Online betting websites are actually glorifying bookies. The only difference is that they hire some people to set the odds of a game. But the question is how do they work and how do they earn money in the whole betting venture.

How does it work?

Consider a coin toss, say X and Y are tossing coins and they are each betting $100 on it, X wins if its head and Y wins if its tails. The mathematical probability is 50% of heads and 50% of tails, so the odds offered by the bookie should be 1:1. So, if X wins he gets $200 and Y gets nothing and vice versa.

But from a bookie, this makes no sense as he or she doesn’t make any money at all. So, in order to make money, the bookmaker will offer odds of 1:2, so the pot is of $200, but if X wins, he gets $50 as profit, so total $150, Y gets nothing, and the leftover $50 goes to the bookie as profit. So, the people making bets are getting a lower payout than they would if the mathematical probabilities were followed.

What if the betting or gambling is much more complicated?

It might seem that the bookie is taking too much money without doing anything, but the truth is they do take risks. In the coin toss scenario, the bookie isn’t taking any risk as the books are perfectly balanced, but in real life, sports betting or gambling such as Judi online scenarios there is much different, with a lot of risks involved as there are many variables to factor in while calculating odds.

For example, if team A is playing team B and team B is the clear favorite, then most people might bet on team B, this means the bookie will have to assume the risk for team A., And if the bettors win, the bookie will pay them out of his or her pocket. So, in such a scenario, the bookie might tweak the odds so that more people bet in favor of team A and the book balance out so he or she can make a profit.