Bringing together ideas from mathematics, psychology, economics and physics, The Perfect Bet traces the origins of successful betting methods. From the easy towards the intricate, as well as the audacious towards the absurd, Adam Kucharski reveals the longer and tangled history between betting and research, and explains why gambling proceeds to generate insights into luck and decision-making today. Covering exploits and concepts from throughout the world, he satisfies the groups behind hedge money that capitalize on inaccurate sports betting chances, and points out how PhD-level pundits are using methods originally developed for the U. S. nuclear system to predict sports results. Kucharski reveals why winning at chess depends upon luck-but victory in checkers will not-and why poker is among the ultimate problems for artificial intelligence. He also explores the difficulties of mimicking human behavior, and explains what caused one hedge fund’s rogue algorithm to reduce them $400,000 per second in the summertime of 2012.