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Step right up, place your bets

The article on SportsBookGurus.com was written by “Bonnie.” It is entitled, “Last Comic Standing Betting Odds List Tommy Johnagin As Fan Favorite.” We’re not sure where they get their data from (probably from a number of sources and probably very secret), but they’re offering odds on who will be the last comic standing.

Contestants of Last Comic Standing are really bringing out the big guns for the semi finals. It is turning out to be a close race. It is no surprise that funny man Craig Robinson is the highlight of every episode, but he is closely followed by some of America’s up and coming professional comedians. There was a challenging round of semi-finals, but after Tuesday night’s episode, America now has their top ten for season 7 of Last Comic Standing.

This kind of thing has been going on for years. Similar sites have offered odds on all sorts of things, like US political races and, of course, sporting events. These fellows offer odds on LCS, World Cup and who will replace Larry King!

Tommy Johnagin +300
Maronzio Vance +400
James Adomian +450
Roy Wood Jr. +450
Myq Kaplan +700
Felipe Esparza +900
Jonathan Thymius +900
Mike DeStefano +1200
Laurie Kilmartin +1400
Rachel Feinstein +1400

According to Wikipedia, these are moneyline odds or “American” odds. To find out just what you’re getting into, we offer Wikipedia’s explanation of moneyline odds:

To convert fractional odds to decimal, you take the fractional number, convert it to decimal by doing the division, and then you add 1. For example, the 4/1 fractional odds shown above is the same as 5 in decimal odds. While 1/4 would be quoted as 1.25.

To convert moneyline to decimal odds it depends on whether it’s positive or negative. If it’s positive, you divide by 100 and add 1. +400 moneyline is the same as 5.0 in decimal odds. If the moneyline is negative, to convert, first remove the minus sign, then instead of dividing by 100, you take 100 and divide it by the moneyline amount, then you add 1. For example, -400 moneyline is 100/400 + 1 in decimal, or 1.25

Got that?

Neither do we.

Sometimes, Wikipedia doesn’t help at all.

But this much we know: If you put money on Tommy Johnagin, and he wins, you win some money. If you put money on Rachel Feinstien or Laurie Kilmartin and one of them wins, you win a lot of money.