Minimum Wager Amounts and Fractional Betting
Written by trackmasterplus on February 1, 2010 – 9:00 am -What is the minimum unit that a wager should be able to be purchased at the track? Does lowering the minimum unit of a wager help make the game more fair for the smaller player to compete with the “whales?” Do certain bets fit into a ten cent minimum wager category while others fit into a one dollar or two dollar category? Can the tote system be updated so a player can put in an amount to wager, the horses for each leg of the wager, and then the system will make the bets with the maximum amount of money to be invested for each combination? These questions and more need to be examined in order to optimize the amount of wagering on horse racing in North America.
A number of wagers have had a major reduction in the size of the minimum wager over the years. I remember when the minimum wager for an exacta at some tracks was $5.00. I also remember the inconvenience of making exotic wagers at different windows. (Try standing in the blazing sun on asphalt in August to make a daily double bet in Stockton where the wagers were taken in a separate building away from the grandstand.) Exotic wagers have made significant changes, with many tracks offering a ten cent superfecta wager and a fifty cent pick three or pick four wager. While two dollars is the standard minimum on win,place and show bets and daily doubles, some tracks offer these wagers at a one dollar minimum.
If it were up to me, I would make win, place and show wagers a one dollar minimum. The Pick 6 because of the carryover aspect would be a one dollar wager as well (except in Southern California where the two dollar minimum has made it much more successful than on any other racing circuit). All other bets would be at a ten cent minimum. I think this format would give the average bettor a better chance at going home with more money. Also, it would be best if all will pays and payouts at all tracks were displayed for a one dollar amount.
Fractional wagering with a touch of a button, could create a new increase in wagering by offering the bettor an easy way to make exotic wagers. The way it would work is when a bettor is online with an ADW or at a self-service machine at the track, the user could enter the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for a trifecta box with the total amount of bets not to exceed twenty dollars. The machine would then offer up a thirty cent trifecta box with all five horses coming to a total of eighteen dollars. This makes the wagering process more user-friendly and allows the beginner to make bets more easily.
As the North American handle continues to drop from year to year, now is the time to try and give more value to the customer. Just as fast food chains have dollar menus, racing should continue to lower the minimum wager amount, to offer more choices for investment for the handicapper. This will help their dollars go farther and keep them coming back to the track. Giving the bettor more options and the chance to make a significant amount of money with a minor investment is one way to increase the handle in racing.
Craig Walker
TrackMaster Senior Product Development Specialist
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February 1st, 2010 at 5:35 pm
These fractional bet amounts are helping players lose faster as these bets are usually on betting types with 25% or higher takeout. You can’t blame the horseplayer, because all horseplayers want to make a score, and sometimes a pool can be won with a 20 cent super.
That being said, I’d like to see the following minimums:
triactor $1
superfecta 20 cents
pick 4 50 cents
pick 3 $1
pick 5 50 cents
pick 6 $1
My biggest gripe has to do with payoff prices that are show at tracks and how inconsistent they are from one track to another.
Tri’s, supers, pick 4’s, pick 3’s, pick 5’s should be based on $1
Ex’s, DD’s, WPS based on $2
And pick 6 on $2 (since that is the minimum around many tracks that have it)
I hate seeing the results and not knowing what the base amount is.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Less fans putting money into the pools reduces the size of the pools and makes wagering into those pools less attractive, and so the solution is to lower the amount of the wagers? The minimum amount of all wagers should be raised! There’s an old song “Makin’ Whoopie” with the line: “He doesn’t make much money, only 5,000 per”. Yes, back around even 1960 or so, $5,000 per year was a fairly standard wage for an ordinary worker – about $100 per week. Yet the minimum wager at the tracks then was still $2.00. By ratio, then, it ought to be about $20.00 now. But psychologically, people don’t accept the effects of inflation, and complain about increasing prices, but not increasing salaries. So, split the difference: minimum wagers of $10.00. Watch the pools increase, as bettors continue to wager in the same patterns, only at increased amounts. To the ten cent minimum I answer with the time-honored phrase, “put your money where your mouth is”.
And please, this is not investing. The use of the term ‘investment’ instead of wager or bet only sullies the sport with terminology of Wall Street. Honest parimutuel pooling should not have to stand alongside, casinos, lotteries,scratchers, Three-Card Monty, or Wall Street.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Hey John, I sort of agree that WPS should have a $10 minimum. It might be good for the game, but exotics didn’t exist back in the 60’s to kill the churn, except for maybe one daily double and one quinella or exactor each day. Takeout was lower as well.
February 1st, 2010 at 7:15 pm
When tri’s at Thistledown were a $3 minimum, I cleaned up, because my one horse key with 7 horses cost $270 ($90 1st, $90 2nd, $90 3rd). Not many players would bet $270 per tri, but I did and made $25,000 net in the fall of 1980. When racing commenced the following year, the $1 tri was put in place and every one who could afford $90, could make my play. The payouts became smaller and my edge was eliminated.
So I think larger minimums would produce larger payouts, tempting the bettor, resulting in larger pools.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:19 pm
The fact is that we need nationwide standards set by a National Horse Racing Board. Since the current power structure will never give up the alleged “control” that they currently use to strangle the sport under the misguided assumption that they will profit from us horse players, the only result will be the closure of more tracks as more people migrate to casinos.
Casino’s get it!
They don’t charge an admission, charge for a PP form telling you how to bet, give you free or really low priced drinks, good food at a fair price and sometimes even comp. that as well.
While we horse players deal with being shut out over squabbles about simulcast percentages.
