely the bookmaker setting the odds will have more information than you.