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1. What are 'odds'?

The ODDS are basically the chances of an outcome going in your favour. A good example would be the throw of a dice. A dice has 6 sides. No matter which side you choose, the chances of the dice landing on your number is 5/1. That is, 5 chances against it happening and 1 chance for it happening. If you were to wager R10 on these ODDS of 5/1 your bet would be R50 to R10. If the dice landed on the number you chose then you would win R50 plus your R10 stake returned. If the dice landed on any other number you would lose your R10.

INTERESTING NOTE: Even if you throw three 6s in a row, the odds of you throwing another 6 are still 5/1! However, the odds of you throwing 3 sixes in a row one after the other is 215/1. (5/1 x 5/1 x 5/1) = (6 x 6 x 6 – 1) = 215/1
When we talk about ODDS in terms of betting, we aren’t talking about the true chances that an event will occur as with the throw of a dice, but instead the amounts a bookmaker will payout on winning bets. These odds are deduced from a number of factors. In a horse race we talk about a horse’s chances against the other horses in that field. These odds are usually derived from how that horse has performed in the past. This is also known as the horse’s ‘form’. Unlike the dice example, every runner in a horse race is different. The jockey riding the horse, the breeding of a horse, the distance covered and how much weight the horse is carrying are only a few of the numerous factors that influence a horse's given chances. Odds in sporting events and horse racing fluctuate according to market forces, meaning they are affected by the amounts of money being wagered. i.e. the more money being wagered on a horse, the shorter or less its odds become. Conversely, the odds of the other horses in the field increase.

2. What are 'fractional' odds?

Traditionally favoured by bookmakers, fractional odds quote the net amount that a punter can win relative to his stake. Odds of 4/1 ("four-to-one") would imply that the bettor stands to make a R400 profit on a R100 stake. If the odds are 1/4 (read "one-to-four"), the bettor will win R25 on a R100 stake. Should he win, the bettor always receives his original stake back, so if the odds are 4/1 you would actually receive a total of R500 in return (R400 plus the original R100).


3. What are 'decimal' odds?

Favoured in continental Europe, Australia and Canada, decimal odds differ from fractional odds in that they include a stake of 1 unit. Therefore, the decimal odds of an outcome are equivalent to the decimal value of the fractional odds plus one. Thus even odds 1/1 are quoted in decimal odds as 2. The 4/1 fractional odds discussed above are quoted as 5, while the 1/4 odds are quoted as 1.25, 11/2 fractional odds are quoted as 6.5.

4. How do I bet on a horse to win?

STRAIGHT WIN BETS (OR ‘FIXED ODDS’ WIN BETS)

In this bet, the punter selects a single horse to win a particular race. Each competing horse in a race has a price (or odds) assigned to it, and this price is a function of various elements including weight carried, ability, barrier draw etc. The odds are subject to the market forces of supply and demand and thus fluctuate accordingly.

However the price quoted at the time a straight fixed odds win bet is wagered, is the price/odds the punter will get, notwithstanding any future fluctuations of the original odds, either up or down. Your outlay (or stake) will be multiplied by the quoted odds of the chosen horse to give you your bet.

e.g. If you decide to outlay R50-00 0n a straight win bet and the odds quoted on your selected horse are 3/1(three to one), your bet becomes 150/50 ( one hundred and fifty to fifty). This means that should your chosen horse win, you will collect R150-00(less a 6% Provincial Betting Tax), plus your original stake is refundable.


5. How do I bet on a horse to run a place?

In this bet, the punter selects a single horse to finish in the first two, first three or first four places in a particular race, depending on field size. As is the case with a Straight Win Bet, each horse in a race has a price assigned to it, and these odds will obviously be lower than its corresponding straight win odds. These odds also fluctuate in line with market conditions, but the odds quoted to you at the time of your bet, will be fixed, despite any future fluctuations. If the horse finishes first, you still win your place bet.


6. How do I bet on Multiple places?

These bets are commonly known as doubles and trebles. In a multiple win bet, the punter has to select the winner(s) of two or more races. These races chosen do not have to be in succession nor do they have to be at the same venue or even the same day!

e.g. A punter may select horse ‘A’ in the 3rd race at Greyville to win, horse ‘B’ in the 6th race at Greyville to win and horse ‘C’ in the July to win in 3 weeks time.

The odds for a multiple bet are quoted at the time the punter makes his bet, and will remain fixed notwithstanding any future fluctuations. The odds for a multiple bet are normally very attractive and large sums of money can be won for a very small initial outlay.

