Or they think Russel has a better odd then Alonso should Lewis break a leg or something. Russel might do an Irvine-almost99-er in that case. (I don't wish for that to happen)Just_a_fan wrote: ↑16 Mar 2021, 11:52A lot of people don't realise this - bookies run a book and that gives odds based on where money is going. They don't predict what they think will be the outcome.
If something is popular then the odds shorten e.g. go from 5/1 to 3/1. This isn't because that outcome is more likely, it's because that outcome will cost them a lot of money if lots of people have bet on the longer odds. All a bookie does is publicly show where other people are betting their money. Outcomes with lots of bets have worse odds in order to protect the bookie from bankruptcy. Outcomes where no one is betting have long odds because if that outcome occurs, it won't cost the bookie too much to pay out.
Because people think that short odds are an indicator of likelihood, they bet on those odds more. This is how "the favourite" comes about. It's the favourite of the betters, not the bookies.
Those in the know bet early based on form etc., and bookies will also have an idea ahead of time where they think money will go. Bookies know that Hamilton will be considered to be the most likely winner of the title and so they start with odds set accordingly. After testing, those odds will change because people will have seen a poor performance from the Mercedes team and assume that Red Bull will dominate and therefore they will bet on Max. As more bets come in, the odds will shorten. Conversely, the odds on Hamilton will lengthen slightly. So initial odds are set based on past form - be that F1 or race horses - and then change as people place bets.
If every F1 fan went out and put £10 (or equivalent) on Tsunoda winning the title this year, his odds would shorten massively because the bookies could not afford to pay out to everyone at odds of 250/1 (just checked Sky Bet and that's his odds at this moment). Interestingly, Russell has better odds (100/1) than Alonso (150/1). Neither are very likely to win the title but obviously more people are putting money on Russell, hence his shorter odds.