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OddsJam: What’s up with sports betting regulation?
If you’re curious as to why smart sports betting tools like OddsJam are taking off right now in the United States and Canada, it’s because of massive regulatory changes in both countries. Sports betting is now regulated in the United States, with the Supreme Court removing the federal ban on sports betting in 2018. Now, sports live betting regulation is handled on a state by state basis. Regulated mobile betting is currently available in approximately 25% of the United States, and many states plan to launch mobile betting in 2021 or early 2022.
Canada, as a note, is going through a very similar process to the United States, with sports betting regulation handled on a provincial level. Both countries want to regulate sports betting as this, unsurprisingly, skyrockets tax revenue. New Jersey, for example, is the home of mobile sports betting. This state produced over $6 billion in bets in 2020, with New Jersey taking home over $300 million in tax revenue. It’s hard for other states to resist, especially considering gambling is still done with “offshore” companies (e.g. outside of the US) in states where sports betting is not regulated.
OddsJam was created for sports bettors in regulated states, such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado, and their goal is to make bettors profitable. This is the first company that displays real-time odds from a myriad of sportsbooks, while also providing numerous tools, such as arbitrage betting software and mathematically profitable, positive expected value bets.
Can I make money sports betting?
If you have a mathematical mind, then you can absolutely make money from sports betting. Right now, US sportsbooks are in a “land grab” for customers, offering lucrative sign up bonuses to lure new customers. Fanduel Sportsbook, for example, offers a “risk-free bet” of $1000 to all new players. If you lose your first bet, then you get your money back, up to $1000.
You can think about the expected value of this sportsbook promotion. Say you place a bet on the Boston Red Sox to win at +100 odds (e.g. bet $1000 to profit $1000). This bet will have roughly a 50% chance of winning. The value of this promotion would be $500 cash, as summarized with the mathematical formula below. Half of the time, you’ll profit $1000 if the Red Sox win. Since this bet is risk-free, if the Red Sox lose, you lose nothing. It’s a lottery ticket you don’t have to pay for.
Expected value of Fanduel sign-up bonus = $1000 x 50% + $0 x 50% = $500
If you’re curious as to why US sportsbooks are able to offer such lucrative sign-up bonuses to new users, it’s for two reasons. First, it’s a race for customers. DraftKings, Fanduel, BetMGM and the 15+ other regulated US sportsbooks are in a fierce war for new customers. They’ve deployed tens of millions of dollars to these sign-up bonuses in an attempt to lure millions of bettors in newly regulated gambling states. Second, most Americans aren’t mathematical. The expected value of the Fanduel risk-free bet is $500 if your first bet placed is $1000 – the average American doesn’t have this much capital.
Software for Arbitrage Betting (OddsJam) As mentioned above, New Jersey and other regulated betting states (e.g. Colorado, Iowa, Indiana) have dozens of US sportsbooks. The most fascinating aspect of sports betting is that all of these sportsbooks have different odds for a given wager. In other words, using the example above, the Red Sox may have been +100 odds on Fanduel (bet $100 to profit $100), but +105 odds on DraftKings sportsbook (bet $100 to profit $105). Thus, “line shopping,” or comparing odds, is the key to successful sports betting.
Sometimes, when these odds get “too far” out of sync between two bookmakers, arbitrage will exist, which means you can earn a risk-free return on your capital by placing 2+ bets on 2+ sportsbooks that are equal and opposite. If this is confusing, we’ll go through an example below.
Let’s say the San Francisco Giants are playing the Washington Nationals. Wou are able to bet $1,000 on the San Francisco Giants to win at +110 odds at Fanduel sportsbook. You will profit $1,100 with a Giants win.
At the same time, BetMGM has the Washington Nationals at +110 odds to win. You bet $1,000 on the Nationals and profit $1,100 if they win.
You know either the Lakers or the Celtics will win, and you’ve bet $1,000 on both FanDuel and BetMGM. This means you’ve bet $2,000 total but you’ll make $2,100 regardless of who wins.
In this case, you guarantee a $100 profit.
These opportunities are nearly impossible to find manually, but they are easy to find with OddsJam arbitrage software. OddsJam identifies an average of 150+ arbitrage bets with over a 2.25% risk-free return on capital, but these opportunities can be of much higher return, as displayed in the image below.
The return of the stock market is roughly 8% a year, with tons of risk. With arbitrage software, you can earn 2%+ in a day with no risk. You can read more about arbitrage betting in this post written by a professional sports bettor who resides in New Jersey.
Positive Expected Value (+EV) Betting
The OddsJam arbitrage software provides similar software for value betting, or positive expected value (+EV) betting. Not all sportsbooks are created equal, and some sportsbooks are much sharper and smarter than others. The OddsJam software uses real-time odds from sportsbooks from around the world to identify discrepancies in odds, which gives their users a massive advantage. Sportsbooks typically have 100,000+ odds on their site at a given time; it’s nearly impossible to scan through these sites manually and find valuable betting opportunities. You need sharp betting software software, and that’s where OddsJam comes in.