WE CUSTOMERS, who pay for this sport through our wagers and pay for the salaries of execctives in the industry who keep missing the point…
Should simply decide to take the second month off from attending or wagering at every track in North America during their meet, so that these people learn WHOM THEY ARE EMPLOYED, BY FOR THE BENEFIT THEREOF.
Maybe then, they’ll wake up.
Example…
Australia:
16-17% TAKEOUT
250+ tracks around the country
and standardized rules, no meds, no games and jockeys are suspended for all rule violations.
http://www.australianracingboard.com.au/
http://www.australianracingboard.com.au/factBook.html
http://www.australianracingboard.com.au/rules/Rules260909.pdf
Yes I am an American, yet when I see other countries kicking our ass with common sense; it really angers me since it is another nail in the coffin for our country. Considering the current state of our nation aside from the misguided corporate, wall street and political hype, we’re in deep manure and this kind of wagering control is a part of the reason why.
If a ten cent super is alright, then so is a fifty cent tri and exacta as well, EVERYWHERE!!! As for W/P/S… $1 should be the standard everywhere, period.
C.R.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 am
Personally, I like the 10-cent minimums myself on the superfectas with 50-cent minimums on the trifectas. I also would like to see the pick-six be a $1 wager (instead of $2) because with a good-sized carryover, it gives non-syndicates a better chance to hit it.
I also wish for the Breeders’ Cup we would at least on Saturday go back to nine races and have a “Breeders Cup Pick Nine for a Dime” (10-cent pick-9) wager. That wager can be marketed to lottery players who otherwise don’t care about the Breeders’ Cup, but might very well wager on the Breeders’ Cup solely because of that wager.
February 5th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Love the 10 cent bet on on everything. Instead of watching TVG at night and not betting while play penny anti poker on the internet I could be putting my $ horse racing instead. The poker sites let you play nickel dime so why not horse racing.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:43 am
People don’t play the horses because they don’t win. If they are at the track for 9 races they might hit one or two races and they pay $6 or $8 because Gomez, Dominquez or Leparou was on it. Making the win bet $1 they get back $3 or $4 not FUN. If they think they are going to hit the pick 6 they are nuts, make that bet .10. Leave all the usual bets $2 so it looks like racetracks are sum what governed by something. The guys with all the money can still bet $10 or $20 on anything they want. Let some of these other jocks ride some of these good horses, and maybe they’ll pay $10 or $14 instead of $6 or $8.
February 6th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Fractional betting is the future,.10 cent minimum bet on everything.While we are at it, lets have no tiered take out levels,just 10% across the board.
Let the people know it is their game, and watch it grow. Let the deep pocket people adjust.
The people love horse racing,put the game on for them and they will prove the point.
February 6th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
I don’t like WalMart. The only thing they have revolutionized to me is the cashing of a check for $3.00, any amount. But I don’t like buying discounted products, it cheapens what you get, includes the stems in the collard greens. Let me play for $1 or $2 for a superfecta or trifecta, why should I share with the .10 cent player who wants to cover the board to just plain and simply get over cheaply, like Jack Benny, play for a penny is what they want.
February 6th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I made some “wagering format” comments similar to those above, on the “New Years Resolutions” blog …
Like it or not, horseracing does have some things in common with investing. IMHO, the difference between gambling and investing is doing your homework. That’s why companies like “Trackmaster” exist. They go a long way to help you with that homework, but you still need to understand the difference between a good play and a weak one.
If you put any amount of money down and just hope for a good ROI, you are gambling. If you can estimate your potential profit, it’s much easier to decide when to pass and when to play.
In spite of higher takeouts, exotics are often a much better deal than W/P/S … if you know what you are doing… and “gamblers” always sweeten the pot for the small percentage of people who win often.
Lower minimums mean less money is at risk… but even if more people playing would mean a lower ROI for the winner, fewer people playing could be even worse… if your favorite track can’t afford to stay in business.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 am
I agree wholeheartedly with Chris R., especially about the total and complete disqualification of trainers and jockeys who violate drug and OBVIOUS sandbagging. It’s ok to “breeze” a horse in a race, BUT, the BETTOR/FAN, who supports the entire industry, should KNOW about it BEFOREHAND, not AFTER he’s lost his money to the “game players”.
March 7th, 2010 at 8:22 am
If apples in the cart cost 25 cents apiece I would buy 4 to take home to make a pie but if the price were 10 cents each I would most likely buy 5 to make a really big pie and then think how much I saved from when the price was higher. Point is the more value there seems to be in the wagering format would no doubt lower the overall handle enough to substantially decrease sizeable payoffs. This would be hard to prove one way or another, but statistically, over time the numbers could reveal the truth. A smaller pool, with more winners, definitely would produce smaller payouts while having a larger base bet for a particular pool may produce fewer winners with more attractive payouts. All this depending upon the race in question. Personnally, I like the 10 cent wager as they are a good way to hedge my “investment” of the more serious wagers. I would play several $1 or $2 straight superfectas on my favorite choices, then play around with 10 cent supers boxing or keying horses, with tickets costing up to $12 a pop. Never could do this years ago, when superfectas first emerged. Now the lastest are 50 cent trifectas. I have found that I typically will spend at least 4 times as much betting with 50 cent tris then before at $1. Still, a hit is a hit. But now I have more bases covered, and hit more often, therefore play more often. Its more fun. Like going fishing, “Ain’t no fun when you don’t catch any fish!” So bottom line is keep the 10 cent super exotics, 50 cent trifectas, pick 4’s, $1 exactas, doubles, pick – 3’s, WPS. We need more of the carryover stuff that would bring hitable jackpots up into the millions. Good luck to all.