Horse racing / Jake Norton / 04 April 2008 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Punters at today's annual Gold Coast Magic Millions race day have reacted with disgust following a less-than-satisfactory display from local bookmakers on the ten-race card.

Despite seeing floods of punters' cash enter their bags on Queensland's richest day of racing, bookies were reluctant to join in the high-spirited atmosphere of the popular carnival, gearing their book percentages to drastically disadvantage punters.

As many value-conscious punters would know, the closer a book percentage is to 100%, the more 'competitive' the market. Or in other words, the odds for each selection are as close as possible to reflecting the actual percentage chance of any given result. The higher the percentage, the lower the price of each runner.

By consistently positioning their books at well over 135%, and even inflating them as high as 160% at times, the bagmen not only ensured themselves some unscrupulously hefty profits, but also denied punters the opportunity to find any value whatsoever.

In comparison to this, Betfair's exchange markets traded at an average under 110% for the card. In real terms, Betfair punters invariably received better prices, and their punting dollar went a lot further.

Surprisingly, a policy initiated by the Gold Coast bookmakers themselves prevents foreign bookies from joining the ring on Magic Millions day. The lack of competition in turn enables the locals to effectively hold punters to ransom.

The wash-up is that punters are naturally led away from the traditional betting format, and pushed towards agencies like Betfair. As mentioned above, Betfair's markets not only invariably bring significantly greater value; they provide punters a progressive service that is constantly seeking to satisfy its customers.

This culminates in a superior betting experience, and something many archaic betting firms may wish to consider as they see punters seeing the light and turning their backs.