The Future of Soccer Betting!

[DrunkenGoon]

I believe they went with the 3 point rule for qualifying for World Cup '94 (start of Q was 92) and leagues started addopting that the following year, so I guess the 93-94 was it. That might've also coincided with the change from Champions Cup to the Champions League.

May all your bets be winners

[Fedya Fussball]

DGoon,PCzech:

The English League I think were the first to implement the 3points/win during th 1981-82 season... It took a while for FIFA to get the drift!

[alec]

AYCE,

You are wrong with a) and b) if you include the books from the former Soviet Union.

We used to have 3.5 totals on almost all Norwegian Championship matches and I am sure Fonbet offers both 3.5 (often)and 2.0 (rarely) totals.

[alec]

Shawn,

I think it is the other way around. Sometimes you are right.

In the situation that you described the stronger team probably will win regardless the presence of certain players on the field. But the probability of the victory will not be the same anyway.

In general, I believe, three way line depends on the lineup even more than the total does.

The real problem with totals is, I guess, that not so many books offer them now. Hence it is harder for the others to be sure of the quality of those lines and consequently to copy them.

I think everybody will agree that Ladbrokes/William Hill and Olympic are not the same things in regards to the reliability of their lines. And nobody of the ladbrokes class offers totals consistently.

[alec]

Sorry, "with regards" of course.

[PerpetualCzech]

FF,

I had no idea the English League had 3 points for a win for that long. It would be interesting to see how much scoring went up (if at all) in the years following the change. Anyone know a good site for achives?

[AYCE]

Well, let us change the topic a little bit or we may not even have soccer totals to play in the coming season.



OK, let's talk a little bit of Labrokes. Like Alec said, you can make an argument on who is bigger between WH and Ladbrokes, but when it comes to marketing in the far East, WH is well behind Labrokes.

I believe Ladbrokes not only has more customers from the Asia area than any other books in the world but they are also much well-known name than any other books in Asia.

Other than some historical factors, it has a lots to do with the guys running the show.

They did put a lot of efforts on it.

[AussieVamp2]

bent, as in, gee, it would be a real shame if this game was a draw, wouldn't it, seeing that would be advantageous to both teams and we don't have to run around as much?

and annoying bookies take the games down when they find out

[PerpetualCzech]

Interestingly, towards the end of the season I saw Tipsport put up odds for the tie of various Italy 2 soccer games at really weird odds, lower than 2.00 (one I saw was as low as 1.2! The game ended 1-1!) I remember a few years back Itally 2 was 1.65 for the tie across the board, also near the end of the season.

I didn't understand this, and still don't ... what advantage is there to tieing the game if an 8th place team is playing a 9th place team at the end of the season?

[PerpetualCzech]

BTW, Italy 2 was the only league I saw weird tie odds like this, and I remember at least one of the games not ending in the tie (odds were something like 1.7 I think)

[AussieVamp2]

No idea about why they do it when in the middle of the table, PC, some strange Italian mode of thinking I guess, no 'loss of face' in last games or something?

Very odd.

Although I guess you can go out and get blind drink the night before, not have to run around too much and know that it will still be a draw, so being hungover won't affect the result much

[Shawn]

Well, AV2 certainly describes my sentiments about taking stuff down. Why anybody would hang out 1.2 on a draw is beyond me.

The ones I found most interesting last year were the ones where you'd see a 1-price, a 2-price, but no X-price.

[AussieVamp2]

Well, offering 2 out of 3 is unethical bookmaking I would think, unless refunded in case of a draw?

If you want to take it off, take it off, fair enough, but doing that?

[Shawn]

Couldn't agree with you more personally.

That said, what do you do with those props like Hills' latest "Who will Patsy Kensit marry next?". They've got a half-dozen choices ... what if she picks someone not on the list? Refund all stakes?

Perhaps I'm leaving no nit unpicked here. After all there are a demonstrably finite number of outcomes a "3-way" soccer price can have (um...3?) whereas Patsy has a countably infinite number of choices for her next spouse (assuming alien races exist, as everyone would).

Thoughts?

[AussieVamp2]

Shawn,

Had a bit of a look at Brazil Copa Rich Corrupt Bureaucrat type

Not so bad, have not seen odds on the 30 odd division 2 games and 50 odd division 3 games yet, but will be a huge pain when they get to their playoff stage.........