BooksBarbecue
Back The Last Guests
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. DEADLY SAS RAID IN AFGHANISTAN UNDER SCRUTINY
  11. FIVE
  12. SIX
  13. SEVEN
  14. EIGHT
  15. NINE
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. TWENTY
  27. PART TWO
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. DANIEL MOORE: ‘A SINGLE BLOKE, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, A BIT OF A DUNCE BUT WITH A GOOD HEART,’ BEST FRIEND SAYS.
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. THIRTY-TWO
  41. THIRTY-THREE
  42. THIRTY-FOUR
  43. THIRTY-FIVE
  44. BREAKING: POLICE CONFIRM DANIEL MOORE ACTED ALONE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. SECOND ARREST MADE IN WESTAY HIDDEN CAMERAS CASE
  50. EPILOGUE
  51. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  52. Discover More
  53. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  54. Also by J. P. Pomare

‘So,’ he begins, when we’re both seated in his study. ‘People think it’s just gambling but it’s not. There are two ways to make money with betting.’ His computer springs to life, both screens fill. The right screen with a browser, the left with a spreadsheet. ‘The first way is to know something that the bookies don’t, or to know it sooner.’

‘Like what?’

‘Say a star player picks up an injury, if you can calculate the difference between the current betting odds and the new likelihood with the injury, and if the risk versus reward tips in your favour, then it’s a good bet. You just need to do it before the odds offered by the betting agencies change. Or say the weather report changes favouring one team, or you see on Instagram a star player’s wife gives birth and it’s likely that player will miss the next game.’

‘Right, so what’s the other way?’

‘The other way is what’s called “arbitrage”. You can’t lose, but if you win too much you get banned.’

‘What do you mean you can’t lose?’

‘Well, if there is a tennis match say. One player is paying odds of two dollars and five cents on one betting agency and the other player is paying two dollars and five cents on another betting agency. Then you put one hundred dollars on both. You have spent two hundred total but you are guaranteed to win two hundred and five dollars.’

I scoff. ‘Lot of work for five dollars.’

‘So bet twenty thousand then. That’s five hundred dollars guaranteed.’

‘So you’ve got twenty thousand to throw around?’

‘No, but you get the point. That’s a two and a half percent guaranteed return overnight. It’s never as clear cut as that, sometimes one player is paying five dollars and the other is paying a dollar and thirty cents and there’s more maths involved, but I’ve got a spreadsheet that works it out.’

‘Who taught you this?’

‘Someone at the gym. Look,’ he says. Taking the mouse now, he slides the cursor over the screen and opens a new spreadsheet. I’ve seen him working on this one before. ‘Here are the winnings in black and here are the losses in red. Each month totalises at the bottom.’ He points to numbers in bold font beneath each month’s bets. I feel almost proud. There’s a level of sophistication to it. But I’m still worried he’s becoming addicted again.

I lean closer, reading over the numbers. January $634, February $158, March $112, April $393, May $2136, June $832, July $219, August $512, September $2393, October $22,312. Total: $28,947.