The binding of glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) to glycans could be modeled with simple equilibrium. Denoting glycans as  and proteins as :
With an associated equilibrium constant of
Which is rearranged to give dissociation constant  following biochemical conventions:
Given that many GBPs exhibit multivalency, this model may be expanded to account for multiple equilibria:
Denoting cumulative equilibrium of binding with  ligands as
With corresponding equilibrium constant:
And writing material balance for protein ( denotes the total concentration of protein):
Expressing the terms through an equilibrium constant, a final result is found:
The concentration of free protein is, thus:
If , i.e. there is only one carbohydrate receptor domain, the equation reduces to
With increasing  the concentration of free protein decreases; hence, the apparent  decreases too.