apiece. Harden raved about the work of Capela, who took over for Dwi

Editors note: Part 1 of ESPNs future of sports betting series focused on the paths to legalization in the United States and what the resulting marketplace could look like. Part 2 focuses on the bettors in this future landscape.There is an ongoing arms race between elite sports betting syndicates.Each group is doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the other. Theyre constantly developing and improving predictive models for all aspects of sports betting. The ultimate goal is to solve the equation.Sports wagering is just a math problem, said a high-level bettor, who is active in the global market and spoke with ESPN on the condition of anonymity. Most syndicates are already using various forms of machine learning.In the future, the most-sophisticated bettors wont be human -- theyll be robots.These betting bots, used by elite betting groups, will be fast, powerful and have terabytes of data flowing through them. If an NFL point spread gets off-kilter or a live scout transmits the result of an obscure, low-level tennis match before the books know it, the bots can unleash a firestorm of bets all over the world. Soon, theyll be able to outsmart humans.The whole idea of thinking computers conjures up movie images of Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, WOPR from War Games or Ava from Ex Machina. Whether described as artificial intelligence, neural networks or machine learning, the applications to advanced sports betting are obvious.In a nutshell, heres how the robots operate: Sophisticated forecasting models convert event probabilities into prices (i.e. The Green Bay Packers as a -150 favorite have an implied win probability of 60 percent). If the market price differs from the model price enough to withstand the vig or commission, the difference represents an opportunity. And the opportunity is pursued almost instantaneously through the use elaborate trading software that accommodates both speed and volume.Professor Adam Kucharski, a London mathematician who researched scientific approaches to betting in his new book, The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck out of Gambling, says high-tech bettors primarily take two different approaches with their bots.The first involves hooking up robots directly to the betting exchange servers. This means bettors can jump on any mispriced odds almost instantly, Kucharski said. The second approach is to carefully develop scientific predictions, then place a traditional bet in the market. This is hard, given limits on betting. If you have a small edge, you need to put down a lot of money to make it worthwhile. That is why many syndicates opt for the big Asian markets, where people are happy to take large bets.Some bots, Kucharski added, are helping gamblers sneak bets into the market without their competitors discovering what theyre doing. A good analogy is to poker, where intelligent bots have taught themselves how to bluff and deceive opponents. Sports betting robots are going to get better at outwitting humans, too.Thats bad news for Joe Public: In the future, the average recreational sports bettor will be up against it.Robots made and funded by professionals are made for profit, said Robin Hanson, an economics professor at George Mason University and author of The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth.Sports betting is a zero-sum game, so there must be winners and losers, and professionals win on average, Hanson said. Most nonprofessionals are humans, who lose.The next-gen data being fed to the robots will be streaming from motion-tracking cameras located in stadiums and arenas and microchips placed in uniforms and equipment, like helmets and footballs. Athlete bodies will be a data source, too.Kristy Gale, CEO of Hypergolic, an Arizona-based technology and biometric data rights company, told ESPN that ingestible, injectable and implantable technologies -- from sensors to diagnostic to therapeutic devices -- will increasingly make their way into athlete bodies and will be used to monitor an athletes movement, field position and acceleration rate, among other things. She said the athlete biometric data, called ABD for short, may be used as a commodity sold to fantasy sports providers and sportsbooks. Or offered directly to consumers as exclusive gaming options.As ABD is found to be a strong predictor of performance, it will be extremely valuable to bookmakers, said Gale, who is also a lawyer and wrote an academic article on the topic for the Arizona State Sports and Entertainment Law Journal. These data will certainly be in demand and monetized in the sports wagering industry.Sports trading, not sports bettingDont gamble. Invest.That was President Barack Obamas advice to Americans in a wide-ranging June 2016 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.But when it comes to sports wagering, there is profound blurring of the two: The more the sports betting market grows, the more financial trading strategies increasingly bleed into it.And while many of the sharpest bettors in the future may