Quote: (06-16-2017 08:39 PM)Teutatis Wrote:
Just out of curiosity, who creates these odds, is there a bookie organization of some sort that gets together and decides what the odds are going to be? Are bookies required to take any and all bets? What if it happens that everyone bets on the same guy and that guy wins, who pays for all these bets? Can a bookie go bankrupt and default on payments if a highly unlikely event like this ever happens?
The odds are created in such a way that the casino will make money regardless of what happens.
More people are expected to bet for Mayweather, so in the likely event he wins, the casino doesn't have the pay out much and the bets from the McGregor side will cover what needs to be paid out with a little left over for profit.
If McGregor wins, the huge pool of money from the Mayweather bettors will cover all the money that needs to be paid out, plus a little bit of profit for the casino.
So if too many people bet on one side, the odds will simply update to reflect that. The house always wins because statistics are on its side.
There are cases where things go wonky and the casinos can lose a bunch of money, but they are covered by the opposite cases when things go wonky in favor the casinos. They take a long view of things, and they're not overly concerned with any single event.
As for the initial odds, those educated guesses created by experts in the sports who work for the casinos. I'm sure they have computer simulations to help them out these days as well.