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We all want to be competitive in everything we do. And no more so that with punting on horse racing.
Success in punting on horses, in fact most things reduces down to an information war - the people with the best information make the smart moves.
Books have been and still are the best source of general information, and this applies at least as much in the art of racehorse selection and staking as in any other field.
Author Paul Segar has produced textbooks which cover all aspects of punting. The books alone stand as a complete reference but also provide 'food for thought'. You can develop / improve your own ideas as well as learn some new techniques.
Each book is written in plain English with plenty of practical examples in each chapter. Browse the contents of each book or email for further information, if required.
Improve your punting knowledge today - buy one or all of these
books.
Read the books but want more? It's time to do a course.
The Pureform Introduction Course uses a computer program to show you how and when to bet and how to do it successfully. Check out the details
The Benchmark Handicapper Course continues from the Introduction Course and gives you further weapons to apply when making quality value selections. More...
The Introduction to Dutch Betting using the Ratings Calculator Course gives you an introduction to betting using the Ratings Calculator computer software. More...
Buy all three books now:
$70 posted
Target Betting
Contents
Introduction
Target Betting
Markets
Savers
Overs
The Usual Punter
Unders
Where to Now?
1. Introduction
Target betting is easy to understand. You aim to bet to either win or collect the same amount, regardless of which performer wins the race. This article considers betting to collect a set amount whether that is on horse racing, harness or the dish lickers...
Betting on horses and many gambling games have so few rules, and this lack of structure makes it both good and bad. Sure the horses run as usual, it has that structure but from a betting viewpoint, there are so many possibilities. You can do whatever you like but at the same time doing whatever you like quite often has dire consequences.
Rules and structure is what makes most people successful. At the same time gambling without a care in the world can be a lot of fun if losses are kept in check. This article looks at adding a layer of structure to betting win and place on horse racing but the same approach can be applied to the other codes.
Numbers is where is it at for target betting. Let's consider some numbers:
For some races, many punters win bet on one or maybe two horses and quite often have the same amount on each runner. Consider the following race:
Horse |
Available Odds |
A |
$5 |
B |
$2.5 |
C |
$4 |
D |
$16 |
E |
$7 |
In this race horse A is priced at $5 and horse B at $2.50. A $20 bet on both horses will produce the following with the profit if one of the two wins:
Example 1.
| Horse | Wager | Available Odds | Return | Profit |
| A | $20 | $5 | $100 | $60 |
| B | $20 | $2.5 | $50 | $10 |
This is one way to bet when you think both horses have an equal chance. From the example though clearly horse B needs a bigger bet to make it more profitable. But is horse B a better chance or is it simply priced shorter? No one knows the answer until after the race so the best you can do is estimate. If you are going to bet, like most people, you need to have an opinion.
As a punter, if you think each horse has an equal chance, then both runners should be priced at the same value. Seems reasonable. $2.50 or $5 or perhaps some other price. On the other hand, if they are both not considered to be equal chances, why bet the same amount?
The following video shows how to use the Ratings Calculator for target betting:
2. Target Betting
This brings us to Target Betting.
This article looks at target betting using markets which is probably the best way to go when doing win or place betting. The word ‘probably’ is used as in gambling there is never one absolute perfect way.
First using a market will be considered and the target amount to aim for will be $100. Clearly larger or smaller amounts can be used. In the table below, the same market is considered:
| Horse | Available Odds |
Percent |
A |
$5 |
20% |
B |
$2.5 |
40% |
C |
$4 |
25% |
D |
$16 |
6% |
E |
$7 |
14% |
Total Percent: |
105% |
|
Horse B is priced at $2.50 and converting that price to a percent gives the answer 40% (100/2.5). Following the odds means you should bet 40% of the cash on horse B which is the favorite for the race, 20% for Horse A. The same is done for the other prices and the total percentage adds up to 105%.
This means effectively if you bet that percent amount as a dollar amount then you would outlay $105 for a potential collect of $100. Not a great result by anyone calculations. But clearly we can back the two horses from the earlier example:
Example 2
| Horse | Wager | Available Odds | Return | Profit |
| A | $20 | $5 | $100 | $40 |
| B | $40 | $2.5 | $100 | $40 |
Now the total outlay is $60 with each runner returning the same amount and the same profit if successful. This is the next level up on the earlier Example 1 still using the available odds. But what happens if you think Horse A has a better chance than horse B? Clearly you want to bet more on horse A than horse B. The same logic applies to place betting.
Part 2: Markets...