not be human, the vast majority will be. Instead of investing in the stock market or betting themselves, much like choosing to invest money in a mutual fund in the stock market, some people will prefer to put their hard-earned money in the hands of professionals.Brendan Poots, a former professional bookmaker, is the CEO of Priomha Capital, a global sports trading fund with offices in Melbourne, Australia, Las Vegas and Gibraltar. His company issues annual reports and a prospectus, just like any other open-to-the-public hedge fund, and with every trade he makes, he leaves an electronic fingerprint with every bet he makes.Every trade we make is traceable, down to time, size and type, Poots said.He believes this is the future of sports betting in the U.S.In a 2004 blog post, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proposed a fund that only placed bets...[a] gambling hedge fund.Cubans idea never materialized, but 12 years later, his blog post seems remarkably prescient. Nevada has approved entity betting for sports, where regulated hedge fund-like groups, like Priomha Capital, are allowed to accept out-of-state money from investors to use at any participating sportsbook.Entity betting hasnt taken off yet in Nevada, and only one of the states regulated books -- CG Technology -- is participating in it. But Poots still believes this is the future of sports betting in the U.S.We are hoping that we can continue to pioneer the development of entity wagering, said Poots in a summer email interview with ESPN. With the BREXIT and the market crashing, as well as the long-term uncertainty that will pervade the global markets, a non-correlated asset class immune to traditional market risks is attractive.As the gambling market starts to look more like already-recognized financial markets, some experts suggest that sports gambling may provide the Holy Grail, so to speak, in investing -- an uncorrelated, alternative asset class, which allows for diversification and protection against any sector-specific downward trends in a well-balanced investment portfolio.Think of a Venn diagram with two circles that overlap considerably in the middle. One circle is sports gambling as it is traditionally construed. The other circle is general principles of investments, trading, hedging, arbitrage and asset allocation. Researchers have studied the overlap between these two circles.In an academic paper released this year by a pair of quantitative research analysts, Lovjit Thukral and Pedro Vergel Eleuterio found that sports trading can provide an attractive option to investors as an alternative asset to generate excess returns which are uncorrelated to their existing portfolio.Tobias Moskowitz, a finance professor at Yale and author of the forthcoming academic paper titled Asset Pricing and Sports Betting, said he uses sports betting as a laboratory to test certain pricing theories, ruling out some while confirming others.However, the current U.S. sports betting market has a long way to go before meriting serious consideration from hedge funds and institutional investors.The sports wagering market just isnt liquid enough for large investors to spend their time, Moskowitz said. Also, the vig is so high in sports gambling, and particularly daily fantasy sports, the trading costs are incredibly high compared to financial markets.The overlap between sports betting and Wall Street investing is not lost on experts.Let me put it this way, John Avello, a Vegas veteran and executive director of Wynn race and sports, told ESPN. If the stock market started today, it would probably be looked at as gambling.Maybe the legal tag will improve sports bettings reputation and help the market grow to a point where the business-savvy investors of Wall Street will start to see it as an opportunity. After all, they already know how to do it.We analyze data, we build algorithms, we predict what will happen and then we make a trade, said Poots.Is he gambling or investing?Its not unusual to hear people refer to trading stocks as no different than going to Vegas, Cuban wrote in 2004. They are right.Future outlook not all rosy for casual bettorsOpinions differ as to whether nationwide legalized sports gambling will result in a net increase in the overall number of bettors and volume. Some experts cite a substitution effect, where bettors currently using illegal bookmakers will simply transition to regulated ones. Others in the industry think legalization will create a whole new class of bettors, with a mass of people who previously avoided sports betting because of its illegality now entering the market.These potential new bettors (and existing ones), depending on the state they live in, may be able to get bets down at new sportsbooks, gas stations and even kiosks in their local sports bar. Eventually, bettors will likely be able to legally place bets on their phone from the comfort of their couches. Or while seated courtside at an NBA game.Bottom line: If a casual person wants to place a bet, he or she will have a variety of options.But these increased options for bettors -- whether human or otherwise -- wont arrive immediately. There will be bumps in the road, especially if bettors concerns are not addressed. Veteran Vegas pro Alan Denkenson doesnt have high hopes.Limits will be too small or theyll charge too much vig or only do parlays, Denkenson said.Denkenson, a former New York City bookie who was portrayed by Bruce Willis in the movie Lay the Favorite, has seen all sides of the industry. He struggles to envision a future with a successful legal sports betting market in the U.S.Its going to be a mess, he said.Coming in Part 3 on Friday: What are the pitfalls of expanded legalized sports betting in the U.S.?wholesale baseball jerseys . