A Bookie S Odds

The high-stakes story of Australia's largest private bookmaker Alan tripp, a man some call a genius and others call a criminal, became the world's most successful private bookmaker. He was Australia's most convicted SP bookmaker and was the prime target of gaming and vice squads around the country in the 1980s. Yet he would eventually sell his businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars. this is his story. Starting-price bookies, although illegal, were long a feature of Australian life, giving punters the opportunity to have a bet away from the track. But with the rise of the tAB, police were ordered to stamp out all other off-course bookmaking in order to protect the state governments' monopoly. Alan tripp, the biggest SP bookie in Australia, was their number-one target. His punting clientele ranged from the high society of Sydney to the underbelly of Melbourne, and included Prime Minister Bob Hawke, media baron Kerry Packer, gangsters Lewis Moran and Alphonse Gangitano, and underworld figure Mick Gatto - as well as many leading trainers and jockeys of the day. tripp's life quickly became a rollercoaster of high-stakes gambling, with the dual threats of bankruptcy and prison never far behind. In a fearless and thrilling narrative, Nichola Garvey recounts the drama and intrigue of the life of Alan tripp, the billion-dollar bookie who beat the odds.

"What are the odds against winning the Lotto, The Weakest Link, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The answer lies in the science of probability, yet many of us are unaware of how this science works. Every day, people make judgements on a wide variety of situations where chance plays a role, including buying insurance, betting on horse-racing, following medical advice - even carrying an umbrella. In Taking Chances, John Haigh guides the reader round common pitfalls, demonstrates how to make better-informed decisions, and shows where the odds can be unexpectedly in your favour. This new edition has been fully updated, and includes information on top television shows, plus a new chapter on Probability for Lawyers."--BOOK JACKET.

Sports betting is the general activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. Aside from simple wagers--betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division, for instance, or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl--sports betting is commonly done through a bookmaker. Bookmakers generally offer two types of wagers on the winner of a sporting event: a straight-up or money line bet, or a point spread wager. Moneylines and straight-up prices are used to set odds on sports such as soccer, baseball and hockey (the scoring nature of which renders point spreads impractical) as well as individual vs. individual matches, like boxing.

Throughout recorded history, people have placed wagers on all manner of unpredictable outcomes. This Is Gambling studies this particular human tendency in detail to discover exactly what’s so addictive about placing a bet. An objective investigation covering all levels of society, this book, complete with photographs, delves into the world of betting shops, casinos, and football pools, telling the facts as they are and giving insight into the attraction of beating the odds. This nonjudgmental guide also describes the pitfalls of every form of gambling practiced today.

Match –fixing has become a widespread international problem in recent years. It includes everything from bribery of players, to putting undue influences on the owners of the soccer clubs, managers, coaches and others who have the ability to affect the final scores. In addition, match-fixing spills over into the arena of illegal betting (in person and online), which creates a host of additional organized crime opportunities, including human trafficking, prostitution, drugs, extortion and even terrorism. This timely volume brings together international contributions with an aim is to increase awareness of the problems associated with match-fixing and the degree to which key agents in sport, particularly young people, are vulnerable. The contributions are based on INTERPOL’s Global Experts Meeting in Singapore, in November 2012, which brought together key speakers to discuss issues surrounding match-fixing and how to combat corruption in football through channels of education. The purpose of this meeting was to identify ways that academia can play a role in developing and implementing training modules and academic courses, including certification procedures, to prevent match-fixing and develop lines of study at all educational levels. This unique work reflects the gravity of the situation around the world together with possible solutions.

Deviance is by definition a social problem. Since deviant behavior violates the normative expectations of a given group, deviance must be regarded as a problem for that group, since all groups of people want their norms to be enforced. Many modern societies place considerable value on personal liberty, so much so that interference with personal choices to deviate from group norms can be justified only in terms of the potential damage that particular kinds of behavior might do to the legitimate interests of others. Sociological research suggests that the social problem associated with deviance is often the behavior of individuals who violate norms cannot be justified in terms of basic values of liberty, social order, or justice. In other kinds of deviance, though, the social problem is that people or, in a more organized way, social institutions, interfere with individual liberty and self-realization. Each selection in this volume has been chosen to cover a full range of substantive problematic issues, a range of social science perspectives that can be brought to bear on issues of all kinds, and a range of social science methodologies used in studying modern society. Deviance and Liberty is divided up into thirty-nine contributions and five main parts ranging from "Modern Perspectives on Deviance and Social Problems"; "Deviant Exchanges: Gambling, Drugs, and Sex"; "Deviant Personal Control: Illness, Violence, and Crime; Deviance, Identity, and the Life Cycle"; and "Moral Enterprise and Moral Enforcement". It is a welcome addition to the libraries of those interested in the study of deviance or society as a whole.

'Football looked at in a very different way' Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton star and football media analyst Football – the most mathematical of sports. From shot statistics and league tables to the geometry of passing and managerial strategy, the modern game is filled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How do we make sense of them? The answer lies in the mathematical models applied in biology, physics and economics. Soccermatics brings football and mathematics together in a mind-bending synthesis, using numbers to help reveal the inner workings of the beautiful game. This new and expanded edition analyses the current big-name players and teams using mathematics, and meets the professionals working inside football who use numbers and statistics to boost performance. Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football. No matter who you follow – from your local non-league side to the big boys of the Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A or the MLS – you'll be amazed at what mathematics has to teach us about the world's favourite sport.

A behind-the-scenes history of the Bluegrass State’s iconic sport. Horse racing and the Commonwealth of Kentucky are synonymous. The equine industry in the state dates as far back as the eighteenth century, and some of that history remains untold. The Seventeenth Earl of Derby made the trip from England to Louisville for the famed Kentucky Derby. Many famous African American jockeys grew up in the area but fled to Europe during the Jim Crow era. Gambling on races is a popular pastime, but betting in the early days caused significant changes in the sport. Hidden History of Horse Racing in Kentucky details the rich and the lesser-known history at the tracks in the Bluegrass State.