- This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 3 months ago by
.
- Posts
Well, it’s taken them some time since Monday’s events at Wolver but the Racing post is finally addressing the real issues surrounding the SP mechanism.
Step forward Geoff Banks on today’s p17 highlighting the horror of the prices the off-course bookmaking industry was forced to bet to in the 4.05 at Ascot the Saturday before last.
A black day in the shops by all accounts as Di Kaprio squeaked into a place for the ‘each-way thieves’, some or who are probably evil arbers (boo hiss) to boot.
How can the big firms expect to make a profit when they have to settle at a fifth the odds on a 14/1 shot that’s only trading 60s a win and 4.2 a place on ‘the machine’?
Radical reform is obviously needed. What I propose is that we get together a committee, fill it with friends of the program (grease their palms if necessary), maybe a Lord or two and make sure that the sample used to return SPs is rigged, so it doesn’t include the following:
1) the ‘Win-only’ bookmakers Banks cites as the cause of the off-course industry’s woes
2) Bookmakers who follow exchange prices out when they’ve been told they’re only allowed to follow them in.Bookmakers can also bring in the following rule to protect themselves from overbroke place books on such races:
1) Place only betting not allowed. Any place bet must be accompanied by a win bet of equal or greater size
We’ll have to think of a new name for this sort of betting. Erm, how does ‘each-way’ grab you?
Before long we’ll be seeing BAGS type percentages on these sort of races as opposed to the unsustainable situation we have at present. The levy will obviously sky rocket as a result.
Who’s with me?
I keep saying this but here goes again. The answer is to regulate SP returns such that the overrounds are uniform, dependant only on the number of runners.
On reflection, perhaps we should be careful what we wish for. The current SP system is clearly favourable to bookmakers. If it is made fairer it will dent bookmaker margins significantly. And then what? Probably BOG will no longer be offered and the Tatersalls rules each way fractions will be abandoned. We will then have separate win and place markets driven by exchanges. But we already have this option so we won’t be any better off. Incidentally there are signs that the industry is moving in this direction, with Corals now offering green tick prices which are roughly similar to exchange prices.
I think the status quo is in fact the most favourable to informed punters. Bookmakers allow some cross-subsidy from the mug to the informed and I think we should be grateful for that. If the mugs get a fairer deal then somebody else will lose out.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear. Basically bookmakers make a number of punter-friendly concessions such as competitive early prices, the best odds guarantee and each-way terms that are sometimes generous. If their profits are diminished by a change in the SP system, then they might withdraw some of these concessions or give up bookmaking on horses altogether. Then we will be worse off.
- Total Posts 17716
If you know win prices only you can’t deduce place prices, exacta prices, trio prices and so on and so forth.
You have to use the exacta pool to get to such information.
If you don’t want to do that, then you have to work a different scale for places.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.