Tell us more details about the math that you understand.  E. Cohen

Wow I never knew anyone would ever take the time to do something like this.  It's pretty amazing that it's been done though because I also snowboard.  I'm definitly going to have to check this website out this coming winter!  Thanks a lot Keith great job!

Mathematics and Baseball:

Thomas D. Mondragon

Math 210 baseball stats.doc 

 Okay, thanks Thomas.  E. Cohen

Michael Lynch

Math and Baseball.docx

I added some information on the bounciness of the ball.

 Cool!  Thanks!  E. Cohen

 Tell me more about this bounciness of the ball.  What does that have to do with?  E. Cohen

Casey Flowers

Math210 Project.doc

Okay, thanks Casey.  E. Cohen

Travis Payne

 History and Use of Mathematics in Sports

Since sports were first played on this planet, people have been betting on the

winners, rooting for the underdog and gambling with the chances of a simple victory.

Sports gambling are nothing new although it can be said that it is now much more than

picking the team with the coolest jersey, or the team with the biggest afros.

The use of mathematics in sports betting is nothing that should be

overlooked; numbers run all the processes of the game and the use of numbers is where

your ticket of picking the right team lies. The leading website in sports betting states

that “Sports betting is a game of skills. The challenge is to gather and analyze as much

information as you can about a game, weight the probabilities of each team winning, and

subsequently compare your opinion to the odd maker’s. Make the right judgment and

you win. It’s as simple as that” (Sports Betting 2008) So overall the biggest use of

mathematics in sports betting is you must know the odds of winning and must be able to

calculate the odds versus what teams are playing.

Sports betting is the game of size of bets, large odd pay offs lead to smaller

pay offs simply because the odds of winning are greater. The bets in which the odds are

drastically decreases is where the biggest pots are; once again because the odds of

winning drastically decrease leading to a huge increases in the possible payoff because

of the large contributions to the pots. A lot of two team bets run in at a two to three odds

of wining, for example the Greeks Sports Books put together a diagram on true odds of

multiple team bets. 

Parlay Bets

# of Teams Payoff Odds Actual Odds House Edge

2 13/5 3/1 10.0%

3 6/1 7/1 12.5%

4 10/1 15/1 31.3%

5 20/1 31/1 34.4%

So with this another aspect comes in regarding what particular sports event are you

betting on, the final four example, you better stop looking at a two team bets because

multiple teams are competing for one title.

And my sources

Betting, Sports. “Sports Betting Tips” 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.

http://www.sportsbetting.com

Dado, il. “Gambling id dado” Sports Betting Rules. 2005. Retrieved April 27, 2008.

http://www.ildado.com/sports_betting_rules.html

Greek, The. “The Greeks Sports Book” Knowledge of Math Adds up in Sports Betting.

2007. Retrieved April 25, 2008. http://www.thegreek.com/2007/sports_betting_math.asp

Wikipedia. “Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia” Sports Betting. 2008. Retrieved April 25,

2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Betting

Travis, I didn't understand the last part on the betting.  Can you explain more clearly?  E. Cohen

The last section of my paper was referring to how the odds of winning or losing change as there are more teams to bet on. If there is multiple combinations that must be chosen for a person to win then your odds of winning go down although the payoff in the case of a win will be much greater due to the large odds that the house has over your bet. The concept is the larger the house odds are againist you then the higher the payoff simply because of the chances of winning go down. So as the number of sources you are betting on increases so does the odds that your bet will lose although the payoff will be greater. So this chart shows your chances of winning when the number of betting sources rises.

 # of Teams   Payoff Odds   Actual Odds   House Edge

2 13/5 3/1 10.0%

3 6/1 7/1 12.5%

4 10/1 15/1 31.3%

5 20/1 31/1 34.4%

Okay, thanks Travis!  E. Cohen