Since time immortal, among the favorite pastimes of sport freaks has been gambling. Gambling is exciting, taking into consideration the risk involved, the luck factor and also the chance to make a lot of money in a couple of hours. Online gambling is becoming popular with millions of individuals on the other side of the globe, with more visiting betting sites and online casinos popping up via the internet than before. One great benefit of having this facility online is of course, that it is accessible from any place which has an active internet connection. This has made gambling a sport in itself, available to millions of new people.

There is a boom within the online betting industry and also the sort of profits many sites are enjoying now is unimaginable. Online casinos are not to be left behind, as there has been a rapid explosion of these also. In reality, online soccer agent poker gives gambling, a glamour quotient by roping in celebrities for high profile tournaments. Therefore reaching out to a whole new market in itself.

But as always, the most successful story will be the rise of sports betting. Fans who have enjoyed betting on games like soccer, football, polo, baseball, hockey and horse racing, can now do so online with the aid of these sites. A whole new number of sports events are cropping up to encourage the already soaring popularity of online betting. It may be correct to say that audiences are now enjoying the betting experience without being at the field themselves. Welcome to the world of virtual reality.

You'll find innumerable so-called gambling experts ready to dish out information of their systems to 'beat the bookie' or to make a second income from gambling, for a cost of course. I will not do that. I will simply give you details about bookmakers, odds and gambling for you to use (or forget) when you see fit.

The very first thing to mention is the fact that the vast majority of folks who engage in gambling will be net losers over-time. This really is the very reason you can find a lot of bookmakers making so much cash through the world.

While bookmakers can sometimes take big hits, by way of example if a favourite wins the Grand National, they spread their risk so widely and they setup markets that incorporate a margin, so they are going to always generate a profit over the medium to long-term, if not the short-term. That is, as long as they got their sums right.

When setting their odds for a particular event, bookmakers must first assess the probability of that event occurring. To do this they us various statistical models based on data collated over years, sometime decades, about the sport and team/competitor in question. As always, if sport was 100% predictable, it will soon lose its appeal, and as the bookies will often be spot on with their assessments of the probability of an event, they are sometimes way off the mark, mainly because a match or contest goes against conventional wisdom and statistical likelihood.

Just look-at any sport and also you shall find an occasion when the underdog triumphs against all the odds, literally. Wimbledon beating the then mighty Liverpool within the FA Cup Final of 1988, as an example, or the United States beating the then mighty USSR at ice hockey in the 1980 Olympics are two examples of whenever you might have got handsome odds on the underdog. And could have won a decent wedge.

The big bookmakers spend a whole lot of time and money ensuring they have the right odds that ensure they take into consideration the perceived probability of the event, and then add that extra tiny bit that gives them the profit margin. So if an event has a probability of, say, 1/3, the odds that reflect that probability will be 2/1. That's, two to one against that event occurring.

However, a bookie who set these odds would, over-time, break even (assuming their stats are correct). So instead they will set the odds at, say, 6/4. Within this way they have integrated the margin that guarantees, over-time, they're going to cash in on people betting on this selection. It is the exact same concept as a casino roulette.

So how can you spot the occasions when bookmakers have got it wrong? Well, it's easier said than done, but far from impossible.

One way is to get great at mathematical modelling and set up a model that takes into account as many of the variables that affect the outcome of an event as is possible. The problem with this tactic is that however complex the model, and however all encompassing it appears, it can never account for the minutiae of variables relating to individual human states of mind. Whether a golfer manages to hole a major-winning five foot putt on the 18th at St Andrews it's as much down to their concentration as to the weather or day of the week. On top of that, the maths can start getting pretty darn complicated.

Alternatively you may find yourself a sporting niche. Bookmakers will concentrate their resources on the events which make them the most money, generally found to be football (soccer), American football and horse racing. So trying to beat the bookies while betting on a Manchester United v Chelsea match will be tough. Unless you work with one of the clubs, or are married to among the players or managers, it is very likely the bookmaker setting the odds will have additional information than you.