Are There Any Bets Which The Bookies Will Not Take On?
Over the years the Bookmaking profession has acquired a reputation for taking on just about any bet you could care to think of. We have had fathers betting on their children playing for their country at a sport, bets on a hole in one in golf and gambles on the length of speeches at political gatherings, but where does it all end?
To understand how a bet can be accepted you need to learn the principles of the betting industry, i.e. there will be a market where you can find someone to place the bet, and someone to lay the bet. Whether you have one thousand people placing and laying bets, or just the one on each side, you have a market.
The beauty about the betting industry is the fact that it is constantly growing and constantly changing, with TV gambles introduced over the last few years, bets about flying to the moon and finding life on Mars. These are all strange bets which would have never been taken on thirty years ago, but due to statistical analysis and good old fashioned gut feeling, new markets are popping up all over the place!
So do the Bookmakers often take a hit on those obscure gambles?
While we often see strange bets highlighted in the newspaper, where someone has maybe bet £10 on their son to play for England at football, for each one that has been successful there are probably tens of thousands of similar bets which have flopped. Bookmakers will know the rough chances of certain events happening, which is why they can offer such large odds on some of the more obscure gambles. For each one they pay out on, they will have taken many more which came to nothing.
Gambling is an industry which is constantly evolving and if you want to place even the most obscure bet, there is every chance you will find someone to take it on if you look hard enough. Finding a winning obscure bet is a little more difficult!