Favourites are created by the bookmakers based on horse racing form, + statistics, + expected popularity of the horse + the actual weight of money bet on the selection. A different angle might be to only bet on the races with 10, 11 or 12 runners. Doing this brings the number of races to 269 with 2,967 runners and the outcome is interesting. The first favourites won 66, second favourites 56, third favs 32, fourth favs 34, fifth favs 30 and sixth favs 10. It oftens feels like a curse betting on the favourite! Unlike the fun of betting on outsiders, punting on the favourite adds a little extra pressure because it is expected to win! But of course with the win percentage for favourites at around 35%, it doesnt work out that way. Matt McLaughlin-Stonham takes a look at the sort of races that are good for favourites and the pitfalls to avoid! Just betting the favourites to win. I then worked out what would happen if you used the same stakes per race, (a £1 stake per runner less one) and placed that on the favourite in each race. That's because betting on the Kentucky Derby is a great way to get a good return on investment. Here, are the best online horse racing betting sites, based on research: Bovada Intertops BetOnline MyBookie SportsBetting.ag So how do you place bets online? Sign up, or log into your favorite site; Select the race you wish to bet on; Place your bet.

• Betting On 2nd Favourites
• Horse Racing Show Betting System
• Baseball Betting Lines
• Bet On Lines Odds

Picture the scene: You’ve gone for a day out at the races with your mates and after poring over the form, the going, and draw biases, you’ve pinpointed a handful of horses at decent prices throughout the card. However, one of your mates blindly backs the favourite in every single race without so much as a glance at the form.

It turns out to be a profitable strategy as the first three favourites oblige, and by the time the fourth favourite wins, he’s become insufferable. And really it’s not that surprising. Broadly speaking, favourites win around a third of the time in the UK and a winning streak is easy to come across.

Different academic and recreational research from gamblers has found that backing favourites generally allows you to lose more slowly. Of course, this is a one-way ticket to the poor house as a long-term betting strategy, but as a starting point it at least shows that betting the favourite is rarely a terrible decision.

While you’ll encounter plenty of dubiously priced favourites, which is why some exchange users specialise in laying what’s dubbed “false favourites”, horses at the top of the market are usually much closer to their “true odds” than outsiders.

Go Figure

A famous study in 1949 first introduced the concept of the favourite longshot bias, whereby shorter priced horses are closer to true odds than longshots. And a recent study by a pair of American academics who scrutinised the results of over six million horse races in America discovered that backing favourites lost at a rate of 5.5% while backing at odds 3/1 to 15/1 lost at a rate of 18% on average.

In the UK, odds-on favourites win around 59% of the time on the flat according to www.flatstats.co.uk. However, this figure deviates depending on what type of race it is, dropping to 53% with handicap races and increasing slightly to 61% for maidens. Odds-on favourites priced at 1/4 or shorter apparently win 86% of their races. Take retired flat phenomenon Frankel as an example regarding that last statistic.

The Sir Henry Cecil-trained thoroughbred won 14 out of 14 races during his illustrious and unbeaten career, with 13 of those wins recorded as the odds-on favourite. Before retiring to stud in 2012 with £3m in prize money to his name, the starting prices for his last four victories were 2/11, 1/10, 1/20, and 1/10 (implied probabilities of 84.62%, 90.91%, 95.24%, and 90.91% respectively).

Level stakes bets of £1,000 on each occasion would have netted a profit of £431.82. OK, so you’re not going to get rich backing horses at those extremely short odds, but backers with deep pockets probably considered this a far superior tax-free investment to the paltry interest rates offered by most bank savings accounts.

But this game is about backing the right favourites at odds higher than their true odds. If blindly backing favourites was a “fool-proof” system then everyone would be doing it full-time and every office and factory would close. Frankel was a horse of a lifetime and a bit of an equine freak, and just one shock defeat in any of these races would have decimated backers’ betting bankrolls.

Frankel was unbeaten in his fourteen-race career and was the highest-rated racehorse in the world from May 2011

A Sure Thing

Backing favourites successfully, boils down to being selective and finding discrepancies between your informed opinion and projected odds and the price offered by the market. But an important takeaway is to not to automatically dismiss a favourite because it’s been priced up at odds-on.

Some racing bettors stubbornly refuse to back a horse if it isn’t odds against, but there can still be plenty of tasty value to be had if you’re willing to stake more than the potential return. If a well-heeled punter sticks £1,000 on a 1/2-shot with the aim of picking up £500 profit, you can understand the logic. Yet a £10 bet to win a measly £5 or £20 to collect £10 hardly seems worth the risk.

Betting is a long game and you should be aiming to simply bet on value selections that win you money over the long-term. A selection chalked up at 1/2 could still represent value if its true odds are more like 1/3. Opportunities like this are fairly rare and when they appear they should be jumped on.

