Douching is a little-known betting strategy that contradicts the usual approach with the selection of the most profitable option. The risk here is divided between several outcomes. To find out how this strategy works, read our material.
Usually, the process of placing a bet is very simple: an event with several possible outcomes is planned, each of which is assigned an odds. The bettor chooses the outcome in which he sees a potential benefit, or which he just likes, and makes a bet with the bookmaker.
It would seem that everything is simple. But still there are situations where it is impossible to choose only one preferred outcome. Perhaps the player wants to spread the risk between several outcomes, bet against a certain outcome or hedge his position from a previous bet. That’s what the technique used to place bets on several outcomes at the same time, so that the profit from each of them is the same. Thanks to gauging, the probability of winning increases, but the potential profit decreases because the bet has to be divided between several variants.
The essence of gauging
Let’s consider a variant with horse racing. Suppose a race of horses with odds of 10.0, 6.0, 3.0 and 2.2 respectively is planned. The first thing the player should do is to check if there are better odds somewhere. Perhaps for a horse with odds of 10.0, another bookmaker offers odds of 12.0. Spending a little time to study the market can significantly increase the potential profit.
Next, the bettor can check the possibility of placing arbitrage bets using the best odds of 12.0, 6.0, 3.0 and 2.2. If the odds are too high, it is possible to make a risk-free profit. In practice, however, you are unlikely to find an arbitrage opportunity, as bots will find it sooner, and most BKs, as we know, do not welcome fork bets.
Now you need to translate decimal odds into implied probabilities by calculating the inverse. For example, the probability of a horse winning at odds of 3.0 is 1/3. The sum of implied probabilities usually exceeds 100%. Excess probabilities are defined as bookmaker’s margin (another term is overround). In our example the margin is 3.79%, so there is no room for arbitrage.
Suppose a player wants to place bets on two outsiders – horses with odds of 12.0 and 6.0. By betting 1000 euros on each of them, he will make a profit if either of them wins, but the income will be higher if the horse with odds of 12.0 wins.
But there is a question of how much to bet on each horse to get the same profit no matter which one wins. In this case, it is easy to guess that betting on the horse with odds of 6.0 should be twice as much as betting on the horse with odds of 12.0. If you put €1,000 and €2,000 on horses with odds of 12.0 and 6.0, you can win €12,000 (or €12,000 – 1,000 – 2,000 = €9,000 of net profit) if either horse wins.
In reality, situations are rarely this simple, but fortunately, we can use a simple equation to calculate how to divide bets to achieve the same result.
How to calculate a gauging bet
The fraction of the total is equal to the ratio of the implied probability of the outcome to the sum of the implied probabilities of the gauging portfolio. In practice, proceed as follows:
- Decide which outcomes to include in the portfolio.
- Calculate the implied probability of each of these outcomes.
- Add up the probabilities.
- Divide the implied probability of each outcome by the sum of the third step to get a fraction of the total.
Example:
- You make a portfolio for gauging to place bets on horses with odds of 12.0, 6.0, and 2.2.
- The implied probabilities are 1 in 12, 1 in 6, and 1 in 2.2, respectively.
- The sum of the implied probabilities is 0.7046.
- Fractions of bets on each horse from the total sum are (1 / 12) / 0.7046 = 11.83%, (1 / 6) / 0.7046 = 23.66% and 64.52%.
If the total amount, for example, is 10,000 euros, you can bet on the victory of the horses 1180, 2360 and 6450 euros. If any of them wins, the player will get about 14190 euros, that is, the net profit will be just over 4000 euros.
Note that if the sum of implied probabilities exceeds unity, it is impossible to make a portfolio of gauges. In this case, even if one of the necessary results is obtained and one of the bets turns out to be winning, the player will get back only a part of his bet, which guarantees a loss.
You can also use a gauging calculator, which you can easily find on the relevant resources.