Many people place a few dollars down on horse races around the country every weekend. Some are just doing it for a bit of fun, while others are more seriously hoping to actually make a profit from their wagers.
If you’re one of the latter breeds, then you’ve likely been trying to formulate or search for betting systems and strategies that work. This can take a while and it can take a lot of experimentation and educating yourself in everything thoroughbred horse racing.
In Australian horse racing and betting circles, there are standard bets and bets that are considered to be more “exotic” bets. But are these a better bet (a better way to win money) than the more conventional bets?
What Are Exotic Bets?
In general terms, an exotic bet is harder to win and it involves placing on a wager on more than one outcome.
Simple bets like a win or a place are standard types of bets, but when you start getting into more complex bets like quinellas, quadrellas, trifectas, first four and so on, these are your exotic bets.
Exotic bets can also include picking the daily double or treble, anything that is a more complex betting scenario than trying to pick a single race winner or place getter.
Punting options change here and there, and you’ll likely find that in the future even more exotic betting options are added to the punting pool in this country.
What Are the Advantages of Exotic Bets?
In the most simplistic terms, the biggest advantage to focusing on exotic bets is you stand to win more money if you get it right. On the flipside, exotic bets pay more because they are harder to win, so the potential for losses is also higher.
Betting on the race favourite by placing money down on a win is never going to net you much cash, even if the favourite does pass the post first. Not unless you risk an exceptionally huge wager on this type of bet.
Talking about favourites, if that’s your betting strategy – always betting on the race favourite – you’re destined to lose. Did you know that favourites only win about 30% of races? That’s a percentage that’s even lower when it comes to Melbourne Cup horses, as the favourite only wins the great race about 23% of the time.
It’s the same outcome (only worse) if your punting strategy is to consistently place money down on long shots. They’ll come home first or get a place “sometimes”, but those moments are few and far between. That’s why these horses are at such high odds, to begin with. Most don’t have a hope of winning the race.
Some Aussie punting experts will have their own favourite ways of betting on the ponies. A common theory is that the quadrella is the best value bet you can make.
If you’re not sure what a quadrella actually is, to win this type of exotic bet, you must predict the winner of the 4 races that make up the “quaddie”. It’s like the daily double or treble, except its 4 races instead of 2 or 3.
In actuality, this is not an easy bet to win by any means. Picking 4 from 4 winners is akin to trying to pick 4 of the 6 winning numbers in Saturday night’s lotto, maybe even harder. The one big plus you do have on your side though, compared to the lotto, if you have form and a lot more data to go on when it comes to successfully predicting a quadrella.
Take Your Time and Be Prepared To learn
Rather than just randomly placing your money down on exotic bets instead of punting on a win or a place, you’d be far better off taking time out from betting your cold, hard cash and spending a few months learning the craft in whatever way you can.
Read up on what the experts do, create strategies and then test those strategies with very small amounts of money until you find something that works. Only then should you up to the ante and start placing bigger wagers on horse races based on your “proven” strategies.
