You ever sit back and consider this?

[rake922]

Many of us gamble on sporting events because we think we can predict the outcome of the event.

But often the players and coaches can't even predict the over unders and point spread winners and losers of the events they plan on participating in.

So for us to lay large amounts of our money on things when considering the above phenomenon is kinda crazy

[rake922]

The over/under for tonight's redsox,angels game is 9... Neither Mike Scioscia or Terry Francona knows the outcome, so what the hell are thousands and thousands of people betting into it for, thinking they know something special

[SBR Lou]

The over/under for tonight's redsox,angels game is 9... Neither Mike Scioscia or Terry Francona knows the outcome, so what the hell are thousands and thousands of people betting into it for, thinking they know something special

Because they believe they have an edge. Whereas, sports players or coaches don't really have a definable one other than their own preparation or performance(s), the only way they'd be able to reasonably predict a specific outcome is by tanking the game.

[MrX]

I see two major problems with your points:

1) There is a big difference between knowing the outcome of an event (generally impossible) and knowing the probability distributions of an event.

2) If anything, the participants are at a disadvantage when it comes to accurately discerning the probability distributions. It takes a lot of work to do this and they're busy being athletes/managers, etc. In addition, they seem to be more susceptible to the many misconceptions regarding sports statistics than anyone. In fact, they're usually the ones promoting these misconceptions (God bless 'em).

[HeeeHAWWWW]

Many of us gamble on sporting events because we think we can predict the outcome of the event.

That's the standard gambler's fallacy there imo. You can't successfully predict events - you can only assign probabilities of each outcome.

Unless, of course, you believe you have "a lock" on one outcome. I'm sure nobody has ever been wrong with those before......

[hackattack]

A manager/coach record of .500 is average.
A manager/coach record of .600 or better is great.

Hey wait...those percentages can be applied to gamblers as well.
What is the connection?

[max_asdf]

some games are easier than others

[ManOfValue]

I don't think its krazy at all, thats why they play and we do what we do...

[max_asdf]

thats why the players play you