What happned to snake

Well, 2 things

1. For sports books and everyone involved on the sell side of sports betting, the integrity of players is by far the most important factor. If the integrity of professional sports in compromised, then it will have a real blow in the sports betting market. Hearing fix is the worst possible thing for sports book as it would have a real blow on there business. Also some people here get angry when I mention the word luck. Sports betting is no different to most casino games,  both have risk/ return profiles but are "dressed up" differently. Sports books don't want it thought that luck is involved. They want the punter to "think" that skill is involved, thereby empowering them and giving them a "false perception" that it is there research that won them the game. Don't get me wrong, some research and skill is involved, but no where near the amount bettors think they have.

2. Also on the buy side (bettors), fix is also a real problem. When people put there hard earned on a game, they cant stand the thought of professional sportsman "laughing behind there backs". When one puts money on a game, they want full trust in what the are putting their hard on...

The reality is, on any game, to say the game is fixed or not fixed is a faith based statement.

Well you tell me...

These are my last few bets I have placed on league.

2 MNF games ago, I had over 40.5 (half time bet)..36 was scored with 60 secs left, The Broncos scored in the corner. Siren goes, Prince kicks it from the touch line and my over hits? Luck or not?

Before you answer, what about my other bet.

Had under 30.5 (half time bet) Tigers Raiders (last Sat night)...25 scored with 4 mins left and the Tigers score....Benji misses the kick from the touch line (he nailed one earlier fro the touch line) Luck or not luck?

Origin 2, had over 31.5 (half time bet). 30 scored with 60 secs left and the blues give away a penalty and the Marrons kick the goal. Luck or not luck.

I have learnt to look at the games philosophically. I have concluded that there is an enormous amount of luck involved...Enormous. I have also learnt about human pride. Humans would much rather attribute there skill and knowledge of a win than saying it was luck. I mean. The lotto is proof luck exists. That is the most extreme levels of luck.

Betting on league these days is soooo different to 6-7 years ago. The way the ruck is, the slowness of the game, the willingness of referees to blow penalties against teams winning the game to try and make the game closer means luck plays a lot more of an influence on the result than ever before. This is no co-incidence that the market share of online sports betting has increased significantly in the last 5 years.

This is a faith based statement. How do you know it wasn't fixed? Do you have facts?

What I do know is this.

Tim Donaghy was betting on NBA games for a number of years. The NBA had no idea he was betting on games (or did they?). It was only until the FBI was investigating the Italian Mafia that they came across a phone call to Donaghy that they started to investigate him? Doesn't this show that the NBA's internal risk and compliance procedures aren't adequate? The fact that Donaghy was cheating for years under the nose of the NBA, and they didn't know, and it needed a bit of luck to catch Donaghy by a 3rd party, what does that tell you?

How do you there isn't a Donaghy there now? How would you know? What I do know is that there has been evidence that it has happened, and the NBA couldn't catch him then, what makes you think they will catch him now?

Just some things to consider.

Points or handicapped lines is essentially the same thing. You cannot compare a bettor to a bookmaker because ultimately the bookmaker wants action on both sides and will set lines they think will get the most action on both sides.

Look at the bulldogs Manly game a few weeks ago. It was 30-24 with 2 mins left, Manly were attacking, the Manly player kicks the ball right into a Bulldogs players knee, it deflects off him and straight into Matai's arm who scores......

Did manly plan to score that way? Of course, not, it was just lucky.

This is my argument. Compared to 5-6 years, there is a lot more luck in NRL these days compared to before.

Head to heads are greatly impacted by teams" turning up" or not.

I never ever back a team that is less than $1.85. on a head to head. Just not worth it.