Hi KV!! as far as I can see, your original question is still not answered. How to know when best bookie odds will be better than highest tote div??? Or vice versa. Simple.
Don't bet favoured horses at odds under about 5 or 6 to one!! It's really difficult to tell if they'll firm or drift or diverge. Look at longer priced nags at all times (and go for the Maxidiv) as with these horses you get better Totes 99% of the time. The reason is simple; bookies reckon we'll be happy with 50-1 (even if they know the horse should be 100-1) winners and stop THERE (or wherever) while the tote is much more likely to reflect reality and keep lengthening. With the shorties the bookies themselves (in addition to big punters) are often making late plunges with the tote or each other so it's hard to know which way the worm will turn AT THE END.
Yesterday I got just over $40 for the last winner in Brisbane (this was the Unitab price, but I didn't need to compare, thanks to Tote!Super etc). The bookies stopped at 25-1 and both NSW and Super were around $27 or so as well. It saves a lot of messing around jumping from TAB to TAB and Exchange to exchange etc OR bookie to bookie. Hope this "helps".
P.S. You already know my opinion of "fancied" horses and my disdain for FORM (the "reason" they are fancied). You may recall, KV, my earlier thoughts on picking "psychologically" and going against the crowd, so longshots become the ONLY way to bet. Give it a go (if you recall my criteria) and you will not encounter this Bookies vs Totes problem very often. Cheers