How To Get More Bang For Your Buck-Aussieraces.com
How to Get The Best Bang for Your Buck From Bookies
I have a confession to make. I don’t like to play favourites - but Sportsbet is just about my favourite bookie at the moment. I like the cheery blue and yellow colours on their web site, the fact that their site’s relatively easy to navigate and their proclivity for offering bonus bets. Sportsbet also have regular new offerings - like the innovative ‘Power Play’ that allows you to increase your racing odds on a fixed odds win bet. I recently wagered on a $13.00 chance - but with ‘Power Play’ this was ramped up to $18.00. Sportsbet give you one Power Play each day.
I have also just discovered another reason for wagering with Sportsbet. At the Caulfield races on Blue Sapphire day - we at Aussieraces.com were really keen on one horse - ‘Keen Array’ to win the seventh race on the card. We backed him and he scored easily. However, our second pick in the race was the outsider Taddei Tondo - so we had a cover bet on him. Taddei Tondo dipped just after the start dislodging his jockey Ryan Moloney so we did our money cold - or so I thought. That was until the ‘Justice League’ came to the rescue. Later that day I received this SMS from Sportsbet ‘Justice Refund - We have refunded your bet on Taddei Tondo’. Nice one Sportsbet!
However, I’m afraid it’s not all wine and roses with Sportsbet. Last year I decided to have a wager on the Brownlow medal winner - and just to make sure that I would obtain the best odds I compared Sportsbet’s odds with those of that other big fish in the bookie world - William Hill. I was surprised at what I found. Just prior to the medal count I compared the odds on offer. For the top twenty players in the Brownlow medal market, William Hill offered better odds than Sportsbet on 11 of them. For the other 9 players, William Hill offered the same odds as Sportsbet. The number of players on which Sportsbet offered better odds than William Hill? None - out of 20!
If you think that was just a one off occurrence, consider the table of odds below - the comparative odds offered on the George Main Stakes in September. These are the fixed odds that were on offer from both of the bookmakers just before the jump;
2016 George Main Stakes*
| |
Sportsbet Odds |
William Hill Odds |
| Runner |
Win |
Place |
Win |
Place |
| 1. Tosen Stardom |
Scratched |
|
|
|
| 2. Huaraki |
$13.00 |
$1.45 |
$13.00 |
$1.38 |
| 3. It’s Somewhat |
$31.00 |
$3.10 |
$31.00 |
$3.30 |
| 4. Spiritjim |
$101.00 |
$7.50 |
$91.00 |
$11.00 |
| 5. Great Esteem |
$51.00 |
$4.00 |
$71.00 |
$7.00 |
| 6. Le Romain |
Scratched |
|
|
|
| 7. Vanbrugh |
$101.00 |
$7.50 |
$151.00 |
$19.00 |
| 8. Winx |
$1.10 |
$1.01 |
$1.08 |
$1.01 |
(*The George Main Stakes was renamed the Colgate Optic White Stakes for 2016)
If you wanted to have a fixed odds place bet on a horse in this race - you could have got ‘burnt’ by backing it with Sportsbet. Compare the fixed odds for the place offered by Sportsbet to the much better odds offered by William Hill on some of the runners. The variations were huge - what were the odds setters at Sportsbet thinking?
There’s no doubt that having a couple of accounts with different bookmakers can save you in situations like this. A national survey carried out by Aussieraces.com revealed that the majority of Australian punters operate more than one on line betting account. In the ‘Australian Horse Racing and Betting Survey’ we asked respondents which on line wagering companies they bet with. 68% said they used more than one corporate bookmaker or TAB. Punters on average operated 2.5 betting accounts each. Some operated as many as eight separate betting accounts.
Want to get the best bang for your buck from bookies? Then obviously it pays to compare the odds on offer from a couple of bookies that you have accounts with. Some bookies also have particular strengths over others in certain areas. For example, for the reasons that we’ve outlined in articles such as ‘How to Play the Percentages’ and ‘How to Get Better Quadrella Dividends’, if you like taking exotic bets - whether they be Quinellas, Exactas, Trifectas, First Fours or Quaddies, it’s a huge advantage to have a William Hill account as you can increase your dividends by over 100%.
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