Sports Handicapping - A Numbers Game
The sports betting industry produces billions in revenue each year. The fascinating machine behind the industry however, is the statistician, also called the bookmaker.
The bookmaker makes the odds, on which the bettors bet. It sounds simple, but consider a fraction of the factors that could go into making the odds for a MLB game:
- The ballpark where the teams are playing.
- Home advantage
- weather
- Starting pitchers
- Winning streaks
- Matchups
- Career ERA vs. a team
- Rivalry
- etc
It’s a numbers dream. To get a better idea, you can look at what a free mlb pick looks like from a professional handicapper on the Pregame.com website.