place betting

What is the lowest div i should take for a place. Leslie

[Hay Chee]

Ive backed horses at $1.20 and found Id really taken $1 for the place and then they didnt run a place anyhow.

[Equine Investor]

I cannot suggest for anyone else but the minimum win dividend is $2.00 and the minimum place $1.50 that I will ever take on any horse.
I just don't believe any horse is worth shorter value than 50% the win or 66.67% the place.

[Bhagwan]

Suggestion is.

.....$1.60

[Equine Investor]

Yep nothing worse than taking $1.40 and seeing the pools update DURING the race and the final dividend is $1.00 (STAB). We are being ripped off in Victoria. $1.04 minimum in Sydney can make a big difference longterm in profit/loss over a year!

[becareful]

I don't generally do place betting but I have noticed an anomoly that may be off benefit to those who like short odds-on bets. If you have a strong odds-on favourite ($1.20-$1.40) the place quote on TAB will usually be $1.00-$1.10. What you need to look for is a horse where the place is sitting on $1.00 about 5 minutes before the race and stays there until the last minute. What seems to happen is that the punters avoid the place bet as they can see there is no return and instead put their place bets on the "value" runners in the race - more often than not the place div actually declared will be $1.20 or $1.30 and is often the same as the win div (on Tabcorp anyway) - there was one race yesterday where the odd-on fav won and paid $1.20 the win and $1.30 the place. Note that this only seems to happen when the place quote is $1.00 - if it is showing as say $1.20 then it is more likely to go the other way and only pay $1.00. Of course I would only suggest you do this if you are really sure the horse is going to run a place!

Thanks all. I think I will take your advice and bet min $1.5. I recived $1.04 for one bet and I thought at the time who in there right mind would risk $10 to gain 40c

[Rain Lover]

It's lousey value which ever way you look at it. The true odds are 1/3 the win odds (8+ horses)as there's 3 paying bets instead of one. Bookies pay 1/4 the odds, TAB 1/5 or worse - why would you bother. Few punters regularly back odds on winners so why back each way or place under 4/1??

[legion]

Amateur,
Sadly due to the excessive takeout by TAB place dividends are rarely value.However if you still wish to bet for the place you could try an accumulating staking plan that will give you some chance of a profit. I would suggest trying to select four consecutive placegetters,betting all up.Start a new accumulator for each selection.Hope that is some help

[becareful]

Rain Lover,

Although I don't do much place betting the 1/4 odds offered by bookmakers are actually a pretty good estimate of what the true odds should be, at least on 8 to 10 horse fields.

For example assume you have a 10 horse race with each horse having an equal chance of winning - ignoring bookmaker margins the odds would be 9/1 ($10.00) for each runner for the win and 9/4 (3.25) for the place - if you put $1 on each horse for the place it will cost you $10 and you will get $9.75 back so you can see it is pretty close. If it were 1/3 odds then you would get 3/1 on each place or $4 so you would get $12 for your $10 bet - great for the punter but you can see why bookies use 1/4!

Of course in the real world you have different odds which affect things. The 1/4 odds is to the punters advantage on shorter priced horses and small (8 horse) fields - it is in bookmakers favour on the longshots and larger fields.

On the tote the TAB take is exactly the same as the win pool (14.25% on Supertab from memory) and you will usually find the odds between 1/3 and 1/4 of win odds although there are often exceptions with many placegetters paying much more or less than they theoretically should.