The RaceBiz team received some questions from one of our members this week, and thought that perhaps both the enquiries and the responses might be of interest to some of our other members and subscribers.
QUESTIONS ABOUT DUTCH BETTING AND BETFAIR:
i need a leg up with bet fair and dutching. When looking at a race on bet fair starting from the left i cannot seem to comprehend. i think a bet is to win and lay is to lose. The first and second bet column are the price on top and underneath in brackets is how much is been bet is this correct? Don’t worry about the lay part as I cant see myself betting for a horse to lose
About dutching. When i cant get set for your assessed price does that mean no bet on that selection or no bet on the whole race? With some favourites in dutching, the winning result using your assesment etc do not cover the $25 outlay. Does the rule become not bet on the selection or the whole race?
ANSWERS FROM OUR RACEBIZ TIPSTER, TIM:
Let’s start with Dutch Betting and how to understand my assessed odds and the best races to bet in. As you can tell I try to find the best value based on assessed odds. Racing is about making a profit on a regular basis. I don’t get every race right but I wish I did then you would call me a genius. With the assessed odds, this is the second race from Sandown on Wednesday 15 March.
As you can see the winner was LAUCHETTI, assessed odds $6.00 and Betfair price I took was $21.50. You always back the horse based on the assessed odds offered and at $25 per race your outlay was $4.00, if the betting platform you are using is over the assessed odds you back the horse.
For example if I give you a horse at $3.00 assessed, it must be above that price on Betfair or the Bookmaker. It would have to be $3.10 or above. I back every horse that is above the price & don’t back any horses that are under the assessed price. If find a race as shown above and there are horses in the race that are NO/BET still back the other selections. NO/BET means the tote or Bookmakers price was under the assessed odds. If you find a race where the assessed prices are equal or very close across all selections on the bookmaker’s platform it is up to you to decide whether the race has any value. Personally, I would pass it up. I try not to tip in those events.
My best races are when my assessed prices are completely upside down compared to the Tote or Betfair. Unfortunately, that does not happen very often. But I guess any profit is a good profit.
One thing I will say, if I have assessed a horse at $10.00 and the Odds offered are $44.00 still back the horse, even if it drifts in the market. As these horses, when they win, really boost the bank & keeps us in the game a lot longer.
Always remember: horses cannot read. So when they go onto the track and look at the semaphore board they don’t say to the jockey “God I’m 50/1 I’m not meant to win”. Said no horse ever! For example, Redkirk Warrior Assessed Odds $16.00 and Betfair price I took was $44.00. The only horse I know that could read was “Mr Ed” from the that very old TV show.
As for Betfair, the bets punters are trying to put on are under the prices which need to be matched. The only column you look at is the blue column. The pink column is for laying horses (that is for punters with big balls who think they want to be the bookmakers).
Every bet must be matched with a punter that thinks the horse you want to back cannot win that race. Betfair is the largest exchange in the world so matched betsare very easy to get covered. Because the percentage taken out of the betting pool by Betfair is much lower than Totes and Bookmaker (who take around 115 – 130 % on average) their prices are normally much better. They get percentages from both the Lay and the Win and this is between 6-8%.
Just remember the lowest bet you can have on Betfair is $5.00 unless you are using a software trading program like I do. This is one of the only disadvantages I see with this platform.
Here’s a link to the Betfair Hub that you may also find helpful:
https://www.betfair.com.au/hub/getting-started/
Thanks again for writing in, always available to help any fellow punter. I live & breath racing.
Regards
Tim (RaceBiz)