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. wholesale jerseys china .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. http://www.cheapjerseysnflauthentic.com/ . Vokoun departed practice on Saturday morning after discovering swelling in his thigh. He was taken to a local hospital where the clot was revealed. The club announced the surgery following a 5-3 exhibition loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. china jerseys . -- Matt Kuchar and Harris English ran away with the Franklin Templeton Shootout, shooting a 14-under 58 on Sunday in the final-round scramble to break the tournament course record. cheap jerseys free shipping . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday.HOUSTON -- The Houston Rockets were determined to get off to a fast start and keep the pressure on Philadelphia after seeing the 76ers rally after trailing big on several occasions this season.They executed that plan perfectly.James Harden scored 23 of his 33 points in the first quarter, and the Rockets cruised to a 115-88 win over the 76ers on Monday night.We came in, made shots and defensively really locked in and didnt give them any confidence early in the game, Harden said. Theyve had a couple of games where theyve lost down the stretch against some really good teams, especially at home. So it was important for us to go out there and take advantage of the opportunity.Harden, who posted a triple-double in his previous two games, added nine assists and seven rebounds.The Rockets had a three-point lead with five minutes left in the first quarter when Harden took over, scoring all of Houstons points in a 17-9 surge to make it 35-24. Harden, who was named Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday, made a pair of 3s, all three shots after being fouled on a 3-pointer and a nifty reverse layup in that span.He made each of the eight shots he attempted in the quarter to set a career high for points in a period.The first quarter was ridiculous, Houston coach Mike DAntoni said.The Sixers were led by Joel Embiid and Ersan Ilyasova, who had 13 points apiece.Harden cooled off after his huge first quarter and didnt score in the second period, but the Rockets still had a 65-52 lead at the break.The 76ers made just five of 19 shots in the third quarter, and Houston stretched its lead to 93-68 entering the fourth.We felt like it was still in us to make this into a game, but the game got away from us, coach Brett Brown said. We saw a great player dominate the first period and we dug ourselves a hole from the beginning.Harden is off to a stellar start this season in his first season in DAntonis fast-paced offense. He has scored at least 24 points in each of Houstons first 10 games this season.ddddddddddddTIP-INS76ers: Embiid, who returned after sitting out the last game to rest, led Philadelphia with 10 rebounds. ... Nik Stauskas scored 12 points, and Dario Saric and Gerald Henderson each had 11.Rockets: The Rockets made 17 3-pointers and have made at least 10 3s in nine straight games, which ties a franchise record. ... Nene had 13 points for his third double-digit game this season. He added a block to give him at least one in six straight games. ... Clint Capela had 13 rebounds.BLOCK PARTYThe Rockets had a season-high 10 blocks. Capela led the way with a career-high five and five other players, including Harden, had one apiece. Harden raved about the work of Capela, who took over for Dwight Howard at center this season.If he plays like that were going to be really good, Harden said.THEY SAID ITPhiladelphias Robert Covington on the struggles of the 76ers, who have won just one game: We are still trying to figure things out. A lot of guys havent played a lot of basketball together. We see a lot of what were capable of, its just a matter of time before all things come together.BEVERLEYS RETURNHouston guard Patrick Beverley is nearing a return after missing all season after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. DAntoni said he expects him to play sometime this week and there is a possibility he could make his debut as early as Thursday. DAntoni said he would start when he returns.Beverley averaged 9.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 71 games last season.UP NEXT76ers: Host Washington on Wednesday as the team begins a stretch of four of the next five at home.Rockets: Will make a one-game road trip to Oklahoma City on Wednesday before returning for two at home against Portland and Utah. ' ' '