Rónán Mac Aodha

About Rónán Mac Aodha

A €10 free bet at 4/1 pays €40, not €50, because the stake isn’t returned. Rónán Mac Aodha opens his offer breakdowns with that sort of sum, before the bookmaker’s own headline figure is mentioned. Fractional odds are turned into implied probability in the same sentence: 4/1 is 20%. A market’s margin comes before any view on whether a price is worth taking.

He covers GAA, racing and football markets for readers in Ireland. That includes each-way terms at the big festivals, bet builders and the margin they carry, cash-out offers, and acca insurance that refunds in bonus credit rather than cash. He also follows how free bets and other promotions are changing under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024’s restrictions on inducements, working with the regulation desk on what applies now and what applies only once the relevant sections commence.

Before moving to betting in 2012, he spent several years on the sports desk of a regional newspaper in the west. He holds a BA in Economics and Irish from the University of Galway.

He doesn’t tip results, publish “best bets” or run accumulators for readers to copy, and he won’t call a price value without the arithmetic beside it.