I’ve been considering changes to odds recording for some time now, and the survey helped to come to some solid conclusions.

The key purpose of these changes is:

1) To have a simple to understand methodology that can be followed by all members regardless of what betting accounts they have open and available, to maximise your results
2) To provide clearer and more pertinent advice on expected market movements to aid your betting decisions
3) To eliminate the ‘frustration’ some members state when missing prices
4) To ensure the methodology doesn’t negatively impact member results (e.g. recording everything at best tote, which would mean many members would simply bet best tote, leaving that to be overbet, the worst option and counter productive)

However, per the above, in summary, changes in official odds recording and advice starting 1 February 2016 are:

Win and place bet suggestions will either be:

1) Take best fixed
2) Monitor
3) Take best closing

1) Take best fixed

Official price will be stated as an available fixed price, which will EXCLUDE prices from the following 12 bookies:

Bet365, Betting.Club, Ladbrokes, Betstar, Bookmaker, Tom Waterhouse, Palmerbet, Classicbet, Madbookie, BetHQ, Bluebet, Pinnaclebet

Note if the horse drifts, this will be ignored and the fixed price will still be recorded. However if you bet with Bet365 or Betting.Club, you will get the benefit of the SP or tote buffer.

This means any member who has accounts with any of the above bookies will have excellent opportunities every day to get far better prices than quoted officially. In addition, if the horse drifts later in betting, you will again have an opportunity to exceed results that way.

I will give advice on the best prices available also to assist you.

I will also try to advise a ‘bet down to’ or ‘minimum’ price to assist further where applicable.

2) Monitor

Official price will be highest of 3rd best fixed or mid tote.

Note when assessing the 3rd best fixed price, it includes only bookies on Dynamic Odds, so excludes the following bookies (and many others):

Betting.Club, Tom Waterhouse, Palmerbet, Madbookie, BetHQ, Bluebet, Pinnaclebet

This is even more conservative than the option voted for by most members which was highest of 3rd best fixed or best Tote / SP

It’s very important members understand that these ‘monitor’ bets need to be recorded at some sort of blended mix, to reflect the fact that some members bet early, some bet late, and some bet 50/50 or some other split. Most importantly however, if we recorded at fixed, then everyone would dive on the fixed prices, and if we recorded at best tote, everyone would crunch the tote prices, which would be counter productive to the majority. We are trying to spread the betting of members across early fixed, during the day, and closing through totes, betfair and corporates, to ensure great prices can be obtained by all, hence the recording methodology needs to support and reflect that.

Bets will be suggested as ‘monitor’ when it is uncertain whether they are likely to drift or firm from their current quote, although generally the belief is that they will drift in betting from their current quotes.

3) Take best closing

Official price for Metro/City races will be BOB
Official price for Provincial & Country races will be Best Tote / SP

Note BOB is Best Tote / TF and is available on metro racing with at least 6 bookies at present.

Best Tote/ SP is available with virtually every bookie on all races, every day.

Of course these prices can be easily beaten through any mix of taking early prices, monitoring fixed prices during betting, betting late on Betfair or Corporates etc.

The belief with these runners is that their fixed price in the early markets is too short, and they are expected to drift, either due to support of other runners, or because the early market percentages are too high.

Note: At the bottom of the tips, I will sometimes advise where greater prices than officially recorded are available, e.g. with the likes of Bet365 & Ladbrokes etc. But you should be checking if better prices are available yourselves for the bookies you have accounts with.