View attachment 36920
funny… the experts don’t agree
Although I think you're right that City are still heavy favourites, this isn't how betting works. Expert opinion and predictive modelling have nothing to do with it. But don't worry, almost everyone goes through a phase of believing that bookies win by being better at predicting events than punters (hell, most people never get out of that phase -- even the most frequent football gamblers I know don't really understand how gambling works). Bookies don't predict anything[1]: the prices are set by supply and demand. The more people who bet on an outcome, the lower the bookies set the price, and vice-versa -- rendering the whole odds thing one giant popularity contest.
I suppose you could argue that there's a sort of crowdsourced expertise going on there, but the average punter is far from an expert gambler, leading to mediocre prices relative to the actual probabilities of the outcomes. Any genuine expertise is drowned out by the sheer volume of casuals, weekend warriors, random-chancers, and so on. (Incidentally, this is how "professional" gamblers and true expert analysts play the game: they don't bet on the events they think will occur; they bet on the events that they think are significantly more likely to occur than their current price suggests.)
As well as the supply and demand shite, there's a load of money-grubbing maths involved, all of which is now done programmatically by computers, They put a bunch of variables into a formula. including the odds and the amount of money on each outcome. and the program spits out odds recommendations that ensure they make money no matter what happens. It's called an overround and it's how the house almost[2] always wins, similar to the zero on a standard roulette table (they offer you odds of 1:36 when the actual odds are 1:37, slowly resulting in inevitable loss for everyone over time). Sneaky house edges are why I have no interest in gambling.
As for the odds you posted, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a big post-game flutter of activity on City among savvy gamblers who believe that City are going to win the league and wanted to exploit the reactionary counteractivity on Liverpool.
[1] They may use predictive models up to a point, to try to refine their overround priorities and generally get more accurate internal info (e.g. how to set initial prices), but a bettor is
never going head to head with the bookies' predictions.
[2] I say "almost" because unlike a roulette table, real world events, the cumulative patterns of wildly different bettors, and the algorithmic mathematics involved are too complex to
guarantee that they make money, even with a massive overround. When the system fails, you get those glorious stories of bookies losing stacks, as they (probably) deserve. Unfortunately, as I'm sure most people know, the cunts aren't even legally obliged to pay out -- at least not in the UK.
(Sorry for the long-winded post but I think it's important footy gamblers understand what they're in to and the vast majority simply don't.)