IATE Term of the Week: Bookie

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bookie_oldThe Oxford Dictionary defines a bookie as the informal version for a bookmaker, or the “person whose job is to take bets, calculate odds, and pay out winnings”. Team-sports frequently bring along competitiveness among the supporters of clubs and these sometimes try their luck betting some money for or against different teams. The characters of bettors often appear in films, where money was at stake for the fastest racehorses.

In this sense, bookies have always been a necessary figure in sports, because they organise and control the bets, which, depending on the sport, can involve high amounts of money. Even though sometimes they are related to illegal gambling, nowadays official organisations keep track of such business transactions.

Bookies must be quite busy at the moment, now that the World Cup 2014 just began in Brazil. People bet for their favourite football teams to win and they can actually take some money back; we all know the influence of this huge soccer event. Even on the other side of the world, in India, bookmakers are “expecting betting volumes to touch a record high”, says The Times of India.

silver-feature-wcpreview-1According to media betting predictions, the South American football giants (Brazil and Argentina) are the most probable countries to take the title home and players such as Messi, Neymar or Ronaldo are this edition’s must-watch football stars. Germany and Spain have also their place in the top ten lists, as usual favourites. On the other hand, as the algorithm of the probabilities of winning the World Cup states, countries like Iran, Honduras, Algeria or Australia are predicted to take the last positions of the championship. You can visit the interactive predictions here and some eye-catching odds for fun in this article.

Apparently, there is a strong likelihood that the host country will keep the trophy at home, but this is something that not even bookies can predict until next month.

Alea jacta est!

bookie

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By Jurdana Martin Retegi, student of the MA Learning & Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. Study visitor at TermCoord.