thanks Peter, I didn't realise this, I just did some googling and it's interesting there's only a few places that mention Billy made most of his money from his good rebates, same also for Zeljko Ranogajec.Euler wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 1:12 pmWhen you dig a bit deeper in the Hong Kong betting syndicates, most of them never 'beat' the book as it was pool betting. So there wasn't a counterparty as such.
But most of the money they made was by betting close to breakeven and getting a rebate. So nearly all the yield they got was through the rebate, not calculating then placing value bets and being better than average.
When you are getting a 5% rebate, you it makes it so much easier to beat the market!!! If I could get back £50 for every £1k staked I'd be buying football clubs left right and centre!
I guess the only clever bit was realising this, and being able to gather the necessary "volume" for the betting pools to give him those generous discounts. Like you say Peter, he found an "Opportunity" !
but he's no where near as clever as I originally thought he was!