GamingTips

So, after reading the last two posts, people are probably wondering what the difference is between a Quinella and a two horse Exacta Box.

Well, first, remember that you can box several horses.  A Quinella is limited to two horses.

Second, they are different pools of money, which means it is possible that they will pay differently.

Finally, the payouts and cost of the bet are different.

Remember that when you bet an Exacta Box, you are actually making two bets.  So, a $2 Exacta Box with two horses will actually cost $4 to place.  The payout, however, is on the $2.  The Quinella, on the other hand, is a single bet, and therefor only costs $2.

The Exacta is another pretty simple bet with a funny name.  It is a bet on which two horses will come in first and second.  Unlike the Quinella , however, you need to bet them in the right order.  In other words, if you bet a 3-10 Exacta, the 3 Horse must come in first and the 10 in second for you to win.

The Exacta Box, on the other hand, allows you to bet that the horses will come in first and second, regardless of the order.  In fact, you can actually “box” more than two horses.  The cost of the bet rises with more horses, and the payout gets lower, however.  When you bet the Exacta Box, you are actually playing multiple bets.  For instance, a $2 3-10 Exacta Box actually will cost you $4, because it is actually a 3-10 Exacta and a 10-3 Exacta.

The Quinella is a popular bet at the track for people who have a couple of favorites.  This is because you do not need to pick the exact winner, but instead, the top 2 horses.  For example, a 2-10 quinella will pay whether 2 comes in first and 10 second or 10 first and 2 second.

The minimum bet for this is usually $2, and the bet will pay out as listed on the tote board or printed on the ticket.  This will vary with the horses chosen, based on what the bookmakers think the outcome of the race will be.

So even this fancy-sounding bet is really not that tough.

So let’s start our discussion of horse track bets with the easiest bets to understand.

On any particular race, a better can bet that a certain horse will “win,” “place,” or “show.”

Winning is pretty self explanatory and is a bet that that horse will come in first place.  Placing is a bet that the horse comes in first or second, and show pays when the horse comes in first, second, or third.

So, despite all the fancily named bets, there are at least three bets that any of us can make and understand.

Anyone who has ever placed a sports bet, or lives near a major track, can’t help but wondering how horse races work.  Between the odd-sounding bets, the multiple types of races, and people betting on multiple races at multiple tracks, it gets to be a lot to keep track of.

In reality, though, the fancy bets are not as fancy as they sound.  Over the next few posts, I’ll try to explain them so that you can bet them properly.

In terms of how to win your bets at the track, it gets a little tougher.  The race program will let you know what horses are racing with what jockey that day.  Then they sell race sheets which help betters handicap the various races.  The real pros also are familiar with the horses, and their previous performances.  They also watch as the horses are brought out to the turf to examine their gait, their features, and their reaction to the type of turf they will be running on.

But with bets starting at $2, the track could be a much worse place to bet just on a hunch.  Not only that, but the tracks are beginning to reinvent themselves.  I always had the impression growing up that the track was for old, rich people.  This is no longer the case.  Del Mar is a great example of the new track.

It is very affordable to get into the races, including trackside open seating where people bring coolers and folding chairs.  After the races on Fridays, there is a free concert on the track grounds.  On a recent trip, the track was very busy, and people were dressed in everything from shorts and flip flops to the traditional white hats.

So go to the track and have a good time!

This might seem redundant to those of you who actually read my post on boxing, because I explained the basics of this bet over there.

Basically, a money line bet is quite simply a bet that a certain athlete or team will win.  Because there are obviously favorites in every athletic contest, this bet does not pay even on both sides.  The margin of victory does not matter, simply the winner matters in a money line wager.

These bets are listed as follows:

Green Bay -150 Chicago +120

The team with a - is always the favorite.  What that means is that if you put down $150, you will win $100.  On the other hand, if you put $100 on Chicago, you will win $120.  Notice that these odds are not exac opposites.  This is where the Book makes their “comission” on a money line bet.  Thanks for reading!  Let me know if you have any questions or other gambling related topics I can help you with, please let me know!

In honor of tomorrow night’s fight I figured I’d explain a little bit about boxing betting.  It’s actually quite simple.  There are two bets made, and they’re identical to two of the more common sports bets (although sports bets I haven’t covered yet).

There is the money line bet.  This is a bet on who will win.  There is no point spread, just a listing such as:

De La Hoya -170

Pacquiao +140

The fighter with the negative score is the favorite.  The negative is how much money you must put on that fighter to win $100.  The positive is how much money you will win on a $100 bet.  Easy enough, right?

There is sometimes a third option on boxing money lines, the draw.  It will be listed the same way, and it usually pays fairly well, since draws are rare.  Knockouts do not count as draws.

The second bet is the over/under on the number of rounds.  In order to win this bet, the bout must last 1 minute and 30 seconds (or longer) into the designated round.  For instance, for tomorrow’s fight, it is 10 rounds.  The over is that both fighters are still standing and the bout is still going 1:30 into Round 10.  The under is that the bout is over 1:29 into Round 10 or earlier.

Boxing betting really is pretty easy.  So even if you’re not a boxing fan, go place some bets on tomorrow’s fight and have a good time.

