What does Weighted and Unweighted record mean?

Comments

• bigguns Member

  January 2012 edited January 2012

  i will reply with a quick one with an example. Unweighted plays all plays at 1 unit regardless of how many units you say it is. Weighted takes in account the actual units you state.
  
  Example
  bet 1 at 1 unit wins
  bet 2 at 2 units wins
  bet 3 at 1 unit loses
  
  My unweighted record is 2-1 for a total of .9 units counting bet 2 as a 1 unit bet. My weighted record is 2-1 for a total of 1.9 units counting bet 2 as 2 units. Does this make sense? if not tell what does not and I will try to explain further.
• Escoot Senior Member

  January 2012 edited January 2012

  An unweighted records essentially shows ones win and losses only, while a weighted record is reflected by the value you assign to each game you play.
  
  As far as why one would show both records? I think the RAS website "What Makes us Different" section explains this well, so I will use their wording: "Other services will rate their plays between 3-5 "units" or "stars" to inflate their actual earnings when they are winning. They will say they are up 20 units in a week, but averaged out it is really only 4 or 5 units. Many services also rate their selections with huge variance to allow them to quickly erase negative records by hitting one big play."
• Goats Head Moderator

  January 2012 edited January 2012

  The main reasons we ask for unweighted records are so everyone's unit record is easily comparable and so posters can't suddenly start playing games for greater units if they have poor results in an effort to "catch up."
  
  The benefit of including both records is that it will demonstrate if your weighting actually helps or hurts your results.
• BetThemDogs Senior Member

  January 2012 edited January 2012

  Goats-- would it be correct to say most bettors weight their plays? I see many here that do so. I have always found that the one bet that I make for 2 or 3 units ends up losing-- costing me what would have been a good day. So, I only bet 1 unit. However, I have found that I make more betting money lines-- dogs only-- than I used to playing more units.
  (Disclaimer-- don't look at this season's results for proof-- I'm something like 1-10 on money lines)
• Goats Head Moderator

  January 2012 edited January 2012

  BetThemDogs wrote: »

  Goats-- would it be correct to say most bettors weight their plays? I see many here that do so. I have always found that the one bet that I make for 2 or 3 units ends up losing-- costing me what would have been a good day. So, I only bet 1 unit. However, I have found that I make more betting money lines-- dogs only-- than I used to playing more units.
  (Disclaimer-- don't look at this season's results for proof-- I'm something like 1-10 on money lines)

  
  I've always had a problem with generalizations about bettors, so I don't want to say most bettors weight their plays though my guess is that most do (both winning and losing bettors).
  
  If weighting is hurting you (as you mentioned), then there's no reason to be weighting. That's why, as I mentioned above, keeping both weighted and unweighted records demonstrates the impact of those weightings.
  
  If you can accurately quantify your edge, or at the very least identify certain plays that outperform others, then it's mathematically correct to bet more on those plays with greater +EV. However, determining one's edge in sports betting is extremely difficult.
  
  I wish every sports bettor learned how to count cards, preferably before they got into sports as I did. In blackjack, you can actually quantify your edge with math, and learning about bet sizing and edge that way gives you a very solid foundation that makes applying concepts like the Kelly Criterion to sports betting far easier.