EXC USA

MAP OF UK RACECOURSES

map courtesy of Racing-Index

The UK boasts a total of 60 racecourses offering Flat and National Hunt jump racing, with many courses offering both types of racing - see map. Overseas visitors to the UK with an interest in horse racing will be pleased to know that many historic towns and cities they may visit have a racecourse. For the latest information on race dates, travel and admission prices for horse racing in 2012 please click on the racecourse of your choice - below. REFRESH TO VIEW LATEST RACE MEETINGS BATH: Evening racing 20 April CHELTENHAM: The Festival 13 - 16 March CHESTER: May Festival 9 - 10 May EDIN-MUSSELB: Afternoon jump racing 16 Feb KEMPTON: Twilight flat racing 8 Feb PERTH: Racing Festival 25 - 27 April SALISBURY: Afternoon racing 6 May SANDOWN: Afternoon jump racing 17 Feb STRATFORD: Afternoon racing 12 March WINDSOR: Afternoon flat racing 16 April YORK: Dante Festival 16 - 18 May 2012

Arbitrage Sports Betting – Does it Work?

Is arbitrage sports betting a fantasy or is does it really work? Here we will attempt to answer that question.

First we will define what we mean by arbitrage. This is when bets are placed in order to exploit discrepancies and discontinuities of different odds offered by different bookmakers on the same event.

When setting the odds on a sporting event, for instance Cheltenham Festival, a bookmaker will attempt to ensure that he will make a
profit whatever the outcome of the race. This is not always possible and sometimes bookmakers lose money particularly when a heavy backed favourite wins, but he will always attempt to balance his books. If you look at the odds for a race offered by a single bookmaker then if you take the sum of the reciprocals of each individual decimal odds offered, this will always be greater than one, though the actual numbers will mostly be different for different bookmakers. This means that if you bet on every possible outcome you would lose money.

However, if you can find odds offered by different bookmakers in which you select favourable odds for every possible outcome in which
the reciprocals of the odds sum to less than one, then it becomes possible to devise a bet in which you will win money whatever the outcome of the race.

Spotting these opportunities if extremely difficult and time consuming, but from time to time they do arise. If you are an excel wiz then it is quite easy to write a spreadsheet that will allow you to optimise arbitrage gets; alternatively there are free online arbitrage calculators available on the web.

The problem with arbitrage betting is that even if you spot one it is not entirely risk free. Sometimes arbitrages can be very complex, and often the withdrawal of a single horse in a complex arbitrage can destroy it and you will lose.

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