Race betting takes place most often at either horse races or greyhound races. The bookmakers for a race look at the competing animals and evaluate their speed, breeding, training, and so on, in an attempt to guess their chances of winning a race. Before the race, bookmakers then post odds for each animal based on this evaluation. Gamblers then place bets on a particular animal based on these odds. The odds posted for a given race will typically look like this:
Vision: 13
Samantha: 9
Laura Beth: 7
Lady Luck: 19
In this listing, Laura Beth is considered to have the best odds of winning a race, and would pay out seven dollars for every dollar bet on a win. The original bet is also paid back, so a bet of ten dollars would win seventy, for a total of eighty dollars. Lady Luck has the worst odds of winning but also the highest payout, paying nineteen dollars for every dollar bet. Thus, a ten dollar bet would pay out one hundred and ninety, for a total of two hundred dollars. Many gamblers will bet on multiple animals in order to solidify their chances of winning. If you bet on both Vision and Laura Beth, ten dollars each, and Vision won the race, you would lose the ten dollars you bet on Laura Beth but win one hundred and thirty for betting on Vision, for a total of one hundred and forty.
Race betting is an exhilarating form of gambling largely because it is all over so quickly. Most races last less than five minutes, with many of them being over in about sixty seconds. That said, there are also typically multiple heats in a given day of racing, so there are plenty of chances to win. The extremely fast pace as well as the large crowds and air of excitement all play into what makes race betting so popular, and the thrill of a few people in the crowd as their animal crosses the finish line can be heard over the general cheering.
If you are looking for a thoroughly enjoyable form of gambling, then race betting is a great place to start. While there isn’t as much skill involved as in, say, blackjack, knowledge of trainers, owners, and even individual animal’s records can help you try to beat the bookmakers. There have been plenty of occasions where underdogs (the term originates in greyhound racing) have come from behind to clinch victory at huge odds. For example, Donerail won the Kentucky Derby in the early 1900s at a huge upset, with the odds stacked against him at 92.4 to 1. Race betting is an exciting and enjoyable pastime, and if you are lucky, a very profitable one as well.
