Without doubt this is the most important contribution I have seen on the forum for a while.
Why on earth people spend hours trying to gain an edge on the games when the maths are clearly not in your favour is a mystery to me. However I would love to be proved a complete idiot, as I am sure would the proffesor!
But i believe the professor is correct in that unless you can get the maths correct and back at prices that are statistically higher that the probability or lay at prices lower that the probability the result (with the 5% commission) is regrettably inevitable.
It is the same with the tipsters, they will punt a horse with giving a minimum price to back it at and this is completely useless. Everything has a value and no tipster will be correct 100% of the time therefore he must make a judgement on what the minimum price must be in order to make a profit in the longer term on each and EVERY selection.
Good luck Proffesor on the sporting events and may all your trades be value trades.