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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

Soccer odds

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.

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</https:><h4>The oldest trick in the book<https: www.pinnacle.com en h4>
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</https:>Similarly to the lottery, the idea of winning a life changing <g class="gr_ gr_102 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="102" data-gr-id="102">amount<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> of money in one small bet is enough to make people part with their cash. Many bettors think the difference between betting and the lottery is the fact that you have more control but, depending on where you bet, this isn’t necessarily the case.&nbsp;<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:></https:></g>Some bookmakers will have a considerable influence on what bettors choose to bet on. This is sometimes done with elaborate marketing campaigns that highlight an event, by offering special deals and ‘boosting’ specific odds on a market, or by presenting certain types of bets in an easy to use format.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>Bookmakers have now gone as far as providing a lucky dip option and “curating” bets - either asking the <g class="gr_ gr_92 gr-alert gr_spell gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="92" data-gr-id="92">bettor<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> to pick what odds they want and ‘randomly’ picking the selections for them or giving a selection of premade bets that they can choose from. As bookmakers take more control over what bettors put their money on, it makes the chances of winning the much sought after jackpot even slimmer than they already are.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
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</https:><h4>The start of soccer betting<https: www.pinnacle.com en h4>
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</https:>Betting on soccer was originally a form of entertainment. The pools system used in the UK - devised by Littlewoods in 1923 - is one such example of this. Famed for offering a high financial reward for a small stake, fans would be given a coupon outside of stadiums and fill in what they thought were the most likely scores or results.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:><blockquote>At almost 150 times less - or a difference of £425,716,249 - compared to what a similar bet would return at Pinnacle, all of a sudden, Mr Elliott’s win doesn’t sound like such great value.<https: www.pinnacle.com en blockquote>
This evolved to coupons being taken from a newspaper, filled out and then submitted by post or given to a pools collection agent. Littlewoods would suggest <g class="gr_ gr_100 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="100" data-gr-id="100">games to<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> pick or limit the number of choices, but they would always guarantee at least one winner a week by using a points scoring system.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:></https:></g>A similar system - the “pari-mutuel” - originated in France as a method for betting on horse racing, and is the basis of similar products around the world – Tote (UK), TAB (Australia). The fact that these formats work by pooling together all bets or entries and paying out on a dividends basis (with the owner of the pool taking their cut) means the returns generally offer less value than the actual likelihood of the chosen outcomes – functioning like bookmaker odds in that regard.&nbsp;<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>One of the most famous wins from the pools was Michael Elliott who won £3,001,511 for his £2 stake after correctly predicting eight 2-2 draws in 2010. If a similar bet were placed at Pinnacle today - even if all eight selections were the lowest odds we currently offer for a 2-2 draw* - it would return £428,717,760.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>At almost 150 times less - or a difference of £425,716,249 - compared to what a similar bet would return at Pinnacle, all of a sudden, Mr Elliott’s win doesn’t sound like such great value.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>The pools remained as one of the most popular forms of betting until betting shops begun to open and bettors were provided with more convenient ways to bet. While the company taking bets and the format in which bettors would risk their money changed slightly, the notion of “curating” bets did not.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
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</https:><h4>The emergence of betting shops<https: www.pinnacle.com en h4>
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</https:>Throughout the 1960’s and into the 1990’s, betting shops opened at an exponential rate. While these shops offered odds on horse racing, greyhound racing and numerous other sports, soccer became an increasing focus for recreational bettors, especially as more games were televised.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>Bookmakers devised their own pools style coupons with curated odds for various combinations of outcomes in matches. Initially, these accumulator coupons had stipulations that had to be adhered to in order to be given specific odds. (Amazingly, singles were only available on live games).<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:><blockquote>Not only do bettors have to find an edge and beat the bookmaker’s 7.6% margin, they have to do it four, six or eight times over, with the margin rising proportionately.<https: www.pinnacle.com en blockquote>
With less to think about and fewer options to choose from, this format may have made life easier for bettors but it unwittingly put them at a major disadvantage. Bookmakers could create a coupon with difficult games to predict and make these tough selections more appealing by combining them into one bet with what seemed attractively high odds, but where the cumulative margin is extremely high.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>As an example, one of these traditional coupons offered odds of 26.00 for correctly predicting three draws. However, if you were to select the shortest odds currently available for three draws in the EPL at Pinnacle, the treble (three-way multiple) would have odds of 31.340.&nbsp;<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>When you consider a €100 stake would produce a difference of €534 in terms of profit using the aforementioned examples, the cost of using a coupon to place a bet soon becomes apparent.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
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</https:><h4>Moving online and mobile<https: www.pinnacle.com en h4>
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</https:>While fewer people might actually visit betting shops nowadays, the popular coupons - with their high rewards for minimal stakes - are still available online and on mobile devices.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>The traditional result accumulator coupons are perhaps the most popular, but bettors are also offered a BTTS (both teams to score) coupon among many others. Bookmakers might be more discreet in how they disadvantage bettors, but it still happens.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>The lure of picking four matches in which both teams will score at odds of 4.50, six matches at 11.00 or eight matches at 25.00 comes from our innate difficulty in making smart statistical decisions. What bettors focus on is the high reward for <g class="gr_ gr_117 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="117" data-gr-id="117">low<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> outlay, without much consideration for the likelihood and whether the odds offered on this kind of coupon are a true reflection of the probability of the selections winning.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:></https:></g>Typically, bookmakers will offer odds of around 1.67 for both teams to score in a match and 2.10 for both teams not to score. So not only do bettors have to find an edge and beat the bookmaker’s 7.6% margin, they have to do it four, six or eight times over, with the margin rising proportionately.&nbsp;<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:><https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:><h4>A time for <g class="gr_ gr_73 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="73" data-gr-id="73">change<https: www.pinnacle.com en g>?<https: www.pinnacle.com en h4>
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</https:>After all this time, the underlying premise of the football pools still remains. Numerous bettors chase the big rewards in curated bets without considering that the odds they are given are far less than not only the actual odds but, more importantly, the probability of their bet winning.&nbsp;<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:>Promising a guaranteed winner, producing advertising campaigns about a certain event or simply providing an easy to use <g class="gr_ gr_114 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="114" data-gr-id="114">form<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> of betting is a clever way to fuel the hope of a big win. They provide undeniable recreational betting entertainment value, but punters should be aware that there is a clear reason why bookmakers will highlight or suggest certain options to bet on - to make an already difficult task even harder.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
</https:></https:></g>Smart bettors will usually avoid coupon betting and any bookmakers that try to promote it. There is nothing wrong with chasing a big win, just make sure a bookmaker doesn’t influence your selections. Whatever way you bet, always get the lowest margins, highest limits and <a href="https://www.pinnacle.com/en/">best odds<https: www.pinnacle.com en a> at Pinnacle.<https: www.pinnacle.com en p>
*Odds <g class="gr_ gr_88 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="88" data-gr-id="88">taken<https: www.pinnacle.com en g> from all available 2-2 odds in Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League, Serie A, Champions League and Europa League betting from 02https://www.pinnacle.com/en/12https://www.pinnacle.com/en/2016.<https: www.pinnacle.com en span></https:></https:></g></https:></https:></a></https:></https:></g></h4></https:></h4></https:></blockquote></https:></h4></https:></blockquote></https:></h4></https:></h4>

Bettors have long since been tempted by the offer of massive returns for a minimal stake. However, the route to such big returns is one heavily influenced by bookmakers in many different ways. Do you know how much control bookmakers have over what their customers choose to bet on? Read on to find out the true value of some of the most traditional forms of betting.