BaselBantam
06-02-2006, 11:38 AM
It's entirely possible that I'm reading this wrong, but that would seem to suggest to me that the bookies expect us to qualify relatively easily - if you want to bet on England qualifying you have to put £8 down to win £1 back.
I don't do much, if any, bookie betting so someone better versed than me in it could perhaps confirm that.
I'm no expert but I think that odds tend to be artificially low because of the number of people betting on England rather than us being so much better than other teams. People like to put a bet on England whether they are likely to win or not; just like a few people on here have a punt on City getting promoted.
Bookies want to make a profit whoever wins so they will try to make sure that bets on all the losers will cover what they have to pay out to the winners. So in a coin toss, if 10 people bet on heads and only 1 on tails then the odds would be something like 11-1 on and 9-1.
I don't do much, if any, bookie betting so someone better versed than me in it could perhaps confirm that.
I'm no expert but I think that odds tend to be artificially low because of the number of people betting on England rather than us being so much better than other teams. People like to put a bet on England whether they are likely to win or not; just like a few people on here have a punt on City getting promoted.
Bookies want to make a profit whoever wins so they will try to make sure that bets on all the losers will cover what they have to pay out to the winners. So in a coin toss, if 10 people bet on heads and only 1 on tails then the odds would be something like 11-1 on and 9-1.