Come September and the conference season descends upon us. Despite living in the digital age, there is no substitute for a quality face-to-face event, to get up-to-speed with the latest innovation.

Bookmakers always win. They may experience the occasional bad day, but over a period of time they always win. Why? This is primarily because they study form. They analyse as much data as they can absorb, applying hypotheses to test possible outcomes (whether mentally or with the aid of computers), setting prices and refining continuously based on further events and patterns. Basically, they calculate the most likely outcomes based on statistics and other insights, and then set the odds in their favour. They also study their levels of exposure and risk, taking appropriate steps to offset potential losses, to ensure that they nearly always make a profit.