Odds/probability fascination...?

Question

I have been looking for a book on how an odds compiler or on - course bookie genrates the odds for a horse race. I have found two books on Amazon and neither have gotten a decent review, could anyone point me to some literature about generating odds for a horse race. And before someone points it out, I know some odds are generated by a computer.

Answer 1

try this link. if you have something better i'd be interested as well

http://www.horsebettingracingsystem.com/...

Answer 2

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Answer 3

If you are doing this without assistance from the exchanges or other bookmakers you need to be able to assess reasonably well each horse's chance of winning.  Say there are 6 runners and you put odds of 5-2, 3-1, 7-2, 9-2, 6-1 and 8-1.  Before you publish these you have to calculate the total probabilities to check if you have a good enough book. You do this by adding 1 to each price and dividing it into 1, so we get 1/3.5, 1/4, 1/4.5,1/5.5, 1/7 and 1/9 and the decimals derived from these fractions work out to be 0.285, 0.25, 0.222, 0.181, 0.142, 0.125. These total 1.20 which is 20% overround so you can bet to these figures, adjusting prices up or down according to supply and demand. The total decimals must add up to more than 1 or you will bet at a loss. Any literature will be based on these principles so understand it and save yourself reading about it.  If you want books on gambling there is - or was last time I looked - a bookshop almost opposite the entrance to the British Museum which is called High Stakes, a good title don't you think?