Can someone please *try* to explain odds to me?

[Mood Swings]

I have to warn you I may be hopeless

I really don't understand how they come up with the fractions and the payouts.

Much appreicated for any attempts, lol

[Sailor Kenshin]

Me, too.

I'm wondering specific cases, like how a show payout for the same horse can be more than the place?

[Mickey the Marcher]

fractions
2/1, 3/1, 5/1 etc... you but down 1$ and if your horse wins you get $2, $3 or $5 in return (plus your original $1 stake).

Obviously the payouts in a parimutuel system never come out that neat, so the payout odds are more like 2.75/1 etc etc. Payouts are also generally listed for a $2 bet, which is the minimum for most bets. So a $4.80 win payout means you put down $2 and got back $4.80, so you won $2.80, the returned odds were 1.4/1, which is many places is actually written as 7/5 as decimal points are cumbersome.

As to how payouts are calculated... all the money bet per type of bet (i.e Win, Place, Show, Exacta, Tri etc) is pooled, then the a certain amount is taken out (called surprisingly enough "Takeout"!!), this goes to purses, the government, the track etc etc. The remaining 80% or so is then divided among the winning bettors.
So if $5000 was bet into the win pool, and let's say the track takes out 20%, that leaves $4000 to be divided among the winners. If $500 had been gambled on win bets on this horse, then the amount of money actually won is $3500 ($4000 minus the return on the original winning stake). That means the horse was a 7/1 winner or if you had a $2 bet on him your would get back $16, with a net profit of $14.

[Mickey the Marcher]

Me, too.

I'm wondering specific cases, like how a show payout for the same horse can be more than the place?

Because less money was gambled on the horse in the show pool (relative to the total pool) than in the place pool.
Likewise sometimes real longshots (40/1, 50/1 etc) have low show payouts, because bettors thoguht the horse didn't have a chance of winning (hence the long odds for a win) but some bettors, possibly too many bettors, though he had a chance to sneak into the top three.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks! Hey, that was easy!

[bdw0617]

you have to keep in mind, wagering is para mutual


say me, crystal, diomed and Shammy are sitting in a bar. We decide hey, let's play darts. Diomed says hey let's bet some money on the dart game. Everyone else in the bar decides to get in on the game as well.

When it's all said and done, there is 200 bucks on this dart game.

50 bucks on myself
20 bucks on crystal
100 bucks on shammy
30 bucks on Diomed


The way american, para mutual wagering is setup, the person conducting this event, is going to get, 20% of all the money so the adjusted amount is

40 bucks on myself
16 bucks on crystal
80 bucks on shammy
24 bucks on Diomed

(i think that's right)


Okay.

the total amount available is 160 dollars now. I have 40 dollars wagered on me, meaning they are saying I have a 1 out of 4 change of winning, which equates to 4 to 1.

so the odds a

4-1 Brandon
10-1 Crystal
1/2 Shammy
6-1 Diomed


I hope that helps.

[bdw0617]

I'm wondering specific cases, like how a show payout for the same horse can be more than the place?

Okay let's use the same example I gave above


let's say, this same dart game, there is an additional pool about who will come in 2nd place.

someone in the bar, has some inside information on shammy.. he saw him win a dart game a few weeks ago and knows he's really really good and he doesn't think he can lose the game, much less come in worse than 2nd.

so he thinks he can make a few quick easy bucks, puts up 300 dollars to place. So let's say the place pool looks like this


Me: $10
Crystal: $4
Shammy: $300
Diomed: $8


without going into takeout and all that, because i already explained that, let's say, that shammy is freaking plastered, and is seeing 5 dart boards, in an upset, Crystal wins the dart game and Diomed comes in 2nd.


so what you would do, is basically take my show pool, + shammy's show pool ($310 dollars) and divide it by Crystal + Dimoed show pool, because their wagers won ($12)

$310/$12 = $25.80 show ticket even though Crystal's win ticket pays $18 dollars.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Cool.

[Shammy Davis]

Bdw0617 wrote:

. . . without going into takeout and all that, because i already explained that, let's say, that shammy is freaking plastered, and is seeing 5 dart boards, in an upset, Crystal wins the dart game and Diomed comes in 2nd. . .

:shock:

[Shammy Davis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-odds_betting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Each-way_(bet)

Shammy's Bonus Link:

http://ag.arizona.edu/rtip/industry/research/odds.pdf

[bdw0617]

Bdw0617 wrote:

. . . without going into takeout and all that, because i already explained that, let's say, that shammy is freaking plastered, and is seeing 5 dart boards, in an upset, Crystal wins the dart game and Diomed comes in 2nd. . .

:shock:

lol

it's just an example. don't read anything into it.

[Crystal]

I'm horrible at darts.

[bdw0617]

hence why you are 10 to 1 in a 4 horse field.

[madelyn]

hence why you are 10 to 1 in a 4 horse field.

[Crystal]

yeh, but in your crazy sceniaro I won..