GG Guide:
· Betting Emotion
· Money Management
· Shopping Around and Why We Should
· Value From Various Multiple Bets
In Part 1 we took a brief look at how specialising in certain races and playing to your personal strengths is key to your success when betting. We also mentioned money management and we’ll elaborate upon that here.
From an emotional point of view, betting on horses can test our will and discipline greatly and ultimately undermine any attempts at accurately quantifying a value bet. There is a certain thrill associated which can be a hindrance where a more level headed approach might produce more consistent results. Betting is not emotional, or at least it shouldn’t be if the money you use has no emotional attachment to your personal cash requirements. Betting within your means in order to establish a level of comfort is important.
So having this approach whereby you’re actively trying to “Not Lose”, along with using an affordable amount of money to bet with, is a steady footing with which to start improving your concept of value.
The next logical step in this process is to consider the differences in price available to us from a wide variety of bookmakers. The fixed odds betting markets tend to align themselves with the betting exchanges at the first show onwards, but in the morning there are usually some notable differences in price across the board as bookies await betting activity to better establish in what direction the final SP prices might be heading. This presents an opportunity for punters to shop around and benefit from discrepancies on a fancied horse.
If punters manage their money well, then having multiple accounts is a great way of maximising returns. Sticking with the bookmakers that offer Best Odds Guarantee can also make a considerable difference to your return on investment when a price you’ve taken drifts before the off. Indeed, all bookmakers also offer Free Bets when you open a new account so obviously using those in a sensible way can get you off to a great start with no attached risk from the matched bet.
We’ve covered single bets and given a couple of examples of how punters can improve that side of their betting. Everyone also enjoys a multiple or combination bet and there are one or two ways to again, maximise the value we can acquire from the layers.
Take a Lucky 15 bet, which consists of four horses and 15 bets. If you were to have a 50p E/W Lucky 15 costing £15, where all of your four selections won at 2/1, you’d return £143.59. A Yankee bet consists of four horses as well but only 11 bets this time, so a 50p E/W Yankee will cost £11. If you took that bet and added a £2 E/W Accumulator, given the same outcome as the Lucky 15 you’d return £304.47 for that same £15 stake. The difference in winnings between the Yankee and Lucky 15 is only £8.80, so it could be seen as fantastic value to simply place the second choice of multiple bet which includes the £2 E/W four fold in addition to the Yankee.
Another example is a simple little trick for getting a higher pay-out from the Tote Exacta over the Computer Straight Forecast. Assume you fancy a horse further down the betting to beat a favourite, or simply one horse to beat another that is a shorter price. Placing this particular bet will nearly always result in the Exacta paying considerably more than the in CSF will, which is interesting and useful for those of us who enjoy finding a second or third favourite capable of beating a favourite. For an example, yesterday in the second race at Nottingham 11/1 chance Windheok beat the 11/8 favourite Janoub Nibras in a maiden event. The CSF paid £23.99 and the Tote Exacta paid £35.70. That effectively is an £11.70 difference which could have been taken advantage of by any punter.
Hopefully Part 2 in this series has brought together some of the initial ideas and expanded upon those to provide an insight of how we can all create a huge difference to our betting productivity with relatively little effort from the outset. A sure-fire method of winning on the horses does not exist, so it is up to us to use what is available in order to find that elusive value bet. Value though must start with the gambler and not the horse. Once a certain mind-set is established along these lines in terms of money management, it can then become much easier to seek value in markets and give ourselves the best possible chance of giving the bookmakers a run for their money.
In Part 3, we’ll take a look at “Dutching” and other areas of interest within Tote/Exchange betting and how utilising a variety of bets can work well in backing up your opinion of a race.
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