Little Des 05 Jan 19:10
Whatever happened to 100/6, 100/7, 100/8 and 100/9 ???

kenilworth 05 Jan 19:29
Still there on course if you ask, as are all the fractions from 11/2 upwards.

At Newmarket in 1998 I asked for 500 for 30 on a horse showing 16 on the illuminated board. I was told "Get into computer age". He then turned to his mates and shouted "He trying to steal my bits". Everyone laughed. When I told him that I worked with computer since the 60's, a member of his team told me that the fractions were not in the algorithm.

Ken. Are telling this forum that they are now? Please tell me where I can find an on course bookmaker who give me fractions.

This is a genuine question open to any on-course bookmaker on the forum. I would delighted to hear from them.

lay low: 1998 and an illuminated board? do you mean 2008? as regardless of the illuminated board question you would have been very unlucky to have found a bookie who wouldnt lay you fractions back then,admittedly there would be more now but i would estimate well over 50% will still lay fractions.

good point kenilworth,but some of them are so new to the game plus the fact there is so little interaction between books nowadays and not so many savvy punters go racing some dont understand what you are asking for,hard to believe i know.

Ribero, memory plays tricks, it was not an illuminated board. The odds were still being displayed in felt tip. The point was that it was a computerised system that generated a printed receipt with the horses name and the winning return calculated. I was told that it was only possible to input the normal odds and fractions were now obsolete. Thanks for your informative reply.
Kenilworth, I dont know why anyone would ask for 500/60 when 10s was displayed. I would only ask for 500/60 when 8s was displayed and I use to get it. As far as boycotting a bookmaker because of rudeness, this would greatly restrict my options. My experience has shown that course bookmakers are generally not renowned for their customer facing skills. To be fair I have seen them get some horrible personal abuse because many racegoers just dont understand the rules or are out of the skulls with alcohol.
Thanks for your helpful post.
To not one in particular, I will be at Newcastle on the 20th this month. Could anyone tell what names I should look for on the boards if I want fractions? 100/12, 100/14, 100/15, and 100/16 when 8, 7, 13/2 and 6 are displayed respectively

^ That had crossed my mind actually.

Less experienced punters would possibly look across the boards and say " 5/2 , 9/4 ?" Bugger it I'll go with the one that's nearest.

Nobody's going to bet at 2.2 when 2.3 is available though.

The best bookmaker pitch positions are those on the front row, then nearest to where the punters approach them from. There are many punters who don't even realise books behind the front row exist.

c rap coding you are clearly totaly without anyundrstanding of bookmaking , therein lies the problem , fekwits like you spouting on about something you know fk all about.isnt it odd how so many people want to take advantage of the fraction 5000/40 1000/30 yet still want decimal odds lolololol. talk about hypocritical clowns lolololoo.personally im quite prepared to lay fractions at the moment but if decimal oddss come in then i wqill not be doing so in future, ive spoken to several bookies who feel the same.in allhonesty the thread wasnt aimed at punter but to fellow bookies.generally ifind most the public have some understanding of haqving a bet but now and again iwe get asked wot ew means and is 5/1 big than 4/1 etc and im quite happy to take a mment to explain it.the facts are people often take 6/1 a horse when 7s is available next door and decimal odds wiull make no difference to those people.

Laylow, You misunderstood my question re the 500/60.... The bookmaker has access to Betfair prices, not the punter, and with 8/1 on his board for a horse showing 10.0 on the machine, would he refuse the 500/60 ? I would be surprised if he did, but maybe I shouldn't be that surprised.

Kenilworth, Yes I misunderstood your comment about 500/60. The term

Any one who has been to the races in Australia will have seen that oncourse books show decimal odds and it works perfectly well. What it needed though was for it to be made compulsory as it is there, so that the punters could compare the book prices with the State Run t o t e. The last time I was there the Exchanges didn't have the grip they have here, but that may be different now. One other thing that may help here is that the books 'down under' are under cover at all times, and it should be that way here, as there is no encouragement to punters from racecourses to bet with books, quite the opposite. You never see the girls in red coats taking bets from under an umbrella, as the books do.

Ok, let's try a simple starting point then if we're going to be civil.

Is there a good reason NOT to put our prices to be in line with the rest of the non-american-sports world.

The modern gambler probably watches horse racing on tv, probably uses betfair, and probably watches non English racing. Why make them learn two things rather than one if they want a bet.

I recently explained all three betting systems to my other half and she found the american one the simplest (which it is imo), decimal second simplest and fractional the hardest.

It wasn't the fractions that did her in, she was struggling with the entire concept of 2 to 1, while remembering that if she bet £1 at 3.0 she'd pick up £3.00 seemed much more natural. (In fairness I don't agree with this part. I'd think that 2 to 1 is as obvious as you can make it)

Also, given that bookies have their own special numbers and stuff _gives the impression_ that they're **ing, even if they're not. Do we want to give potential newcomers that impression?

I'm not keen on the entire horse racing industry, but I want people to gamble, so personally I want people to be as comfortable as possible when they're having a bet.
Fewer and fewer online places offer fractional odds as a choice, but they all offer american/decimal. Why not reduce the amount of new stuff a newcomer needs to learn to be able to lose their money?

American betting (although horses tend to be decimal) on sports uses a "bet to win 100" or "bet to lose 100" system. If you're betting to lose 100 then the number is positive, if you're betting to win 100 the number is negative.

so +110 is 11/10
-200 is 1/2

Fractions is the way forward. I'd say there are many complete novices who think 2/1 is 2.00 3/1 is 3.00 and 4/1 is 4.00.

Fractions make your odds look bigger and more competitive

Decimal (betfair) is proposed for the UK

My local newspaper covered this story yesterday saying that odds of 5/2 will become 2.5/1.
That is why I suggested allowing some on-course bookmakers to display odds of 2.5 instead of 5/2.
This would not work if the betfair system was used.

Now that I have been informed that the UK are moving on the betfair system where 2/1 becomes 3.
Surely this will cause problems in the betting shops when somone comes to pick up a winner at 3s expecting a return of 4. This puts any difficulties at the racecourses in the shade.

short term pain for long term gain

It should be the same as the exchanges and t o t e because their systems is one that the new(ish) punter is used to. Every single price they use, from 1.01 to 1000 should be in the bookie's computer, he doesn't have to use them but they should be there.

tbh if you cant instantly convert between one and the other in your head, you should question your skills as a bookmaker. with this in mind, either/or should be fine and as the post above implies, there are more important things happening in the world

I guess you've got a long list of things to get working on then, very surprised that with 550 or so things to do you have time to post on a forum.

the EU lost its case against market traders continuing to sell in pounds and ounces.

if fractions are too difficult to understand for the well educated highest ever passes at A and O level new generation, god help us.

does the RFC really believe decimal odds are the answer to increase in attendances, . 2nd time god help us