Each-way betting

[doomed]

I think it is fairly widely known that there are some races where backing a horse each way then laying it separately in the win and place markets can be lucrative as the place arb can more than absorb any loss on the win part of the bet. (BOGs also help.)

The biggest risk is that a non-runner can change the terms of your each way bet, eg for a race with 8 runners a bookie will pay out on the 1st 3 places but if there is a non-runner (so now only 7 are running) the bookie will only pay on the 1st 2 places even though you may have placed your bet when there were 8. In contrast, however, the place terms at betfair are fixed regardless of non-runners. So in the example, if you had laid on the place market you would be liable if your horse came in the top 3 even after the non-runner had been declared.

This is why it is dangerous to indulge in each-way arbing when there are 8 or 16 runners. Even with when there are many more runners, on occasions you can get masses of non-runners taking you below the key 8 and 16 thresholds. When this happens, there is no way of correcting the situation that I have been aware of...

...until now. While betfair was down today and I noticed that betdaq/mate run an each-way market with terms that correspond with those of bookies so that they do change in line with the number of runners. (I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed it before.) So it seems possible to unwind any unwanted liability in the event of a non-runner, though whether it is worthwhile will depend on the market's liquidity which has never been great at betdaq.

[kalman]

This is quite common thing with horse racing in Nordic countries. Where the gambling is more or less owned handled by government. They got different types of games such as V75, V65, V5. On the V75 you bet on the correct order of the run but if you get 5 you win as well. On V5 you need to get all five right. At least this is how I remember it, been a while since I did that Remember doing all kind of's different systems when I was a kid with minimum stake but never getting closer than 4 right or so.
It is more different to the normal racing as well because they use cart's.
Just found the English term for it as well:
Harness racing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia