Online Racebook Betting
Horse racing odds comparison is the single most important habit a punter can develop, and it is also the one most punters neglect. With the assistance of Equinedge I hit several races yesterday and netted over $1100 in profit. Although it won’t tell you how much the horse will pay, it does show the amount of profit you will get if you win and the amount you have to bet to get it. The figures indicate how much a punter would win using a stake of a $100. The money line is mostly used by the American bookies, which clearly displays an underdog, and a favorite. This is much simpler as the decimal figure is simply the payout per unit staked.
If the exchange back price is 8.0 and the best bookmaker is offering 6/1, the bookmaker is taking a significantly wider margin on that horse. Here is the workflow that experienced punters follow, stripped of anything unnecessary. And some operators apply BOG only to bets placed after a certain time in the morning, which means very early ante-post-style wagers do not qualify.
The exchange takes a commission on the net winnings of the winning side, typically between 2 and 5 per cent depending on the user’s activity level. The overround on the Grand National ante-post market can reach as high as 180 per cent — a level that would be considered predatory in any raceday market. It varies by operator, by race type, and by the time of day. If Bookmaker A is running a 115 per cent book on a race and Bookmaker B is running a 125 per cent book, Bookmaker A is systematically offering better value across the entire field. The 120 per cent book means the prices across the entire field are compressed, which means every price is slightly lower than it should be in a fair market. A significant share of that GGY exists because punters accept worse odds than they need to.
If the exchange offers 7.0 and the bookmaker offers 5/1, the bookmaker is taking a significantly larger margin on that runner, and you should either back on the exchange or find a bookmaker whose price is closer to the exchange level. On short-priced selections — odds-on or evens — the exchange commission can actually make the bookmaker price competitive or even better, because the commission is a fixed percentage of the betting websites not on gamstop profit regardless of the odds. The commission you pay on an exchange winning bet reduces your effective odds.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds are matched, and the spread between the back and lay prices is narrow. That difference — roughly 10 per cent on the individual price — is the cost of the bookmaker margin. One person backs a horse to win; another lays it (bets against it winning). The betting exchange — Betfair being the dominant platform — operates on a fundamentally different model to a traditional bookmaker. Among fixed-odds bookmakers, bet365, Paddy Power, and William Hill tend to be competitive on feature races, while some smaller operators run wider books, particularly on less prominent meetings. By the time the race starts, competition among operators has usually tightened the market.
“We trust US Racing to provide accurate and thoughtful coverage of racing. They are the best source for horse racing odds.” The horse racing betting odds for each horse are displayed on a tote board at the track or on the betting ticket online. Betting on the outcome of horse racing can be fun and profitable, and if you know what you’re doing, you might even be able to beat the odds. Not only that, you’ll get up to an 10% rebate on all your horse bets placed! Get the VIP treatment from day one with a special Welcome Bonus up to $1,000.
Bookmakers open with a cautious book and adjust as money comes in. The first show of prices in the morning — often called the early prices — tends to carry a wider margin than the Starting Price. On the raceday market itself, there are consistent patterns.
On feature races — the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup, the Grand National, Saturday afternoon handicaps at major tracks — the exchange market is deep enough that you can back at the displayed price without difficulty. Where a bookmaker might offer 5/1 on a horse with a 120 per cent book, the exchange might show 5.5 (or 9/2 in fractional terms) on the same runner with a total market overround of 103 per cent. When bookmakers extend place terms on big handicaps — paying five or six places instead of four — they compensate by widening the margin on the place element of each-way bets. At the lower end, you find small-field Flat races — Group 1 contests with five or six runners where the form is well established and bookmakers compete aggressively on the headline price of the favourite. The difference between 3/1 and 7/2 is not dramatic on a single bet, but across 200 bets over a season it represents dozens of units of profit or loss. Checking the overround before you bet is not something most punters do, but it takes less than a minute with a calculator or an odds comparison site.
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