playing US races abroad

[dcost328]

I am in the UK right now as I typically am each year for about 6 months. I have not played much other than the Breeders Cup while I have been here but this year I\'ve been inclined to play a bit more.

One thing that I have found extremely advantageous, in the last week anyway, is the option to lock in on odds.

The main drawback here is that you can not really play any track you like, and a lot of times you can not play into the US tote pools. That means no horizontals either, although they do have their own version of multi race bets. You can also only usually bet to win or each way. Each way is the equivalent of place, but it only pays for 2nd sometimes, not always 2nd and 3rd. It depends on how big the field is. It is also a fixed rate. When it pays for 2nd and 3rd, it is usually 1/5th of the odds of your horse, and when it pays for 2nd, it is 1/4th.

Now those are the drawbacks, but there are some advantages of playing here.

This past weekend, I was able to be locked into 12/1 odds on Disco Partner in the Troy. I believe the horse went off at 4/1 on the US tote.

I also was able to get 9/1 on Force The Pass, and an amazing 20/1 on Seven Forty Seven who went off at 2/1 on the tote. While neither of these won, the value was there.

Today I am playing Rachel\'s Temper. I think there is a lot of talk from what I understand about this horse, so the ML odds of 6/1 will probably not stick. However, PaddyPower opened and has odds up at 8/1, so I was able to lock in on that with 1/4 each way.



I don\'t play many UK races but I was able to visit York on Friday for the Ebor Festival and watch the Nunthorpe Stakes sprint where Mecca\'s Angel who won last year put the boys away quite easily after a load of mid day rain softened up the course to her liking.

I was very impressed with the track, and if by some chance you ever have the chance to visit York, I would not pass on the opportunity. The grounds are very nice and clean, and it is quite an experience.

There is no going to the window at the track here. You place your bets with the bookies. They have dozens of them in the betting area. Each one has an electronic board with the odds for the current race. You are able to \"shop around\" as some are offering slightly different odds than others. You are also locked in to those odds once you make a bet, so there is no seeing your odds come crashing down if someone makes a huge late wager.

Aside from that, they also have TotePool stands, which is your typical pool betting. They also offer some fun multi race bets. There is the Jackpot, which is your typical pick 6. Then they offer a PlacePot, which is a 6 race wager where you must pick a horse to place in each leg. There is also a QuadPot, which is the same as the PlacePot but instead of a 6 race wager, it is only a 4 race spread. You can use multiple horses just like horizontals in the US, and just like the US, the more combinations give you a more expensive ticket.

Just wanted to share my experiences as I thought it was really interesting as someone who loves to play the horses and is accustomed to the way we do things in the US.

[Mathcapper]

dcost -- good stuff, thanks for sharing.

I\'d be curious to see how bookies like PaddyPower adjust their fixed odds for a horse like Rachel\'s Temper when the race opens for betting (~ 4:30PM EST). Do they take the race off the board? Do they keep the fixed odds (8-1 as you say) constant throughout the wagering period? Do they match the fixed odds to the U.S. tote odds as the odds change up until post time (5:02PM EST)?

Seems like there could be some pretty good arb opportunities with the bookies, which is generally lacking on the betting exchanges (Betfair, etc) because of the poor liquidity until the last few minutes before each race.

[philywheel]

8-1 on rachels temper. nice value

[Tavasco]

Didn\'t Love The Ride.

Then Loved The Ride.

Especially Good For You.

[dcost328]

Mathcapper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dcost -- good stuff, thanks for sharing.
>
> I\'d be curious to see how bookies like PaddyPower
> adjust their fixed odds for a horse like Rachel\'s
> Temper when the race opens for betting (~ 4:30PM
> EST). Do they take the race off the board? Do they
> keep the fixed odds (8-1 as you say) constant
> throughout the wagering period? Do they match the
> fixed odds to the U.S. tote odds as the odds
> change up until post time (5:02PM EST)?
>
> Seems like there could be some pretty good arb
> opportunities with the bookies, which is generally
> lacking on the betting exchanges (Betfair, etc)
> because of the poor liquidity until the last few
> minutes before each race.




Mathcapper,

They adjust the odds throughout the day, but I would venture to guess that this is only based on action they are taking and also in alignment with other competitor books odds. Not always are you able to get odds and it often varies how far in advance you can get them. Typically for stakes races or feature races, they have fixed odds up quite early in the day. You can either lock in at the odds, or take the SP which is the start price. The start price being the industry odds the horse goes off at, which is not always the same as the US tote.

Saratoga you are usually able to get fixed odds. On bigger days, they have fixed odds for each race on the card out quite early. On quieter days through the week, they sometimes just post fixed odds for a few races early, and then closer to post time put up odds for the other races.

Some tracks though, for example Presque Isle Downs, has a race carded to go off 15 minutes from now, but their are no odds. Just the SP.

Once the race \"opens\" on the US tote, I do think they adjust the odds accordingly if something is way off. For example, this past weekend when I was able to get 20/1 on Seven Forty Seven, his odds did come down drastically to reflect the US tote.

I was leaving the cinema tonight about a half hour before the race and I checked the odds again on PaddyPower and it had gone down to 4/1, so they do change things with the action they take. I think the opportunities are there early in the day or before the race is near post time. A lot of times the odds open at or very near the morning line, so as some have pointed out how off the morning line has been, you can really take advantage of that when places over here are using that to set their opening odds.

[Mathcapper]

Thanks dcost -- if there continues to be the kind of opportunity created by bad ML\'s like 747 and Rachel\'s Temper, I might have to relocate my tack across the pond. Nicely done.