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

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

But keep in mind, the most successful story is 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 assistance of these sites. A whole new selection of sports events are cropping up to encourage the already soaring popularity of online betting. It may be correct to state that audiences are now enjoying the betting experience without being at the field themselves. Welcome to the world of virtual reality.

You will 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 price of course. I won't do that. I will simply give you information regarding bookmakers, odds and gambling that you should use (or forget) while you see fit.

The very first thing to mention is the fact that the great majority of folks who engage in gambling will be net losers over time. This is the very reason you'll find numerous bookmakers making so much money throughout the world.

While bookmakers can sometimes take big hits, as an example if a favourite wins the Grand National, they spread their risk so widely and they setup markets that incorporate a cool way to improve margin, so they will always make a profit over the medium to long term, if not the short-term. Which is, as long since they got their sums right.

When setting their odds for a particular event, bookmakers must first evaluate the probability of that event occurring. To do this they us various statistical models according to 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 tend to be spot on with their assessments of the probability of an event, they're sometimes way off the mark, simply because a match or contest goes against conventional wisdom and statistical likelihood.

Just look at any sport and also you will find an occasion in the event the underdog triumphs against all of the odds, literally. Wimbledon beating the then mighty Liverpool within the FA Cup Final of 1988, for example, or the USA beating the then mighty USSR at ice hockey in the 1980 Olympics are two illustrations of when you would have got handsome odds on the underdog. And could have won a decent wedge.

The big bookmakers spend a whole lot of time and expense 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 would be 2/1. Which is, two to one against that event occurring.

Alternatively, 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. In this particular way they have integrated the margin that guarantees, over-time, they're going to make the most of people betting on this selection. It's 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.

A proven way is to get good at mathematical modelling and set up a model which takes into consideration as many of the variables that affect the outcome of an event as is possible. The problem with this tactic is the fact that however complex the model, and however all encompassing it seems, 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 is as much down to their concentration as to the weather or day of the week. Also, the maths can start getting pretty darn complicated.

Alternatively you may find yourself a sporting niche. Bookmakers will concentrate their resources on the events that produce 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 one of the players or managers, it is very likely the bookmaker setting the odds may have more information than you.