If you made the bet every day for the rest of your life would you be a winner or loser. If a winner, then it is +ev. If a loser, it is -ev.
If you could book coin flips and pay 10 to the winners and take 11 from the losers then it would be +ev for you and -ev for the bettors.
Buying insurance on a dishwasher from Sears would also be -ev. Selling it would be +ev.
I'm sure the other posts said this but I guess just to add..
EV is just an acronym for Expected Value. Really can be applied for anything in life. However, I rarely hear people use it with sports, mainly in poker. So any bet where you see value you can say you bet it because it was +EV..
For example, say you make a call in poker on the river even though you're 80% sure you're beat but your call is only $40 in a $400 pot. It's +EV to make the call, because you're risking only 10% more of the pot for a 20% chance to win.
Chasing a flush draw in an all-in first hand of the WSOP would be -EV.
EV is just an acronym for Expected Value. Really can be applied for anything in life. However, I rarely hear people use it with sports, mainly in poker. So any bet where you see value you can say you bet it because it was +EV..
For example, say you make a call in poker on the river even though you're 80% sure you're beat but your call is only $40 in a $400 pot. It's +EV to make the call, because you're risking only 10% more of the pot for a 20% chance to win.
Chasing a flush draw in an all-in first hand of the WSOP would be -EV.
