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What Are Blackjack Side Bets?Side bets are bonus bets placed on a round of Blackjack on outcomes beyond whether the player or dealer will win. The majority are staked at the start of the round before the cards have been dealt alongside regular bets and many have fixed odds that usually offer greater payouts than the simple 2:1 rewarded for beating the dealer.Play Blackjack at Pinnacle Casino

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Side bets provide an exciting way to make Blackjack games more interesting whilst offering you a greater number of ways to win. So what are side bets, what side bets are available and are they worth it? Read on to find out.

Blackjack Side Bets Explained

Finding a niche market in betting can often lead to value. This can be anything from specialist knowledge of handball betting to extensive experience in betting on Japanese baseball. Providing you know more than the bookmaker, there is money to be made.  &lt;Bet on soccer at Pinnacle&gt; They also make for interesting and potentially profitable bets, as they can be a little more reliable

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A corner is one of the most inexplicably exciting events in soccer. Only around three per cent of them lead to a goal, but you can guarantee that the attacking team’s fans will roar their approval and encouragement if their team are awarded one. Read on to find out how you can benefit from betting on corners.

Corners betting in soccer: Value in a lesser-known market

Poisson Distribution is a mathematical concept for translating mean averages into a probability for variable outcomes across a distribution. For example, if we know Manchester City average 1.7 goals per game, so by putting the Poisson Distribution formula tells us that this average equates to Manchester City&nbsp;scoring 0 goals 18.3% of the time, 1 goal 31% of the time, 2 goals 26.4% of the time and 3 goals 15% of the time.

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Poisson Distribution: Predict the score in soccer betting

What is Expected Value?The amount a player can expect to win or lose if they were to place a bet on the same odds many times over, calculated through a simple equation multiplying your probability of winning with the amount you could win per bet, and subtracting the probability of losing multiplied by the amount lost per bet.A simple example of Expected Value (EV) put into practice -&nbsp;if you were

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The Expected Value of a bet shows us how much we can expect to win (on average) per bet, and as such is the most valuable calculation a bettor can make when comparing bookmakers' odds. How can you calculate Expected Value in sports betting in order to predict your winnings? Read on to find out.

How to Calculate Expected Value

We have a team of editors and writers at Pinnacle, as well as a collection of external contributors, ranging from university lecturers and renowned authors, to ex-traders and esteemed sports experts. Collectively, the Pinnacle team and external contributors produce the educational content within Betting Resources.

One of the earlier examples of the “<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/betting-psychology/wisdom-of-the-crowd-applied-to-betting">Wisdom of the Crowd</a>” phenomenon dates back to 1906, when English polymath Francis Galton asked 800 people to guess the weight of a slaughtered ox. In his surprise, the average of the guesses turned out to deviate only 1% from the true weight, bringing forward the idea that large groups of people are smarter than an elite few.

<h4>The challenge</h4>

In 2014 we decided to test the “<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/betting-psychology/wisdom-of-the-crowd-applied-to-betting">Wisdom of the Crowd</a>” theory by inviting our players to guess the number of chocolate balls in the video below.


<script src="http://stream3.webvideos.co.uk/players/1QAsAGD6-2YfEoI7w.js%22%3E%3C/script "></script>



To spice competition up, we added a twist though. The first three correct answers submitted would win $100 plus a Pinnacle goodie bag, while the next five would only win a Pinnacle’ hoodie.

To help maximize the chances of winning, we published a daily mean of guesses submitted. The entrants were therefore faced with the dilemma of choosing between first-mover advantage with minimal information and the advantages of utilizing the guesses of other participants but with reduced returns.

<h4>The result</h4>

Below is the mean guesses table updated on a daily basis for the duration of the competition:

<table width="160" height="281">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Date</td>
<td>Mean Guess</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>21/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>22/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">752</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>23/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">667</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>24/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">635</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>25/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">629</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>26/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">614</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>27/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">634</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>28/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">663</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>29/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">658</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>30/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">654</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>31/03/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">649</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>01/04/2014</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">645</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

We received a total of 608 valid entries of which only one guessed the correct number 636. The actual range of guesses was from as low as 10 and as high as 7436.

As you’ll see from our graphic the first day’s mean guess was 752, but by day three this had moved to within just 1% of the actual answer, and never strayed beyond 11% from it. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/media-image/wisdom-of-crowd-daily-guess-graph.jpg" alt="wisdom-of-crowd-daily-guess-graph.jpg" width="700" height="625" loading="lazy">

The process wasn’t linear, as the mean moved towards as well as away from the true answer. On day eight we sent a follow-up competition email, which produced a surge in new market entrants, moving the mean further away from 636, but by day nine it was back within 10%. 

What is particularly interesting is that only 26.8% of entrants guessed within the range of the daily mean. Had more participants followed the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/betting-psychology/wisdom-of-the-crowd-applied-to-betting">Wisdom of the Crowd</a>&nbsp;they would have increased their chances of getting the right answer, and also improved the overall accuracy of the collective.

<h4>Applying “wise crowds” in betting</h4>

The way in which betting markets work is very similar to this puzzle. A market starts with the assessments of a few participants, first and foremost bookmakers themselves. This is often called a tissue price, corresponding to the early assessment in our experiment. At this stage the value can be greatest because the market is immature.

As more participants enter the market, the collective assessment tends to become more accurate, but then the potential value is also squeezed out. As with our example, however, accuracy doesn’t always improve in direct correlation to participants. The crowd can get things wrong, such as favourites often receiving a lot of action from casual bettors close to kick off. 

&nbsp;Read our article&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/betting-psychology/wisdom-of-the-crowd-applied-to-betting">Wisdom of the Crowd applied to betting</a>&nbsp;to find out what happens when Crowds act like herds!



<a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/signup/desktop/en-GB?ico=article_psychology&amp;icl=openaccount#signup_homepage"><img src="/sites/default/files/media-image/psychology-openaccount-1.jpg" alt="psychology-openaccount-1.jpg" width="700" height="160" loading="lazy"></a>

From the financial markets to sports betting, when it comes to making predictions, the idea that a group’s collective judgment tends to outperform that of an expert individual is well established. In an attempt to test the collective wisdom of Pinnacle’ players, we invited them to participate in a puzzle for the chance to win cash prizes. How well would you do?