A while back there was a discussion on US Sports and Horserace betting which I posted, without going into detail, the different mentality between American and British betting. I would like to elaborate on that in the hope that someone can offer me some valueable insight, bearing in mind where I am coming from, into the US Books strategies.
First of all, spread betting is an American idea which British Books only took on relatively recently because of the increasing popularity in US Sports. British Sports betting was in contrast bad value and dull. This centred mainly around Soccer and because of the low scoring, an outright or M/L position was the only market. Added to that was the Football Assoc ruling that, because of the threat of game rigging, single bets were only allowed on certain games, the Weekly League games had a minimum 5 selections or as you say, parlay.
Even today a British Bookmakers approach to a Match bet still has its strategy in the old school thinking. The Outright or M/L is sacrosanct, from this all good or evil becomes the layer and the test of this is in the movement. Too much movement in too many games would be frowned upon and mean a sacking for the odds-maker. The same mentality has being used in the spread markets, for example, once the spread has been decided, only the price, or vig as you say can move. They have no problem in doing this as it is only looked on as an extension of the M/L market and the second rule of Bookmaking they use is, dont make a bad situation worse by complicating it.
So, We come to the reason I am posting this. If given that US Books know what they are doing and are not prone to knee-jerk reactions, why so much movement. Just Today I was tracking the Washington Basketball game which opened -5. In what seemed no time some Books had gone -5.5 and extending the vig on Washington. I went out for a couple of Hours and when I came back, the spread was heading the other way, to as low as -3.5. Since then it has steadily started back.
Its lost on me how all this is favourable for Books long term, as consistancy in markets is an essential in good Bookmaking. The only logical thing I can think is that Books have decided to treat each spread as a separate market in their own right but that would be giving away control most of the time and encouraging Arbitrage. The other scenario is one of a free for all market, not unlike the stock exchange, in which the individual books are saying, they are smarter traders than anyone else. Obviously this could be a reason for the high turnover in Sportsbooks going to the wall.
To sum up, these are only my thoughts which are most probably well off base but I would like to hear what other posters think on what I consider, Bookmaking Laws being thrown out the window. And of course, if anyone knows of a way of pre-empting these changes, please continue.:drink:
First of all, spread betting is an American idea which British Books only took on relatively recently because of the increasing popularity in US Sports. British Sports betting was in contrast bad value and dull. This centred mainly around Soccer and because of the low scoring, an outright or M/L position was the only market. Added to that was the Football Assoc ruling that, because of the threat of game rigging, single bets were only allowed on certain games, the Weekly League games had a minimum 5 selections or as you say, parlay.
Even today a British Bookmakers approach to a Match bet still has its strategy in the old school thinking. The Outright or M/L is sacrosanct, from this all good or evil becomes the layer and the test of this is in the movement. Too much movement in too many games would be frowned upon and mean a sacking for the odds-maker. The same mentality has being used in the spread markets, for example, once the spread has been decided, only the price, or vig as you say can move. They have no problem in doing this as it is only looked on as an extension of the M/L market and the second rule of Bookmaking they use is, dont make a bad situation worse by complicating it.
So, We come to the reason I am posting this. If given that US Books know what they are doing and are not prone to knee-jerk reactions, why so much movement. Just Today I was tracking the Washington Basketball game which opened -5. In what seemed no time some Books had gone -5.5 and extending the vig on Washington. I went out for a couple of Hours and when I came back, the spread was heading the other way, to as low as -3.5. Since then it has steadily started back.
Its lost on me how all this is favourable for Books long term, as consistancy in markets is an essential in good Bookmaking. The only logical thing I can think is that Books have decided to treat each spread as a separate market in their own right but that would be giving away control most of the time and encouraging Arbitrage. The other scenario is one of a free for all market, not unlike the stock exchange, in which the individual books are saying, they are smarter traders than anyone else. Obviously this could be a reason for the high turnover in Sportsbooks going to the wall.
To sum up, these are only my thoughts which are most probably well off base but I would like to hear what other posters think on what I consider, Bookmaking Laws being thrown out the window. And of course, if anyone knows of a way of pre-empting these changes, please continue.:drink:
