Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Mertz
My column from New Year’s Day drew so much reaction I thought I would follow up on it. If you did not read it, I compared the mentality of a sports bettor with that of a horseplayer. A sports bettor is happy to bet into 11 to 10 odds. Meanwhile most self-respecting horseplayers will almost never make a straight bet on the favorite.
Many commented that I was comparing apples to oranges. That sports bettors are playing a side or a team, so it’s an “either or” bet. In horse racing, a favorite, depending on field size, may have to defeat as many as five to 11 other horses. That makes it a more daunting task.
[Snip]
Thesis:
I believe what horse racing will need to do is fight fire with fire. If legal sports betting is offered with a 10 percent hold of 12 to 10, then the horse racing industry should reduce takeout on win, place and show betting also to 10 percent. |
You will have to get a little deeper in to the how-to for a track to offer 11-10 or 12-10 to the bettors through a pari-mutuel system. With a PM system the tracks would have a vested interest in a favorite losing. If a favorite has 40% of the pool the vig would only be collected from the 60% losers. With a long shot having 5% of the pool the track would collect on 95% of the bets. There is no mechanism such as point spread movements to equalize the betting as there is in sports betting.
