The individual difference may be small — perhaps 5/1 versus 11/2 — but across hundreds of bets over a year, that cumulative margin is the difference between a profitable punter and a losing one. The take varies from state to state and the money is used to pay taxes, purse money for the horsemen, expenses at the track, and the track’s profit. If the exchange is at 7.0 and the bookmaker is at 6/1, the prices are closer, and after exchange commission the bookmaker might even be marginally better.
You want the best place to bet on horses, at BUSR you can bet from anywhere. These are the latest Morning Line odds for almost all racetracks worldwide.
With the assistance of Equinedge I hit several races yesterday and netted over $1100 in profit. Although it won’t tell you how much the horse will pay, it does show the amount of profit you will get if you win and the amount you have to bet to get it. The figures indicate how much a punter would win using a stake of a $100. The money line is mostly used by the American bookies, which clearly displays an underdog, and a favorite. This is much simpler as the decimal figure is simply the payout per unit staked.
Dave Massey previews Saturday’s action at Aintree, selecting his best bets for the races at 1.15, 1.45, 2.25 and 3.00. Dave Chisnall spoke to kwiff on Friday afternoon just before he kicked off his Grand Slam of Darts qualifying campaign That small time investment — repeated across every bet you place — is the most reliable edge available to the average punter. If you are betting early in the day and BOG is on offer, take the best available bookmaker price.
That means BOG triggers on a meaningful proportion of bets, and the average uplift when it does trigger is typically between half a point and two full points of odds. Research on UK racing suggests that around 35 to 40 per cent of runners drift to a higher SP than their morning price. The value of BOG depends on how much Starting Prices drift from the early prices.
It varies by operator, by race type, and by the time of day. If Bookmaker A is running a 115 per cent book on a race and Bookmaker B is running a 125 per cent book, Bookmaker A is systematically offering better value across the entire field. The 120 per cent book means the prices across the entire field are compressed, which means every price is slightly lower than it should be in a fair market. A significant share of that GGY exists because punters accept worse odds than they need to. Horse racing odds comparison is the single most important habit a punter can develop, and it is also the one most punters neglect.
Around major meetings — Cheltenham, the Grand National, Royal Ascot — bookmakers offer boosted prices on selected runners. If the exchange offers 6.0 and the bookmaker offers 5/1, the bookmaker is competitive after commission. Instead of setting odds and accepting bets against them, the exchange matches punters on opposite sides of a bet. At the upper end, you find big-field handicaps with 20 or more runners, where each horse price can be inflated by a few ticks without any individual punter noticing the difference.
If the exchange back price is 8.0 and the best bookmaker is offering 6/1, the bookmaker is taking a significantly wider margin on that horse. Here is the workflow that experienced punters follow, stripped of anything unnecessary. And some operators apply BOG only to bets placed after a certain time in the morning, which means very early ante-post-style wagers do not qualify. Most bookmakers cap BOG payouts — some at a maximum enhanced payout of 500 pounds, others at a maximum uplift of a certain number of odds points. On horses that drift — less money non gamstop betting apps than expected, price lengthening — BOG gives you the benefit of the higher SP. On horses that are supported in the market — money coming in, price shortening — BOG adds nothing, because the SP is lower than the price you took.
That decline puts pressure on bookmakers to attract and retain bettors. It is a one-way ratchet in the punter’s favour — a free option on upward price movement with no downside risk. Check the exchange price on your selection before placing with a bookmaker. When should you use the exchange, and when should you use a bookmaker? There is a subtlety that experienced exchange users understand and newcomers often miss. Flutter Entertainment, which owns Betfair, reported global revenue of $14 billion in 2024 across 13.9 million average monthly users, but the exchange is only one part of that portfolio, and liquidity varies enormously by market.