(no subject)
Jun. 26th, 2006 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsmeatThe perceptive will have noticed there's some football thing going on right now...
Actually, I have a theory that on two thousand years time, archaeologists excavating today's landfills will be able to get precise datings from the thick layers of red and white plastic crap that are exactly four years apart, but that's by the by.
Try as I might, information about it seeps in from the saturation media coverage. On Saturday, the following facts were whirling around my head.
- England were playing Ecuador.
- Ecuador had previously beaten Brazil and Argentina.
- England are OK, but have no realistic chance of winning the tournament; they've been lucky so far.
- Bookies were offering 6 to 1 on Ecuador.
Bookies, of course, operate on laws of supply and demand as well as the probabilities of different event outcomes. All the patriotically inspired morons were putting money on England, so the odds on Ecuador went silly as there was little or no demand for those bets.
"Right," thinks I. "I'm so putting 20 quid on Ecuador - it's money in the bank."
The end result - England won but I had too many errands and never made it to the bookies. I didn't win anything, didn't loose anything; I've been completely put off betting for the next ten years or so and now know I'm not as smart as I thought I was.
< shrugs >
Actually, I have a theory that on two thousand years time, archaeologists excavating today's landfills will be able to get precise datings from the thick layers of red and white plastic crap that are exactly four years apart, but that's by the by.
Try as I might, information about it seeps in from the saturation media coverage. On Saturday, the following facts were whirling around my head.
- England were playing Ecuador.
- Ecuador had previously beaten Brazil and Argentina.
- England are OK, but have no realistic chance of winning the tournament; they've been lucky so far.
- Bookies were offering 6 to 1 on Ecuador.
Bookies, of course, operate on laws of supply and demand as well as the probabilities of different event outcomes. All the patriotically inspired morons were putting money on England, so the odds on Ecuador went silly as there was little or no demand for those bets.
"Right," thinks I. "I'm so putting 20 quid on Ecuador - it's money in the bank."
The end result - England won but I had too many errands and never made it to the bookies. I didn't win anything, didn't loose anything; I've been completely put off betting for the next ten years or so and now know I'm not as smart as I thought I was.
< shrugs >
