NEW YORK – If you’ve ever deluded yourself that betting on sports was really investing, have we got a hedge fund for you.

Starting today, the new Centaur Galileo fund in London will be making investments not in the traditional financial playing fields of stocks, oil futures or real estate, but in the actual playing fields of soccer, tennis and horse racing.

Galileo is probably the first hedge fund to make bets on sports events, experts say.

“We put numbers against those things that you and me and everyone in pubs have casual discussions about,” said Tony Woodhams, the managing director at Centaur Group, which operates the fund. “That gives us an edge on these markets.”

It’s not for the average bettor. Galileo requires a minimum investment of about $135,000.

Centaur claims to have a proprietary number-crunching system that can make sports bets with far better results than the casual bettor. In fact, the company plans to make money off fluctuations in odds and point spreads that are affected by amateur bets.

“You have a lot of sports fans who are betting for their favorite team,” Woodhams said. “They get excited, and discipline goes out the window. All of that provides opportunity for a trader like us to go in a very clinical manner. That’s where the edge is.”

Galileo is only for Europeans for now — Centaur can’t offer it in the U.S. without the blessing of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Woodhams said the company would apply for that approval next year.

 

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