This could be where you want to place a max bet, but only if you know what a max bet should be. Hint – it’s not all the money you own. And one vital aspect of favourite backing is using a smart bankroll and staking strategy to ensure you capture the most value out of every bet.

Not all bets are created equally and you want to maximise your rewards while minimising your risk. Check out our articles on bankroll management and staking to find out more. If you can combine this with a refined favourite backing system you are well on you way to becoming a profitable bettor.

Obviously, sports betting is gambling. However, there is a solid strategy that you can earn some money like an investment that is offered a bank. It uses 'odds-on' favorite on online bookmakers. If you are interested in this betting strategy and getting money from gambling, read tips below.

What is an “Odds-on” favorite?

An “odds-on” favorite is a selection where the money that you gamble returns less than the amount you gambled. For example it is when you bet $100 but you win less than $100. An “evens” bet will win you the same amount of money as you gambled but an “odds-on” bet will give you less. For example: 1/3 = Three to one ON – This means to win $10 you must gamble $30. So you will win back less than your original stake.

Where do we see “odds-on” betting?

Everywhere, especially in team sports and tennis.

For example you may see a fixture like this in the English FA Cup: Manchester United vs Cheltenham F.C.

For almost everyone – the fans, the bookmakers and the punters - it is very obvious that Manchester SHOULD win this football match. A few possible reasons are:

a) Manchester United are in the Premier League and Cheltenham FC are in Championship League 3
b) Manchester United are playing at home
c) Cheltenham FC have never beaten Manchester United in a competitive game

So the bookmakers would probably offer odds that look something like this:

Betting On 2nd Favourites

Manchester United to win 1/20
Draw 8/1
Cheltenham to win 16/1

This means that if you bet on Manchester United then you would have to bet a lot of money to return a small amount. If you bet $100 and Manchester United win then you will return $105 – a profit of $5 (plus your original bet)

Why would anyone bet on “Odds-on” favorites?

Betting on “odds-on” favorites can sometimes feel like a waste of money because it often seems that the returns are very small or to get a good profitable return then you often need to gamble a lot of money. Also, the risks can often seem too high for such small returns, losing after gambling on a favorite can be very disappointing and annoying.

However, a return of $5 on a $100 bet is still a profit of 5% and this is something that punters like to use when comparing how much return a typical bank would give if the same investment was made. For people who gamble on long odds-on favorites they believe their money is “safe” and it pays back more than a bank and so for these types of gamblers it is worth doing as it is profitable.

What is the strategy?

With the following system of strategic betting – it may be possible for you to get profitable returns and at the same time keep your risks lower. It comes from the old idea that “over time, a dripping tap will fill a bucket”.
This betting strategy is a long term investment plan and needs patience and the knowledge and ability to be able to bet on a lot of different sports. However, some sports should be avoided at all times when it comes to putting large amounts on “odds-on” favorites.

What are the “guidelines” for using the strategy?

If you choose to follow any betting strategies you find here or elsewhere on-line, or fellow punters recommend to you or you discover on your own, you will often find or make “guidelines” that are recommended. Here are some for this strategy:

1. Start with a fixed amount – if possible – a minimum of $1000.
2. Only bet on “odds on” favorites.
3. Place at least one bet a week. (The more you do a week the quicker your total will increase)
4. Only gamble 10% or less of your “total” amount.
5. Do not place bets on horse racing, F1 or golf events.

The way the system works is as follows: It is recommend that you bet 10% or less of your total fixed amount and that you choose odds on bets that you feel will almost definitely win. You can also look at different bookmakers odds as sometimes odds-on prices can be quite different. The most profitable odds-on bets come from rugby, cricket, soccer, tennis, American Football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey. Golf and F1 should be avoided as there are too many variables – for example the weather that can strongly affect the result and make things too risky to bet odds on – use F1 and golf to find “value” bets instead. Odds on betting is also not recommended on horse racing for too many reasons to be given here.

What happens when you follow the strategy?

Horse Racing Show Betting System

The following table shows what happens if you gamble on odds on soccer, cricket, American football, ice hockey and rugby matches.

Baseball Betting Lines

Result

Bet On Lines Odds

So you can see that after gambling on “odds-on” favorites only and by not betting more than 10% of the total value the profit is at over $200 within just ten bets. That also includes a losing bet – note that also 5% was bet where the odds offered were higher than 1/3. The risk is slightly higher and the result is not so certain for higher odds on bets so it is sometimes a good idea to reduce the stake (the amount you bet) for some fixtures. The thing to remember is that “A winner is a WINNER – no matter how small the return!” and overtime you can fill that bucket with the drips! Good luck!