Perfect Bet

How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck out of Gambling

By: Adam Kucharski

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Bringing together ideas from mathematics, psychology, economics, and physics, The Perfect Bet traces the origins of successful betting methods.

From the simple to the intricate and the audacious to the absurd, Adam Kucharski reveals the long and tangled history between betting and science and explains why gambling continues to generate insights into luck and decision making today. Covering exploits and ideas from across the globe, he meets the teams behind hedge funds that capitalize on inaccurate sports betting odds and explains how PhD-level pundits are using methods originally developed for the US nuclear program to predict sports results.

Kucharski reveals why winning at chess depends on luck - but victory in checkers does not - and why poker is one of the ultimate challenges for artificial intelligence. He also explores the difficulties of mimicking human behavior and explains what caused one hedge fund's rogue algorithm to lose them $400,000 per second in the summer of 2012.

©2016 Adam Kucharski. Recorded by arrangement with Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Interesting

overall reasonable and interesting book about a subject of gambling and chance. Not brilliant, but not bad. Definitely worth the money and time.

breaks down lots of types of gambling

Very well written and lots of good information and perspectives .
A lot of information Regarding sports betting

Great book with interesting points of view

This is a great book for everyone who wants to learn more about the right way to approach sports betting and gambling. Very inspiring and informative read. Highly recommend it!

Fascinating book, terrible reader

Excellent intro to the relationship between gambling, chance, probability, etc. The reader, however, is awful. He has a weird, snarky tone, mimics the accents of several historical figures in a cringeworthy way, which would have been completely unnecessary even if he had been good at them.

Great Narrative

The book has a very great way of telling you how scientific betting has evolved and become the standard today.