Sport Bet

The World Series starts October 22nd, with the improbable American League [champion:cluster] Tampa Bay Rays hosting the National League-best Philadelphia Phillies. And there's a 59 percent chance that the Rays will take the title. That what Bruce Bukiet says, anyway. He's a [mathematician:technician] at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who sets odds on the playoffs and World Series every year.Bukiet starts with each player's [statistics:frame] for the 2008 season. He then uses a model that estimates run production per game based on those stats. His most probable [outcomes:income] are a 20 percent chance of a Rays championship in six games, and a 19 percent chance of a seven-game Rays win. But beware. In the 2006 postseason, only one of his favorites in the seven [different:basic] series actually came out victorious. Nevertheless, he's gotten it right in six of the last eight years. Of course, when predicting [sporting:gaming] events, always follow the advice of Damon Runyon, who said, "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But that's the way to bet."