Sportsbook Guardian

There are many different betting options available and for horse racing betting the main ones are listed below.

With multiples it’s important to remember that if you are betting 2/3 horses that are all over-priced you are multiplying your advantage, however if you are betting horses that are not representative of good value then you are multiplying your inherent disadvantage.

It’s unlikely that there will be many, many over-priced runners on a card, and to always bet multiples as a standard bet is ultimately a route to the poor-house!

Multiples are worth using only as a precision tool.

One last tip with multiples, if you are looking to win a large sum of £10k+ it’s imperative that you take prices when making the bet and don’t leave to be settled at starting price.
If there is a lot of money rolling onto the last legs of the multiple then the bookmakers will often back the horse(s) on course to lower their liability.

It was for this reason that Fujiyama Crest went off at 2/1 (12/1 in the morning) when Dettori won the last of his magnificent seven.

Win single:

1 solitary bet, if your horse is declared winner you win, if not you lose!

Each Way:

An each-way bet is a wager of two parts, so £50 each-way will have an outlay of £100.

Half the bet is on the horse to win, the other half is for the horse to place.

The place terms vary and on-course are not fixed (displayed on bookmakers board), off course they vary from ¼ the odds for a handicap, to 1/5 the odds for a non-handicap.

The place terms are first two in races of 5-7, 8+ first three, first four for 16+ handicaps.

When betting each-way make sure both of the two tied bets are representative of value. For example you consider your horse “Novice Jumper Falls” good value to win at 12/1, but with a main danger of poor jumping.

If Novice Jumper Falls gets round you feel it has a great chance of coming first, but if it doesn’t win the likely reason will be a recurrence of previous jumping errors.

In such an example Novice Jumper Falls is good value for the win, but bad value for the place part of the bet and should not be backed each-way.

Mechanics of betting percentages show that a great way to make money each-way is to bet a fancied horse against a heavy odds on shot, as often the odds reflect the chances of the horse’s winning and not the place chances.

This is because the market is formed from the on-course bookmakers, the majority of whom don’t bet e/w, or offer lower e/w terms than online sportsbooks give.

People who continually show a pattern of taking 4/1 shots each way against odds on favourites are nick-named by traders as “each-way thieves” and typically get their accounts shut!

Double:

You pick two horses, both of whom have to win. The win odds of both are multiplied.

Treble:

As per a double, but instead with three selections. The win odds of all are multiplied.

Four-fold, five-fold, six-fold (etc…):

The respective number is the amount of horses backed, all must win.

Yankee:

Six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold. 11 bets in total.

Lucky 15:

As per a yankee, but with four singles also. If only one winner is achieved, then that bet is settled at double the odds, and there is a 10% bonus if all four runners win.

Lucky 31/Lucky 63:

Similar principles to the Lucky 15, but for 5 and 6 horses respectively. It should be noted that the bookmakers are prepared to give bonuses because the bet is typically one that favours sportsbooks and not punters (though not always!).

Heinz:

Why is a bet called Heinz? Heinz famously used to have 57 varieties; this bet has 57 different selections! 15 X doubles, 20 x trebles, 15X fourfolds, 6 fivefolds, one sixfold accumulator.

Super Heinz:

120 bets! Covering doubles upwards.

Goliath:

247 bets, 8 horses, covered in doubles upwards.

Tote Single:

It’s worth keeping an eye on projected Tote dividends to see if it’s likely that the Tote price will be higher than that offered by the bookmakers.

Tote betting is calculated as a pool, with the prices determined by the amount of bets on a runner, as such there is never the option to “take a price”.

Tote take out is often quite high, and as a general rule better value is typically found with bookmakers (though there are exceptions).

Tote Place:

As per the win single the price is determined by the totalisator pool.

Place terms are the same as for each way betting with bookmakers.

Tote each-way:

Two bets, one settled on the place price, one on the win price.

Please note this is different to betting each way with a bookie. Bookmakers settle each way bets on a calculation but the place part of the Tote market is settled on the Tote place pool price (this moving independently of the Tote Win pool).

Tote Placepot:

The Placepot is a very popular pool bet, where punters need to pick a horse to place in the first six races of a meeting.

The best strategy to consistently have winning months on the Placepot is to try to identify weak favourites that you can hopefully get out of the placings.

The name of the game is for the horses that are selected by most Placepot bettors to be avoided (when you think the market leaders are opposable) as on those occasions big dividends are assured.

If a favourite places on each of the six legs, then dividends are often very low. The lowest Placepot I won returned £33! The highest known Placepot dividend was £63,284.30 at Newcastle in 2003, a big win!

Jackpot:

You must pick six winners, can get seriously big since if it is not scooped it rolls over. A winning Tote jackpot strategy is to wait until the jackpot pool rolls over before giving the bet serious consideration with multiple permutations.

Quadpot:

Like the placepot, but only over 4 races (3rd to 6th on the card).

Tote Scoop6:

The Scoop6 is for a £2 stake, and is a combination of a Jackpot and Placepot, with the winner being able to pick a runner in a bonus race the following week. Dividends can go into six figures, and the biggest ever Scoop6 win went to ex-cleaner Agnes Haddock who won £688,620 in 2007!