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If you bet at a bookmaker with a consistently higher overround, you need a higher strike rate just to break even. The worst overrounds appear in ante-post markets, where the uncertainty justifies — in the bookmaker’s view — margins that can reach extraordinary levels. The overround also tells you something about the race itself. The overround is 5.9 per cent, meaning the bookmaker has built a theoretical edge of just under 6 per cent into the market. It is the bookmaker’s theoretical profit margin before a single bet is settled.
Winners are paid out of full track odds on your Straight wagers and track odds up to a fixed odds max amount for your Exotic wager. Andy Schooler previews this week’s ‘Super Sunday’ Premier League showdown between Liverpool and Arsenal. Ross Burdon provides his latest stable update, with Gifts Differing set to run at Chelmsford on Thursday, while Dust Cover Manchester United host Aston Villa in Sunday’s featured Premier League clash, with both sides looking to build momentum.
The difference between 5/1 and 6/1 on the same horse in the same race is a 20 per cent increase in profit — free money, essentially, for the 30 seconds it takes to check a second bookmaker. Odds expressed in decimals are meant to show the total payout the punter receives, which includes the winnings and the stake. In today’s day and age where automobiles have substituted the four legged animal, horses still retain importance. Dave Massey previews Saturday’s action at Aintree, selecting his best bets for the races at 1.15, 1.45, 2.25 and 3.00. Dave Chisnall spoke to kwiff on Friday afternoon just before he kicked off his Grand Slam of Darts qualifying campaign That small time investment — repeated across every bet you place — is the most reliable edge available to the average punter.
A significant share of that GGY exists because punters accept worse odds than they need to. 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.
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. Small-field races with well-fancied favourites tend to carry lower overrounds (closer to 110 per cent) because the market is more efficient and bookmakers compete harder on the headline price of the favourite.
Most bookmakers cap BOG payouts — some at a maximum enhanced payout of 500 pounds, others at a maximum uplift of a certain number of odds points. On horses that drift — less money than expected, price lengthening — BOG gives you the benefit of the higher SP. On horses that are supported in the market — money coming in, price shortening — BOG adds nothing, because the SP is lower than the price you took. Best Odds Guaranteed is one of the most powerful tools available to horse racing punters, and it is routinely undervalued. Using non gamstop sports betting uk the exchange as a benchmark — even if you ultimately bet with a bookmaker — is one of the most effective habits a punter can develop.
Over time, backing at exchange odds rather than bookmaker odds produces a measurably higher return on investment, assuming you can find liquidity on your chosen market. 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.
The bookmaker margin is built into every price, but how wide that margin is varies enormously between operators, between race types, and between the fixed-odds market and the betting exchange. Horse Racing Odds Comparison — More on this topic at horse racing bookmakers. Yet the majority of bettors place their bets with whichever app they last used, at whatever price happens to be on screen, without checking whether a better number is available elsewhere.
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. 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.