The Guardian has been running a regular feature where readers choose a bet on a sporting event and compete against a betting expert and a former sportsman. This week for instance you can choose a bet for Fulham vs Liverpool on Saturday (with the people opting for a Liverpool win). The running total is a nice illustration of the wisdom of crowds - each week a £10 bet is placed, and the results so far this season are:
The former pro - betting kitty £166
The expert - betting kitty £143.25
The people - betting kitty £186.59
So the people - voting each week for their preferred bet - are comfortably ahead.
Of course the really wise thing would be to not bet at all - by my reckoning there have been about 30 £10 bets placed this season, which puts all three groups comfortably in loss making territory.
Update: By the way, the crowds got it right once more – Liverpool won one – nil with a goal in the 92nd minute. The ‘expert’ was spectacularly wrong, with a prediction that Liverpool would score in the first ten minutes of the game.
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