To fully understand the position of the bookie you have to do a bit of doublethink,if not treblethink.On the surface the bookie lookes like a mediator between the outcome of a specific event(usually a sports event) and punters who want to bet on the outcome of that event.But organisers of sports event,be it a horse race or a footy match,have in no shape or form any inclination to give the event or its elements any kind of value expressed in terms of percentage odds.Hilariously the bookies do that bit.
The bookies take the event and want other third parties,the punters ,to bet on the outcome of that event.They express the event as percentage odds take it or leave it.So whilst they might appear as middle men(women)they are actually in complete control of their own profit margins,they act as go betweens but at the same time completely control events.Or another way of putting it is that they have their cake and eat it,.or put it yet another way,"they appear to be just a passive instrumental entity whilst in actaulity they completely control the situation"
Kenny