Sport is made for betting

London papers regularly run stories of many crimes in the city being simply ignored because they are committed by foreign diplomats, often far more serious than shoplifting or a traffic infringement. So I'm surprised there hasn't been an attempt to wipe this gambling debt under similar outdated protocol... Sheikh loses Bahraini palace to bookmaker Spreadex after racking up gambling debts Bookmaker Spreadex is in line to receive a share in a Bahraini palace part-owned by royal family member Sheikh Hamad Al Khalifa after he racked up a quarter of a million pounds in gambling debts. And I thought the Arabs weren't allowed to gamble...

Like most countries, South Africa are concerned about their citizens spending their money offshore, particularly on gambling sites. It's not as if they are against gambling, after all, the horse racing industry is quite strong there, there are numerous sports and racing bookmakers and they have some massive casinos there. But of course, it's evil if the tax revenue is going abroad. I assume the licensing is meant for online casinos, this snippet from the article certainly makes it seem that way. Pointless having these restrictions for a sports or racing betting operation. South Africa: Authorities to Regulate Online Gambling Under the proposed regulations South Africans wanting to play online will have to open a nominated account with any South African bank which will be used solely for online gaming. Only credit cards can be used to make payments and the accounts will have to adhere to normal banking and Financial Intelligence Centre Act requirements. "We will work togeth...

The big three bookies in the UK have allegedly threatened to pull their support of BAGS greyhounds stadiums if they continue to sell DVDs of their race replays to punters! The bookies can't handle people actually doing form and possibly winning for a change. Absolutely outrageous, how punters and the gambling authorities can allow this to happen? Punters do have rights, and those rights include being able to study the form and win. There's no cheating involved here. What a scandal!

The latest Journal of Prediction Markets features an article looking at ' Does Sportsbook.com Set Pointspreads to Maximize Profits? Tests of the Levitt Model of Sportsbook Behavior' Looks like an interesting read but can't see myself paying $40 for the privilege. Amongst their findings: Abstract: The Levitt (2004) model of sportsbook behavior is tested using actual percentages of dollars bet on NFL games from the internet sportsbook, Sportsbook.com. Simple regression results suggest that Sportsbook.com sets pointspreads (prices) to maximize profits, as the Levitt model assumes, not to balance the betting dollars, as the traditional model of sportsbook behavior assumes. Sportsbook.com is found to accept significantly more wagering dollars on road favorites, larger favorites, and on the over for the highest totals in the over/under betting market. Bettor liquidity constraints and sportsbook betting limits may help explain this result. All sounds pretty logical to me - if ther...