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The Fan Zone handicappers are: Doug Parry, Jason Tsujikawa and Tom Tolmich | ||||||||||||||
Selections return April 18! Free spot plays on races from Emerald Downs or top simulcasts. Current article: E-mailbag: Calculating the odds QuestionHello, this may be more of a statistical question. I know zero on gambling. The question I have is if I have six horses in a race and x number of people betting on the race, how are the odds determined? I guess what I am asking is ... if 10 people are betting on the number 6 horse and 4 people are betting on the number 3 horse, etc., how are the odds determined? John AnswerBy Doug Parry The odds are determined not by the number of people betting on a race, but on the amount of money bet on each horse. You're basically betting against the other people at the track, and the ones with the winning horse get to divide up the money bet on the race. If fewer people bet on horse A than horse B, there are fewer people dividing up the winnings, so horse A's odds go up and horse B's go down. Here's an example: $1,000 total has been bet to win in a race. First, subtract the track's takeout, which is I think around 17%. So you're left with $830 to divide among the winning bettors. Let's say $83 has been bet to win on horse A. Each dollar bet gets an equal share of the winnings, so the return would be $10 for each dollar. The odds on horse A would be 9-1. $9 in winnings plus the dollar you bet. So, as you're watching the tote board before a race, you'll see the odds on each horse go up and down according to how much has been bet on each. The key is to bet on horses with higher odds than you think they should have. Hope this helps. Have a question for the Fan Zone handicappers? Write to questions@emeraldracing.com. |