[josephg]

Yeah; I briefly did some consulting work at a sports betting company. They have a database of hundreds of people who are essentially banned because they’re too good at picking winners, and the betting company loses money having them as clients.

Internally they track how much each account wins & loses. If you win too much, the site gives you worse and worse odds until eventually you’re banned entirely. The reverse is also true: if you’re a terrible better, the site gives you better odds hoping to keep you coming back for more.

They have a whole team whose job it is to instantly block smart betters from opening new accounts. Accounts opened in the name of their girlfriends is the classic thing they watch out for.

Some of the smartest gamblers also get hired as quants, and help figure out what the odds should be on the site.

[notforviewingit]

In Europe bookies just get rid of good players, except for the exchanges and Pinnacle. No one serious will gamble with European bookmakers. Though maybe this has changed lately. I have not been following field recently.

In Asia the bookies are a lot more tolerant, especially the larger ones. You really have to hit their pnl hard for you to get cut off.