Six beliefs about a live stream, checked against the samples
Six things readers believe about a live picture, each checked against the ten samples rather than against opinion. Four are false, one is partly true and one is simply true.
- beliefs
- 6
- false
- 4
- partly
- 1
- true
- 1
Four common beliefs about a live stream are wrong: that it is live, that it gives an in-play edge, that a blackout voids a bet, and that the picture settles the result. One is partly true, that a bigger picture costs more, and one is true, that some events will never stream. Each verdict below rests on a figure, not on taste.
The six, checked
A live stream is live.
It is 12.0 seconds behind the event on the samples, and 11.8 seconds behind the price beside it. A buffer that keeps the picture from breaking is 7.5 of those seconds, so the delay is mostly deliberate.
A stream gives you an edge in-play.
The price refreshes 60 times in one picture lag, so what the reader sees has already been priced. The delay stands between the reader and the market, not between the reader and other readers in the reader's favour.
If a stream is blacked out, the bet is void.
A blackout is a rights restriction, not a condition of the wager. The market stays open and is graded on the official result; on the samples 16 of 40 cells are blacked and 0 of them void a bet.
The picture settles the bet.
The rules name the official result, and the picture is a licensed broadcast. Of 100 disputed results the picture looked decisive in 96 and governed in 0.
A bigger picture costs more to watch.
It weighs more: an hour ranges from 0.36 to 5.40 gigabytes, a 15-fold spread. But the reader pays none of it directly - 0 of 96 streamed events charge for the stream - and the delay is 12.0 seconds at every tier.
Some events will never be streamed.
On the samples 204 of 300 events have no picture and 120 of them are in a tier that streams 0.0% of its fixtures, because the audience cannot carry the delivery and no licence is offered at a price it could.
- Time the picture against the field and against the price; if you cannot, you are guessing at live.
- Ask whether the market beside the picture is on the same clock, which it almost never is.
- For a blackout, check whether the market stayed open and on what it settled.
- For a cost claim, check whether the operator charges for the stream or grants it on the account.
- For a tier claim, check whether any fixture in it ever streams.