Another word in the gambling world for Bookmakers are known traditionally as turf accountants.
What do they do?
Bookmakers take money on a number of different outcomes in an event and then pay the money out to participants who predicted the result of the event correctly.
The main aim of a turf accountant would be to balance their book so that a profit is garnered no matter the outcome of the event. In order to do this properly, they will attempt to offer odds that are less than the actual probabilities of the event which is taking place. What would be the result? It usually would be a book that is over-round. This just means they will offer odds which surpass the combined probability in an event. In other words their odds will add up to more than 100%.
Let us say the bookmaster takes bets at events and then assumes he takes equal amounts on each outcome;
Let’s say the bookmaker took bets at evens and then assumes that he took equal amounts for each outcome, he would not make a profit. In order to make the book over-round, the bookmaker will not offer more than evens, say for example, 4/5.
Bookmakers, however, do not have it that easy. They do not merely set the prices on the toss of a coin. They take bets on sporting fixtures for which the outcomes are difficult to predict. After the bookmaker has analyzed all the information available, they will then set about converting it into the percentage chances of all runners winning the race.
