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An index for betting with examples from games and sports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2022

Talaat Abdin ,
Hosam Mahmoud ,
Arian Modarres  and
Kai Wang
Talaat Abdin
Affiliation:
formerly with Schlumberger, Cairo, Egypt
Hosam Mahmoud
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.20052, USA e-mail: hosam@gwu.edu
Arian Modarres
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, NY10027, USA e-mail: arm2261@columbia.edu
Kai Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.20052, USA e-mail: kwang23@gwu.edu
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It is tempting to accept bets when the outcome has a positive expectation favouring the bettor. We examine situations where this is not enough of a criterion as a basis for betting. The argument we present shows that the probability of winning the bets in the long run has to be qualified in a certain way beyond positive expectation. We introduce an alternative index as a criterion to recommend to bettors.

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 106 , Issue 565 , March 2022 , pp. 32 - 40
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Copyright
© The Authors, 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mathematical Association

References

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Abdin, T. and Mahmoud, H., Losing a betting game, Problem 782 in College Mathematics Journal 36 (2005) p. 334.Google Scholar