Gambling on the Horses
Horse racing has been established in Britain for centuries and has developed into a large industry with very big sums of money involved, both in the actual racing infrastructure itself and the gambling that takes place.
Horse racing caters for a kaleidoscope of different tastes and interests, owners, trainers, jockeys, bookmakers, professional gamblers, amateur gamblers through to the housewife who only ever bets 50p on the Grand National and has never been on a race track in her life!
A day at the races with the family can be a great experience and fun for all. Father naturally has studied form and armed with the Racing Post will place modest bets with the colourful track bookies, confident that his superior knowledge will result in winning bets that will pay for the day’s entertainment.
Mother and the kids know nothing of this academic endeavour and will blithely bet on a horse because they like the jockey’s colours!
Own up fellow punter, we all know who is going to win! Trouble is her winnings go straight into her handbag and you get to pay for the day’s fun!
If your interest is to make serious money from racing then you really do need genuine and reliable inside information to gain a vital edge. While it is very improbable that any of the major races can be rigged, because of the intense competition to win a prestigious race, this is not necessarily the case with mid week races on a rural racecourse
Owning and training horses is very costly business that has to be paid for somehow. The average prize money, while helpful, is not going to cover all the costs, but a carefully planned ‘gamble’ with £1000’s being bet on a horse that is primed to win at good odds can be very profitable.
Tipsters often claim to have this inside information and are prepared to let you in on the secret for a fat fee but do they really know? It’s very unlikely as the owners and trainers will be doing their best to keep the ‘gamble’ secret to achieve long odds. Obviously if Joe Public knows about it then the bookies will be offering very short odds indeed.
‘Systems ‘guaranteed to win are promoted in every racing paper and on the internet. The question to ask is why sell it if it’s that good? Surely the author could make more money using a successful system than by selling it. The answer is that the majority of ‘systems’ are a total waste of purchase money, followed by more good money as you find out just how useless they really are. That’s why they sell them!
Making money by gambling is a numbers game. It’s all about the odds and the odds of winning at horse racing are very simple. Forget for a moment about the bookies odds, just look at how many horses are running, and then divide that into 1. e.g. 10 horse race divide into 1 = 10%.
You actually only have a 10% chance of selecting the winner, how much you actually make does depend on the bookies odds for your 1 in 10 shot.
There are very successful pro gamblers out there that make money, but they do it with inside information from the owners and trainers, not by paying fancy sums to tipsters or buying systems.
Without this valuable inside information you might want to visit other parts
of our Betting guide and consider other sports and forms of betting, where the
odds are 50/50 every time!