To get the best shot on horse racing bets, you need to understand the betting systems used. What are the betting systems? They are techniques that help you pick out the value in the market. While betting systems are not a sure-shot way of winning big money, they do give you a better chance. To understand horse racing betting systems, you first need to get a grasp of how odds are expressed.
Methods Of Expressing Odds In Horse Racing
There are two ways of expressing odds, which one is used depends upon the horse race and where you are in the world.
- Fixed Odd Betting
Most of the horse racing betting sites utilise this system of expressing odds. In this horse racing bet, the pay out, in case you win, is established when you place the bet. The pay out does not change after being set.
- Parimutuel Odds Betting
Some horse racing betting sites offer this method. It is different from fixed odds because the pay out of a winning wager is not established until after the betting pool closes. This method of expressing odds is not very common in Europe.
Controlled by a tote system, in pari-mutuel betting the entire money in the betting pool (after removing the house cut) is considered to determine the pay out odds of winning wagers.
Now that you know how odds are expressed, we can move on to horse racing betting systems.
Horse Racing Bets: The Statistical Lay
Called to lay a horse, in this system you bet against a runner. How do you use the statistical lay horse racing betting system?
- First, you look for a horse race with 10 or more runners.
- Next, you search for the top three favourites in the horse race and find their odds.
- Third, you look for a runner within the three favourites with odds between 3.0 (2/1) and 5.8 (4.8/1).
- Lastly, you lay bet against the runner with the lowest odds.
The statistical lay betting system allows you to win about 80% of the time!
This happens because runners who fall within the odds given above and are in the top three picks for a horse race win about 17% of the time. And because you put a lay bet, that is the horse you chose doesn’t win; you get to collect a pay out 83% of the time!
Betting On The Beaten Favourite System
The second horse racing betting system is backing the beaten favourite. When a horse is a clear favourite set to win but is defeated in a race, it is known as a beaten favourite. Because of the loss, most people will not bet for the runner in the next race.
As the betting becomes against the beaten favourite, the odds rise. And that’s what back the beaten favourite betting system relies on.
Experienced people in the horse racing niche know that every runner faces unexpected losses at some point. They look past the loss and ante-up on the runner. And because the beaten favourite now has more than average odds, you realise a profit over the long term. It is why the beaten favourite system is a tremendous long-term value proposition strategy.
If you are placing horse racing bets based on these systems, you have more than an average chance to defy the odds. That said, don’t consider them to be a magic potion that helps you win in horse racing every single time.
