Sports Betting Basics: Odds, Markets and How a Sportsbook Works

The grounding every job in sports betting assumes. The course covers odds in every format and the probability behind them, the overround and why margin rather than prediction is where a bookmaker's profit comes from, the standard markets from match result to same-game parlays and how exchanges, pools and prediction markets differ, what happens inside a sportsbook from opening a market to settling it, the settlement rules that generate most disputes (voids, dead heats, Rule 4, palpable errors), how to read line movement and closing line value, and the numbers a sportsbook reports: handle, hold, GGR, NGR and what they say about the business.

Written for people starting in the industry in any role, for journalists and analysts who cover it, and for anyone who wants to understand what a price is actually saying. No prior knowledge is assumed beyond arithmetic.

The through-line: a price is a probability with a margin on top, and once you can read it that way the whole business makes sense.