Editing Bookmaker (section)

== Operational procedures ==
{{Main|Mathematics of bookmaking}}
By "adjusting the odds" in their favour (paying out amounts using odds that are less than what they determined to be the true odds) or by having a [[point spread]], bookmakers aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting an equal number of bets for each possible outcome or (when they are offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds.<ref name="Cortis">{{Cite journal |last=Cortis |first=Dominic |year=2015 |title=Expected Values and variance in bookmaker payouts: A Theoretical Approach towards setting limits on odds |url=http://ubplj.org/index.php/jpm/article/view/987/968 |journal=Journal of Prediction Markets |series=1 |volume=9|pages=1–14 |doi=10.5750/jpm.v9i1.987 |doi-access=free }}</ref>  When a large bet comes in, a bookmaker may also try to ''lay off'' the risk by buying bets from other bookmakers. Bookmakers do not generally attempt to make money from the bets themselves but rather by acting as [[market maker]]s and profiting from the event regardless of the outcome. Their working methods are similar to those of an [[actuary]], who does a similar balancing of financial outcomes of events for the [[Assurance services|assurance]] and [[insurance]] industries.