What is algo betting

Within the last few years, the usage of automation and using various bots have grown a lot. They are used for trading, setting up smart homes to do different tasks, automating sending emails, etc. Naturally, people adopt the same technology for other spheres as well. And betting isn’t an exception. So what is that algo betting (the full term should be algorithmic betting)?

As you can guess already, it is making automatic bets depending on the outcomes or other rules the gambler has set. There are a lot of different ways and methods to apply algorithms for making bets. Let’s get deeper for a better understanding.

Collecting Data and Making Calculations

That’s probably the simplest way to make bets based on statistics. It’s often called modeling. The program collects the data from tons of games and divides it into categories. For this example, let’s take football. There are many stats such as goals, shots, shots on target, yellow and red cards, offsides, corners, etc. We want to make a bet on goals over or under. Our program says that Manchester United has scored over 2.5 goals in 60% of its games (this data is totally false and used for an example only), however, the stats also say that it scored under 2.5 goals in 80% of games against Chelsea within the same period of time. Moreover, Manchester United has scored more than 2.5 goals in only 10% of last season’s games. What should we do? Based on the calculations, our algorithm says that chance of the Red Devils scoring over 2.5 goals in this game is slightly over 15%. So if the logic is good, a model is working well, we have an awesome chance here. The math says that we will be right 85 times out of 100.

Of course, there is a chance of scoring more as it is betting on sports and there are always some risks involved, but this kind of system still have a good point of common sense. Also, it’s very important to understand that the algorithm is created by someone and the approach can be very different making the outcome different as well.

Odds Arbitrage

Some people say it shouldn’t fall under algo betting term, however, we decided to cover it. The process of this is quite simple. The player takes odds from different companies using a program. Then the odds are compared and filtered. The program makes calculations and finds the opportunities. No matter what the final result is, the bettor will make a profit anyways. It’s also called Arbitrage Betting.

Making The Bets Automatically

Due to the nature of the algo betting, sometimes it’s important to catch Live events and make guesses there. If your model projected that there should be 10 corners per game, but you see 0 after the first half, the chances of a bet being successful are very low. In this case, you can cancel the bet (if a sports bookmaker allows doing that) or your program should be created this way that it makes a bet only if some conditions are fulfilled. In this example, our model projected 10 corners per game, and if we have 5 corners in the 1st half, we make a bet. Yes, odds are lower in this case, but it all depends on the approach, odds, and calculations.

Still, it’s an awesome thing to place bets automatically if conditions pass set requirements. Moreover, it will work faster than making a bet manually. Just to note, it requires API access and programming knowledge as well. It’s rare that a betting company would allow accessing your account through API for any software.

Issues of Algo Betting

It sounds good, however, there are some things everyone should take into account.

First, if you have decided to create a model for any sport, you must have specific knowledge of programming. One of the most popular programming languages for algo betting is Python. If you don’t have any skills in programming, it’s quite a hard challenge waiting ahead. Of course, it’s possible to create some models using Google or Excel spreadsheets, but again, you should have very deep skills in that.

Second, the approach and logic. Sometimes it’s hard to create a good and successful methodology. You must understand the game deeply as well.

Tips and More Details On Algo Betting

Some tips that Chap was able to find online publicly:

  • Do backtesting
  • Always take odds into consideration when making a bet
  • Never trust someone that says they have a 100% working algorithm
  • Algo betting should be like an extra voice in making a decision

You can read and find more information on these resources (to be expanded later):

Sum Up

Everything might sound quite hard and confusing. We are not professionals in this thing either, however, we really wanted to present to you this may be a new and big thing. Innovations and new technologies always open new ways and possibilities. Maybe we will inspire someone to start making his own algorithm for sports betting.

All in all, we think the algo betting can be very helpful and bring a lot of benefits for sports betting professionals. Especially, when making hard decisions and needing more conviction. Also, it can improve the success rate drastically. However, everything truly depends on the code and the methodology. It requires a lot of time, testing, and sports understanding. Good luck!

 

This article isn’t created to push anyone into betting. All the information provided here is for informational purposes only.