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David. I suspect the little you understand about bookies is similar to your knowledge of F1.
Bookies work on the probabilities: it's just maths. They set their 'odds' based on the likeliness of making a profit. Setting odds JUST to attract punters is a DISASTER if the probability of that 'horse' winning (or placing) means that the 'payouts' exceeds monies coming in plus their 'profit'. The basis of the maths is simple. As I do some of the IT for one of the BIG 'bookies', I think I might just be more acquainted with how they work than you think!
Anyway.... how the hell does this matter? Alonso will win or lose: what we think will have zero effect on the result. You have decided that odds of 300 to 1 is insufficient to make you want to bet: fair enough, it's your money. I'd ask you to consider what your view would have been if they had given odds of 1,000,000,000 to 1. Would you STILL not have felt that a 1p bet was not worth the risk? That would returned you £1,000,000 for a bet of 1p: is that not worth the risk? If not, what about 1 trillion to 1? Dafter things have happened than Alonso winning even in THIS McLaren.
I don't have a clue about your age and you may not know what happened to Foinavon in the Grand National in 1964: go and look it up! Although the odds on Foinavon were huge, and the individual 'payouts' for the winners were gigantic, the bookies were ecstatic! (Crudely) they lose most when a favourite wins. A rank outsider winning means small overall payouts PLUS it encourages more punters to risk their cash on other rank outsiders over the coming weeks/years. The details of bookmaking are shockingly simple.... but the minute details make substantial differences to the company
Ian
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