Rain can dramatically alter a game. It makes it more difficult to pass the ball or get traction in the running game, which can lead to lower team totals. This is why it’s a good idea to take unders in games where rain is in the forecast. Many gamblers use different methods to observe the clouds and determine whether it will rain or not. One such method involves laying a stack of newspapers open, and the time when the first raindrop appears on them is taken as the official rainfall time.
How It Works
In the case of a rain-delayed match, all bets will be settled according to official competition rules. Unless otherwise stated, these rules include systems such as the Duckworth-Lewis method and the Jayadevan system. Gamblers in Taiping, Malaysia are very creative and have their own ways of forecasting the weather, especially rain. Some gamblers will walk up the hill and observe the cloud layers; some will lick their middle finger and put it in the air to feel the wind direction and humidity. They will then take note of the time when the first raindrop appears on newspapers, which will be the starting time of the rain.
Although gambling on rainfall is a casual pastime in other parts of Cambodia, the sleepy city of Battambang elevates it to an art form. There are dozens of rain-betting houses with specialized networks of sky-watchers. One house has 13 layers of tissue paper that the gamblers must stay 3 meters away from at all times; if water drips from it, it has rained and bets can be called in.
Odds
With the Electric Picnic festival set to return this year after a long hiatus betting exchanges and online bookies have priced up a wide variety of markets on the weather. This has led to some punters being confused by the odds associated with a regenbet. Odds are based on probability, but this doesn’t mean that it will rain every day. For example, if there’s a 30% chance of rain on any given day, you can expect it to rain 1 out of 5 days. The odds will change as the probabilities of different events shift, but your Expected Value remains the same.
To understand this, think of it like a Venn diagram. The event “today” and the event “tomorrow” have their own odds (p1 and p2), but their probabilities are additive when you put them together. So, if the odds are 50% today and 40% tomorrow, the overall probability of rain is 90%. This is because the probabilities of the two events must add to 100%.
Payment Method
Unlike traditional sports betting, where you can bet on the outcome of the match, rain bet is all about predicting the amount of rainfall. Some sites offer wagers on specific amounts of rainfall, while others will use a calculation method such as the Duckworth Lewis method or Jayadevan system to settle bets. In addition, there are bets on extreme weather patterns such as cold and hot temperatures.
While gambling on the rain is a casual pastime in other parts of Cambodia, Battambang elevates it to an industry with dozens of bookies and thousands of participants. The gamblers gather at a shady alley called Gali Chai Bati, and the spin-offs of a flourishing rain betting market are clear to see: tea stalls and snack shops do booming business, and winners treat their fellow bettors to a cup of steaming kachauri or a plate of pakoras. Many of the gamblers are market vendors and hail from families who have been involved in the business for generations.
Legality
Although gambling on the weather is a casual pastime in many other parts of Cambodia, Battambang, a crumbling city of French colonial buildings along the Sangke River, elevates the game to an art form. It is home to the country’s largest rain betting markets, complete with bookies and near-professional gamblers. Its participants huddle under electric-green rice paddy huts and clutch walkie-talkies, barking at each other over the garbled transmissions. The gamblers are mostly ethnic Chinese who immigrated to Battambang from tea farmers in China’s Guangdong province after the revolution. They are said to have earned so much money that they bought land and even helped their families with household expenses.
Rainwater harvesting is legal in most places, but only if it’s used for irrigation or household use. Otherwise, it’s illegal under the doctrine of prior appropriation. There are also some states that have strict rules about the amount of rainfall that can be collected. In the United States, the Illinois Plumbing Code allows rainfall collection only for domestic or industrial use and not for drinking.
Conclusion
When a game starts and is then rained out (or halted before four and a half innings have been played), all bets will be refunded. Same-Game Parlays are also affected. Betting on rain is a casual pastime elsewhere in Cambodia but Battambang elevates it to a sophisticated hobby with a network of dedicated sky-watchers.