Bet Size & Win Pool Odds?

[Mr. Blonde]

Within the last couple of months, there has been a thread regarding bet sizes and their effect on the win pool.

Something to the effect of, "..........it would take a bet of 1/2 of 1% of the win pool total to change the odds....".

So, a bet of $100 wouldn't make an appreciable change in the odds unless the pool was under $20,000.

That may or may not be true, but I've done a search through the PA archives, and can't seem to find the thread.

Can anyone verify this ratio, or expound on it?

[rrbauer]

This is kind of a "street smarts" issue.

If the pool is $10k and a horse has 1% of the pool ($100) bet on it and you bet $100 on it, now the bets on the horse are 2% of the pool and the odds will go down, like from 99-1 to 49-1.

Same size pool and a horse has 40% of the pool ($4000) bet on it and you bet $100 on it, now the bets on the horse are 41% of the pool and odds will probably stay the same unless they were at a breakpoint before the $100 bet.

So the impact of your bet is the incremental amount in relation to what is already bet. And, all of this is without regard to takeout.