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Just How Efficient Are Sports Betting Markets? 

The general theory is that, with any sports betting markets, the more participants there are, the more efficient the markets should become. This also applies to the sports betting markets. If you want to be profitable and win the best sports betting jackpots, then it’s very important to understand the pros and cons of the different sports you will be targeting. It’s immaterial how popular sport is, or how obscure, or even what conditions might make it easier to win. What’s important is to understand the efficiency of the betting market you’re playing within.

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The Obscure Betting Markets Are Inefficient

First off, let’s have a look at some obscure markets. These tend to attract a limited number of players. And as a result, there’s not enough information about the sport available. One thing that can be said about these obscure markets is that they are “clean.” Essentially this means there’s not a lot of gossip and rumours and media bias swirling around the sport. You tend to find that the media sources that are reporting on these obscure markets tend to be more knowledgeable and truthful, and less prone to opinion.

In all sports betting markets, the bookmaker will speculate on an obscure sporting event and decide how much risk he’s willing to take before he sets the lines. A lot of sports bettors tend to take a long view over the situation. In reality, this means there’s very little money on offer for betters to place their stakes. One thing to be aware of is that the more obscure the market, then the more limited the set of opinions on it are going to be. In other words, there isn’t much going on that’s shaping the money odds or driving them in a particular direction.

No Easy Value In Obscure Sports

This means that the betting prices are probably not going to reflect the true probability of the event. As such, this is a sign of an inefficient marketplace If you look carefully at an official marketplace, you can find some positivity. For example, if the odds are too good to be true, or conversely if the odds are not as good as they ought to be. But remember that you’re highly unlikely to find easy value in any niche sports betting markets. Even though you know you will face less competition for the odds. Especially if you compare them to a popular event where the betting money is continuously flowing to and fro.

The Popular Betting Markets Are Efficient

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Let’s have a look at some highly popular sports markets. For example, anyone looking to score a football jackpot with a big fixture like the La Liga Real Madrid – Barcelona and the game called “El Clasico.” There are a million and one different reasons that can move the odds in one direction or another in this marketplace. The bookmakers have to adjust their odds depending on the demand. This is to cover their own exposure. Meaning they can lower the odds on a selection or raise them to cover themselves. In this market, any inaccurate odds will gradually average out thanks to the sheer number of bets taking place.

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The Number Of Opinions Matters

Thanks to the constant fluctuation of having thousands of bookmakers, traders and bettors, the odds are more likely to take an overall/average view of the whole event. Of course, if the odds were to represent exceptional value then they would be snapped up instantly. Likewise, bad odds mean that no one is going to pick them up. So it could be said that the betting markets with both the bookies and the exchanges, due to the size of the sporting event, will naturally gravitate towards being more efficient. It could also be said that this sheer number of diverse opinions will push the odds to be the most accurate. In the financial world, this is called “price discovery.” And in sociology circles, it’s known as “the wisdom of crowds.”

So if you’re betting on a popular market, then you’ll find that there’s enough in-putting flow for larger stakes to be accepted. This makes efficient betting markets incredibly hard to beat.  Things like news, data, and market behaviour are already available for betters to make a choice on. This leads to fierce competition for value. And in turn, this leads to greater efficiency. You can find great value bets at 22Bet Sportsbook. They cover every sport under the sun. And offer all new players a great welcome bonus of 122% up to €100!

Beat The Betting Markets

There are several jackpot winning tips and tricks to be able to beat a sportsbook in a betting market whether it’s obscure or popular. In no particular order these are:

  • Be smarter than the market.
  • Be faster at reacting to changes.

To outsmart the market means that you hold some kind of specialist knowledge by implication. Something that gives you an advantage in detecting value. But being quicker than others can by simply having the right technology to detect slow-moving prices. In effect, you don’t need any specialist knowledge of the sport. The online sports betting site, 22Bet Sportbook has a ton of relevant information and knowledge to help you make better and more informed betting choices. And for football, they even run their own Toto jackpot.

Be An Early Bird

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On the whole, it’s a good approach to try to find value before the betting markets are fully formed. In fact, you’ll find this is most often the case in horse racing. Horse racing tipsters who make their money by selling betting tips to the public operate by making picks in a low liquidity situation.

Look For Slow Moving Prices

There’s one very big problem when you’re trying to beat any betting exchanges. It’s that the odds are constantly changing as new information comes to light. You can see how efficient the markets are when you realise that less than 1% of all traders actually make a profit. That means everyone else loses their sports betting bankroll. So one of your basic jackpot winning strategies should be to look out for slow-moving odds on any of the sports betting exchanges you’re playing.

You may well find that some bookies are slow to align their odds. With the prices available on bigger betting exchanges or large bookies being quite different. These types of cards are known as “soft cards.”  Thanks to the price inefficiencies offered by these soft bookmakers, you can find value within. Many punters are quick to snap up these odds as soon as they see them. Once again, successful betters tend to operate using the system. So if you’re new to sports betting, then this is a great place to start.

Design Your Own Pricing Model

When you want to take on the betting markets successfully, then you must ask yourself some simple questions: is my sample size large enough for the conclusion I’m making? Am I more knowledgeable than the whole betting pool that forms the opinions that came together to form the odds? What possible advantage do I have compared with the other sports betters?

You’ll quickly see that going it totally alone will bring no real advantage. Keep in mind that your view has its limits and it’s just one take on the whole marketplace. To that end, you are very unlikely to beat the market in the long run. And it’s this reason why so many betters cannot earn anything from their sports betting activities. When you decide you’re going to take the fight to the sports betting markets on your own, then you’ll need to be both incredibly smart as well as very flexible in your approach. In some ways, you will need to be more intelligent than the collective of the bookies and betters. This is only possible through a highly mythological system. Do you have what it takes?

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