Lol. Reminds me of when I was living in Britain. There was an extremely bad winter that was lasting for a long while. As a result, all the horse races, greyhound races and soccer (fitba) games had been cancelled day after day. The bookies, to try and attract some business, actually started to offer odds on when the 'next' horse or greyhound race or soccer match would be. I miss the Saturday afternoon trip to the corner bookies.
It's sunny at the moment near Manchester, but I want to short the sun and go long boring endless drizzle. Should be a good arb.
A question to anyone who has tried any of these sites (or any other gambling site).... Has anyone experienced any difficulties getting paid? I am a speculator by nature, I love to speculate, bet, whatever you want to term it. I love to lay odds on just about anything, but I don't like to gamble on whether or not I am going to get paid out if I am correct. Laying odds and event risk are one thing, getting F!@#%ED by some unscrupulous website operator is quite another. I have always resisted the temptation to try any type of gambling website for fear of being hosed and feeling like any idiot for giving my credit card number to some faceless cyber-entity thinking I might actually beat the spread on one of their events. At least at a casino you know you can take your chips to the window and cash out, not so sure about a website. I would like to here experiences from anybody out there, good or bad.
I have only used two sites.. sportingbetusa.com and wsex.com. Both are VERY solid. In fact the first one is a public company in England. I believe the symbol is SBT on the london stock exchange. The other has been featured on a number of news media outlets. I think the are bigger than sportingbet. They will always pay u though since any negative comments would hurt their customer base. There are websites that focus on complaints from all gambling websites. I would sugget if you want to lay something big (over 10k) then goto vegas.
In regards to Vulture's comment, I believe the book he was referring to was "The Odds" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306811561/ref=cm_mp_gl_wl/104-8738604-3811147), a fun read.
The way I look at gambling and trading is this: In gambling, the house always has an edge. It varies by game, but they always have an edge. If they have a 1% edge, then for every million dollars bet, they will get $10,000 in revenue. If they run $100 million through that game, they will get $1 million in revenue. In casinos, some people win big, some people lose big. But statistically, the house knows that its edge will bring in the revenue. As a gambler against the house, you cannot get around it. You can, however, play games that have the least house edge and you can use prudent risk and money management to make a living gambling. It is possible and there are guys doing it. But that does not mean the house will still not get its revenue from others, like Aunt Martha and Cousin Bob. With trading, I am the house. I have the edge (side note: if you don't have an edge, you should not be trading). Your edge could be a particular setup that works 58% of the time. That's an edge. You could have a setup that works only 30% of the time, but your edge is taking frequent small stops and riding very large gains when you are right. That's a legitimate edge. The point is, trading is like owning a casino. It is not like being a casino customer. That's why I get a little ruffled when uninformed people (usually well-meaning friends or relatives) say "Trading is gambling." They are, of course, correct. But in Vegas, the house gambles, too -- against the customers. Do they lose? Of course not. They have an edge. Gotta have an edge. That's the grail. -- Dave
if you are interested in this sports betting if a futures-style way you might be interested in www.intrade.com. Apparently you can bid and offer. Q1