In Play Place Betting / Simon Rowlands / 03 December 2007 / 7 Comments

Punting veteran and racing runes-reader Simon Rowlands gives thanks for the return of Betfair's In-Play Place Betting - and passes on a few tactical pearls of wisdom.

It seems that they are a busy bunch at Betfair Towers at present, judging by the recent announcements of the imminent launches of a starting-price product and of Timeform-i, the latter in conjunction with the Halifax form gurus.

And there's also a welcome return of the in-play option on horseracing place markets - for all British and Irish jumps and flat fixtures - which is a form of betting that has been trialled on a few occasions over the years.

In-play betting on place markets seems like a good idea for a number of reasons:

1. It will provide further opportunity to use your wits in a head-to-head against other in-running shrewdies;
2. It will provide the opportunity to hedge bets struck before the race got underway;
3. It will undoubtedly provide some epic stories of tragedy and triumph of its own in the years ahead!

Personally, I'm interested in it not least because I have developed an annoying habit of failing to get my bets on before a race due to lack of attention!

Forgot to back that rock-solid place proposition in the big race? Not to worry: you'll get another bite at the cherry once the race is underway and may even get a bigger price.

Place betting is a discipline all of its own - it can be enjoyable and rewarding, as well as frustrating and fruitless: just like other types of betting, in other words.

In the early days of Betfair I played almost exclusively on the place markets and learnt a few lessons from painful, as well as pleasurable, experience. If you are laying, the chance of having to cough up on a place is greater than on a win, obviously, but at least the cost of coughing up is less.

An important point to note is that there is no easy way of deriving a horse's true place odds from its win odds, no matter what some might maintain. Sometimes the two will work in tandem, sometimes they won't. The expectation of a horse's winning, or not winning, can be very different from the expectation of its placing, or not.

A horse is a horse, not a number, something which is easy to forget if you immerse yourself in the markets, both pre-race and in-play. Some horses are simply better at getting placed than at winning. Let's call this the Ouninpohja Phenomenon*.

There's the type of race to consider as well. A horse may have an outstanding chance on form in a novice or maiden chase and be priced at 2.0 or shorter on the win market. But the odds on the place market should take into account the very real possibility that if the horse in question fails to win it will be because it fell, unseated, was brought down or got carried out. These races are like an episode of Keystone Cops at times!

By a similar token, outsiders in such races with little hope of winning short of an act of God sometimes sneak a place simply by being one of those still standing at the line.

A horse's running style and the course at which it is competing is likely to have a bearing on its chance of being placed compared to its chance of winning. Many front-runners are all-or-nothing merchants; certain hold-up horses run on more regularly into a place.

When betting in-running - for a place every bit as much as for a win - you need to know not only how far is left to go in a race but how stiff the finish will be and how many obstacles remain.

Know your horses, know your courses, know your jockeys and be both patient and quick-witted if you are betting in-play, win or place.

The old saying "You get nowt for coming second" will seldom apply any longer, where in-running is concerned, and you might even get something for third or fourth if there are enough runners as well!

( * Ed's Note: As Simon explained to me - "Ouninpohja is a highly talented horse who would rather finish second, whether it be to a donkey or to a Shergar"... I think you get his point.)

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Tags: guide, in-play place betting, strategy, tactics