Hi Members,

In regards to the survey, below are some initial results I’d like to share with you all for your interest. I will go through the other results in more details at a later date, but thanks very much to all who responded. I will ask those who have yet to complete the survey to do so in the coming days.

I have written some comments on each result in bold.

Firstly I took the number of bookie accounts members had opened, and subtracted the number of accounts that members advised had been restricted to the point that members would no longer use that bookie.

1) That produced the most commonly held ‘active’ bookie accounts by members (in order):

Betfair
Crownbet
Luxbet
Sportsbet
Bet365
Tab (NSW/VIC)
Ubet
William Hill Group (William Hill / Centrebet / Tom Waterhouse)
Topsport / Best Bookies
Unibet
Ladbrokes Group (Ladbrokes/Betstar/Bookmaker)
Palmerbet
Madbookie
Betting.Club
Classicbet
BetHQ

Good to see most members holding a Betfair account, and of course as Betfair do not ban winners, they top the list. Intelligent use of Betfair certainly is a leading way to maximise your profits betting on racing.

Given the above, I have decided to eliminate Betting.Club, Classicbet, Palmerbet, Madbookie and BetHQ from official results going forward given the lower percentage of members who had ‘active’ accounts with these bookies. This does not mean members should not use these bookies, quite the opposite, but they won’t be considered for official results. Betting.Club was the main one of the above used previously, the others rarely or never anyway.

2) The 7 bookies that banned the highest percentage of members who had opened an account with them:

Betting.Club
Bookmaker
Ladbrokes
Betstar
Tom Waterhouse
Bet365
Classicbet

Given the above, I have decided to eliminate ALL SEVEN of these bookies from all non NSW results going forward given the number of members who had been banned from these bookies.

It was a tricky decision as the last thing I want to do is encourage bookies to ban members.

As a result, I will include them for NSW racing however, given it does appear all bookies are abiding with the NSW min bet laws, and I don’t want to be seen as ‘rewarding’ bookies for banning members. So at least we can attack them in NSW and hopefully take them for plenty there.

3) Status of Bet365 account

Active (Unrestricted / Mildly Restricted / Planning on getting account or bowler (68%)
Never had an account with them and no intention of getting one (5%)
Heavily Restricted or Banned and not getting bowler, will only use in NSW going forward (21%)

I am surprised that 5% of members don’t have a Bet365 account and have no intention of getting one, given they do offer excellent odds and an SP guarantee. I would advise those members to reconsider.

Most members have an account or a bowler account.

However in spite of this, I have made the decision to NOT include Bet365 in my results going forward, to make results easily achievable for all.

4) Status of Betting.Club account

Active (Unrestricted / Mildly Restricted / Planning on getting account or bowler) (45%)
Never had an account with them and no intention or unable to get one (22%)
Banned from tote buffer product but can still bet fixed odds (33%)

I am surprised that 22% of members don’t have a Betting.Club account and have no intention of getting one, given they do offer good odds and a tote guarantee on fixed odds. I do know that NZ and SA members are not allowed to open a Betting.Club account, but for all others I would strongly advise those members to reconsider.

7) What best describes you:

Have limited time and place all bets when received either fixed or using tote products based on advice given and odds available 26%
Have time to monitor bets 58%
Can monitor prices and bet late on weekends but not during the week 31%

About 1 in every 4 members have limited time and place bets when received, 1 in 2 can monitor every day, and the rest can monitor on weekends.

All results are recorded on the assumption that members have no time to monitor and place bets when advised, so members who can monitor (which is the majority) should do much better than official results.

8) I believe that results should be recorded per the advice given, so interests are aligned, you know when and where to bet, and a clear, consistent, understandable methodology is in place. The current odds are recorded based on whatever the price with the first suggested bookie advised is. Winners regularly drift out to greater prices during betting, but the price paid out by the first recommended bookie less deductions etc is always recorded. However if a win price disappears quickly with the recommended bookie and isn't available elsewhere, a lower price than what was advised is recorded. Are you happy with this recording policy? (Note I excluded those who said Don’t Care / Not Fussed)

Yes 96%
No 4%

It’s great to see that members agree to the approach of providing detailed betting advice and recording accordingly. It is interesting that the vast majority of horse racing services advise only tips, or tips and staking, but only a very small minority provide exact betting advice and record based on that advice, despite 96% of members preferring this method.

9) What suggestion do you have on how odds should be recorded? (Note I excluded those who said Don’t Care / Not Fussed)

Continue with existing method 25%
Continue with existing method excluding Betting.Club 44%
Continue with existing method excluding Bet365 13%
Continue with existing method excluding Betting.Club & Bet365 19%

Despite 82% voting to keep the existing method, or keep the existing method and eliminate 1 bookie, I have decided to take the most conservative and fair approach, and eliminate BOTH Betting.Club and Bet365, as well as 5 other major and commonly used bookies (Ladbrokes, Tom Waterhouse, Bookmaker, Classicbet, Betstar)

10) Sometimes it is clear that an early fixed price should be taken, and other times it is clear bets should be placed late through totes/betfair corporates. However with some selections market movements are hard to predict. If we suggest some bets as 'monitor', how should these odds be recorded? (Note I excluded those who said Don’t Care / Not Fussed)

Highest of 3rd best fixed price at time of notification or best tote/SP 33%
Highest of Fixed Price at time of notification or Home Tote 17%
Centrebest (fixed price with Centrebet 10 mins from jump or best tote) 33%
Betfair WAP 17%

Very even across the board, which shows how difficult it is to come up with an approach for ‘monitor’ type bets. However 50% combined preferred some mixture of fixed price at time of notification and tote.

I decided again to choose an even more conservative approach than what the majority selected, so bets suggested as ‘Monitor’ will going forward be recorded at:

Highest of 3rd best fixed or mid tote.

This means with every monitor bet, you will beat them either by
A. Betting early and taking better or equal than the 3rd best fixed price (often the 8th best fixed price is equal to the 3rd best fixed price anyway)
B. By monitoring and betting around 5-15 mins before start time when prices usually drift,
C. Taking best tote/SP which will always be higher than mid tote, as will Betfair SP, and as will the closing fixed prices with most corporates.

11) Should I name the bookie(s) I advise betting with, or just the prices available with suggested minimums and allow you to find the bookies yourself through your owns means such as using an odds comparison tool such as dynamic odds?

Include the suggested bookie(s) 68%
Include the available prices and suggested minimums only 32%

A slight lean towards people wanting the bookie suggested, and people wanting them excluded, so suggested bookie will be retained.