Have you ever wondered how sports betting companies make their profits? It's simple: they charge a spread or vigorish that is proportional to the odds at which you, the bettor, place your bet. The spread is a percentage of your profits that the house retains as payment for their services. Although the spread varies with the odds, usually, it ranges between 8% and 10%, and sometimes even higher.

Let's consider an example to help simplify things. Suppose FC Porto and Boavista FC are playing the next Portuguese football league match. The odds for this match are as follows: FC Porto wins @ 1.12, Draw @ 7.00, and Boavista FC wins @ 19.00. The betting house charges a spread of 8.83% over your winning bet.

You may assume that FC Porto has an 88% chance of winning, but that's not the case. The betting houses manipulate the odds to grab some of your profits. They trick you into thinking that a certain event has a higher probability of happening than it actually does to lead you into placing a bet.

To calculate the real odds for the event "FC Porto wins," multiply (1 + spread) by the presented odds: 1.12 * (1 + 0.088345) = 1.2189. Therefore, the real odd for the event "FC Porto wins" is 1.2189, and the actual probability of FC Porto winning is 82% out of 100 hypothetical matches against Boavista FC.

On the other hand, if you repeat the same calculation for the other two events, "Draw" and "Boavista Wins," you will get a final result of 1, indicating that the odds are the real odds.

Finally, to be on the better side and have an hedge over the bookies, you should look for Bookmakers that charge a smaller spread since those odds are much closer to the actual real probability of an event happening. From my experience so far, Decentralized bookies like UBET (www.ubetsports.io) have smaller spread, this is because decentralized bookies run on the transparent blockchain and let the market forces of demand and supply determine the odds.

Don't assume that low odds necessarily mean a sure outcome because betting houses present untruthful information to make a profit. Keep that in mind when placing your bets.