A bet is essentially a disagreement between two parties about what the outcome of a particular event will be. In addition, both parties are willing "to put their money where their mouth is". In other words: they are willing to take a financial risk, with the intention and hope to be rewarded when they were right.
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In order to clarify the relationship between risk and reward, one of the parties - the bookmaker - uses so-called "odds" to indicate how much money/profit he will pay the other party if said party effectively predicted the correct outcome.
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THE MINDSET OF THE BOOKMAKER
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So basically, the odds are the opinion of the bookmaker about what he thinks the outcome of a particular event will be.
Of course, the bookmaker has given a lot of thought to this, he uses mathematical models and tries to substantiate his opinion as much as possible, but there is a reason he is called "a bookmaker" and not "Madame Soleil", so it's not because the bookmaker calculated that FC Barcelona has a 20% chance of winning the Champions League (odds of 1.50), that the probability of a Catalan triumph effectively is 20%.:
e.g. Lionel Messi has dropped a bottle of perfume on his foot and may not be ready for the final. Far fetched? Check this!
e.g. Bayern Munich is also in the last four and Bavaria's Traditionsverein is in great shape: they are undefeated in their last 10 games.
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WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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When all is said and done, a bet will simply come down this: who knows best? Who is right? The player or the bookmaker?
