The most basic information are the win odds quoted on each horse. Those don't tell you what the horse will pay, but the amount of profit you will get and the amount you have to bet to get it. 6-5 means you will get $6 profit for every $5 wagered. 20-1 means you get $20 profit for every $1 wagered (ex: bet $2 and get $42 back). Since most tracks have a $2 minimum bet, below is a handy chart look up the payoff for a $2 bet at various odds.
If you want to calculate the exact win odds on a horse, you will need to use a couple of other figures from the tote board: total win pool and amount bet on that horse. The total pool is all the money bet on all the horses to win, but it is not the amount that will actually be paid out to the holders of winning tickets. Before the track pays off the winners they deduct the "take" which is generally between 14%-20% and is different for every state. This money goes to pay state and local taxes, purse money for the horsemen, expenses at the track, and the track's profit. To calculate the exact odds on your horse, just subtract the take from the total pool then subtract the amount bet on your horse to give you the amount of cash to be paid out. Divide that figure by the amount bet on your horse to get the exact odds. This figure will always be rounded off to the nearest dime (usually) or nickle as mentioned above before the payouts are calculated. Here is a simple example of win odds calculation:
Total pool: $900
Amount bet on horse #1: $300
Take amount: 15%
$900 - 15% = $765
$765 - $300 = $465
$465 / $300 = $1.55
Round this off to $1.50 for breakage and you get odds of 1.5-1 or 3-2 as it would normally be written which yields a payout of $5.00 on a $2.00 wager.
*tote board: The board on which the odds calculated by a tote machine are posted.
Technorati tag(s): How to read odds
No comments:
Post a Comment