Smarkets to Offer Fairest Bet of the Year for NFL Final

LONDON, February 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

As bookmakers are offering unbelievably poor odds for a statistical 50/50 chance on the world's most famous coin toss, Smarkets, one of the world's largest betting exchanges, has taken up the challenge to demonstrate the company's pursuit of fair value for customers.

Smarkets #50for50 campaign is what the company claims as the fairest bet of the year: the NFL Championship coin toss at odds of 2.00, or 1/1 known as "Evens." To ensure the fairest deal possible, Smarkets is offering 0% commission, meaning bettors have the statistically fairest odds available.

Smarkets betting exchange combines cutting-edge technology and transparency to facilitate peer-to-peer betting where users set their own odds and bet against each other for the duration of an event - eliminating the need for a bookmaker.

The legendary coin toss is a great example of the poor value bookmakers offer bettors on a daily basis. The probability of landing on either side of the coin is 50% - as each outcome has an equal likelihood - meaning the odds should be priced at 2.0/2.0 on both sides, with zero commission.

The odds provided by bookmakers don't reflect the true probability of the outcomes concerned and are offered as poor as 1.91, which is a 4.7% commission. This means that on average the bettor will lose 5p for every pound spent over time.

Even though the coin toss is a novelty bet, the principle is the same for whatever you are betting on. The best value is the fairest odds, which is what you get with Smarkets.

The market is available at: https://smarkets.com/50for50

Founder and CEO Jason Trost is available for interview. For more information please contact Céline Crawford at press@smarkets.com

Note to Editors 

Launched 2010, Smarkets is an industry-leading betting exchange that makes trading on events secure, efficient and exciting. Smarkets' award-winning technology facilitates market trading that enables users to set their own prices and bet against one another, right up until the end of an event. Forged from trading principles found within the financial markets, Smarkets brings intelligent betting to the forefront of an age-old industry.

• Headquartered in London, the company has processed over two billion pounds worth of transactions across the company's licensed and regulated markets in just six years.
• Smarkets is a betting exchange that offers a secure and transparent platform for trading on sporting and political events.
• The company was launched in 2010 by a team of finance and software engineering professionals and has 51 employees.