Alright.  So here’s a note on sports bets and timing.  People are often confused, because they make the same bet as a friend, but the money line or spread has changed.  This is not unusual.  Let’s review for a moment what I said in my post on Sports Betting Basics about how Books make money.  They build in a commission to each bet they book.  That’s why what I think of (and sometimes call) even money bets (like the spread) are really 11-10 bets.  Let’s use the spread as an example.  If the book collects $110 (for the sake of easy math) from Green Bay fans and $110 from Chicago fans, and Green Bay beats the spread, they have collected $220 in bets on that.  They will then return $110 in bets to Packer fans, and $100 winnings to paker fans.  They will return $210 in bets, keeping $10.

Now, let’s say that there’s a lot of die-hard Packer Backers out there.  Instead of $110 from each side, the Book has collected $220 from Packer Fans, and $110 from Bears fans.  They have collected $330 in total bets.  In addition to returning the $220 from the Packer bets, they will be expected to pay out $200 in winnings, for a total of $420 going out.  We just went from a small profit to a big loss for the casino.  The idea works the same with money lines and any other bet as well.  In order to make money, the casino needs to book as close as humanly possible to even money on both sides of any given bet.  They can then use the majority of the losing money to pay off the winners and keep a little (in the case of 11-10 bets, 10%) for themselves.

So, what do casinos do when one side of a bet is getting more action than the other?  They change the bet.  They will still have to honor any bets already placed with the old terms, but if the spread looks like this on Wednesday: Green Bay -6.5 Chicago +6.5 and Green Bay is getting a lot of action, the spread could look like this by Saturday night: Green Bay -10.5 Chicago +10.5.  By making it more enticing to bet on Chicago, the casino is hoping to lure in more bets on the less popular side of the spread.

When I first moved to Vegas, I was told (being a Badger fan), to never bet Wisconsin over UNLV.  The spread and money line were always artificially high because the Books knew that Badger fans a) always showed up in Vegas in droves for the game, and b) would always bet their team.  At first I thought this was nonsense.

After learning a bit more about how Books work and how they make their money, this now makes perfect sense.

A quick note that the actual circumstances can also change a bet.  For instance, if a key player gets injured, the spread and money line will be rewritten almost automatically.  Also, proposition bets on big games are popular bets.  For instance, you can bet on who will win the Super Bowl before the football season actually starts.  As the season progresses, the odds on these bets are constantly adjusted.

In short, there are many reasons that a spread, a money line, or an over/under can change.  So if you see a bet that looks too good to be true, make it.  Chances are, it is too good to be true, and won’t be there for long.

Alright.  So here’s a few more details about how the spread works.  Basically, as I mentioned in my post on Sports Betting Basics  the spread is one of the most common bets in a race and sports book.  Here’s a little more detail (although still pretty basic) about the spread and how it works.

The way this bet will usually be listed would be as follows:

Chicago -7.5

Green Bay +7.5

What this particular listing means is that you take the actual score and add (or subtract) that many points from the team you’re betting on.  That is, if the score is Chicago 14 Green Bay 7, you would have to subtract 7.5 points from Chicago’s score, or add 7.5 points to Green Bay’s.  In other word, for the purpose of this spread, you could pretend the score was actually Chicago 6.5, Green Bay 7.  So even though Chicago won the game, people betting on Chicago lost the game.

Because the spread takes into account the expected outcome of the game, this is actually pretty close to an even money bet.  I say pretty close because The Book builds in a 10% commission for winners.  That is, the bet actually pays at 11-10.  If you bet Green Bay on the example above, you would have paid $11.  You would win $10.  This means when you collected, you would get $21 total (your $11 bet plus your $10 winnings).

Now go out and have some fun.  Later, I’ll post more about how the spread is decided, as well as some other sports betting information.

Alright.  So sports betting is somewhat foreign to me, but I am trying to learn about it, and I will share as I learn.  In the meantime, I do understand  a couple of the key points, and I’ll take this opportunity to share it.

#1) No guide to sports betting will ever be complete.  More so than any other kind of gambling, anything goes.  Casinos will post numerous proposition bets.  If, like me, you live in Vegas, and you really want to bet on exactly how many free throws a certain player will make this season, or how many yards a quarterback will pass in 2010, you can probably find a casino that will take this bet.  Not that I reccomend this, as, just like bonus bets or proposition bets on the casino floor, these propositions tend to have worse odds (although more dramatic payouts) than other bets.

#2)  The race and sports book makes its money on commissions.  Although I’ve heard that they will try to set certain games at artificial levels, knowing that some teams’ fans will always bet with that team, I’m not sure if that’s true.  They deal with the reality that there will always be winners and losers.  Their goal is to set the money line or spread (see below) as competitively as possible.  Think of it this way.  If team A and team B have equal numbers of bettors, and equal money bet on them, whether A wins or B wins, the other side covers the book’s losses.  They can then make money on their commission.

#3)  There are two basic types of bet which are very common in sports books.  The first is a money line bet.  I’ll cover this more in depth in another post, but, essentially, it is a bet that team A beats team B or vice versa.  The score does not matter.  This bet usually pays at some kind of odds, based on the standings of the two teams.

#4)  The second common type of bet is the spread.  This is also a team that team A will beat team B or vice versa.  It pays even money (except commission), however, and the score does matter.  If the spread favors team A by 6.5 points, they must actually cover the spread (that is, win by at least 7 points) in order for betters who bet on team A to win.  Even if team A wins, but only wins by 3 points, or even 6 points, team B’s betters will win on this particular spread.  This is essentially a way to handicap the game, instead of paying at some calculated odds.

Look for more on this topic soon.  Thanks!