Multiple Place bets at fixed odds are also available, and instead of all your selected horses having to win their respective races, the selected horses need to finish in the first, second or third position in their respective races for the bet to be successful.

Furthermore, a multiple bet can also be structured with any combination of selected horses to win and selected horses to place:

e.g. A punter may select horse A to win the first race at Turffontein, horse B to place in the 7th race at Clairwood and horse C to win the 4th race at Fairview.

The same principles relating to multiple bets above, will apply.
Up to this point only bets with a fixed-odds nature have been explained i.e. bets where the amount a punter is going to win is known prior to the running of the race or races concerned. This amount to be won is printed on the punters ticket and cannot be affected by market conditions, which have subsequently caused the odds to be different: hence the term “fixed odds”. However, if a horse is scratched (i.e. becomes a non-runner) prior to the running of a race, then the odds of the rest of the horses will need to be adjusted to compensate for the reduced field.

There is a group of bets available to punters, where the payout is not known prior to the running of the race: this payout is only determined after the running of the race when the outcome or result of the race is made known. These bets are known as “Open Bets” and are often referred to as “Tote” bets.


7. What is an open bet?

The exact payout on an Open bet is not known at the time a punter places his bet and only becomes available once the race has been run. After the running of every race, the Tote announces a dividend based on bets that have been placed with that facility. The dividend is a function of a pool system and is derived by dividing the nett pool of any specific bet type by the number of winning tickets. Thus the greater the number of winning tickets, the lower the dividend and vice versa.


8. What types of Open Bets are there?

WIN BET: a bet on a horse to finish first.
PLACE BET: a bet on a horse to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
SWINGER: this is a bet where the object is to select any two horses in a race, and for this bet to be successful; the selected horses must fill any two of the first three places in that race in any order i.e. 1st and 2nd, 1st and 3rd or 2nd and 3rd.
EXACTA: The object of this bet is to predict the horses that will finish 1st and 2nd in the exact order in a race. This outcome is more difficult to predict than the Swinger bet, and hence the payout will be bigger.
DOUBLE: For this bet to be successful, the punter must predict the winners of any two consecutive races at the same venue. This is an obvious extension of the win bet.
TRIFECTA: In this bet, the punter must select the first three horses past the line in their exact order. This bet is similar to the Exacta bet, but obviously more difficult and therefore the payout will be larger.
QUARTET: In order to win this bet, the punter must predict the first four horses past the line in their exact order. This bet is similar to the Trifecta bet, more difficult and consequently results in a larger payout.

9. What is an Exotic Bet?

“Exotics” are a type of open bet where you choose horses to win (or place) in a series of consecutive races.
JACKPOT: For this bet to be successful, the punter must choose the winners of all four races that comprise the Jackpot. The four races that make up this bet are clearly marked in all the racing publications such as Winning Form, Top Turf, Sporting Post, Computaform, Race Card etc.
PLACE ACCUMULATOR: The aim of the P.A. is to select a horse (or horses) to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in each of the 7 consecutive races that comprises the Place Accumulator for that race meeting.
PICK 6: As the name may suggest, the objective of this bet is to select the winning horse in every one of the 6 races that comprises the Pick 6. This bet normally produces the largest payout of all Exotic bets.


10. Can I pick more than one horse per race in an Open or Exotic Bet?

Yes, permutations are possible. You can select as many horses as you like in any ‘leg’ of a bet.

Let's use the Jackpot as an example:

The objective is to select the winner of all four consecutive races (or legs) that make up the Jackpot. The simple selection of one horse in each leg would cost R1 e.g:

Leg 1: 2
Leg 2: 4
Leg 3: 13
Leg 4: 9 (1 x 1 x 1 x 1 = R1)

You may think that a number of horses have a chance at winning in each leg. So to increase your probabilities, you may include more selections in each leg as follows:

Leg 1: 2, 6, 7 (=3 horses selected)
Leg 2: 4, 9 (=2 horses selected)
Leg 3: 1, 5, 8, 11, 13 (=5 horses selected)
Leg 4: 1, 3, 9, 10 (=4 horses selected)

3 x 2 x 5 x 4 = R120

The above permutation would cost R120. i.e that is 3 selections x 2 selections x 5 selections x 4 selections = R120. As you can see, the more selections you have, the more expensive your bet becomes.



11. Are there payout limits to Exotic or Open Bets that are placed with a bookmaker?

Any Open bet placed with Hollywood will not reduce the potential dividend. This is because our Open bets are independent of the “pool system” that determines the payouts.

While no dividend limits apply, payouts will be limited to the lesser of R500 000 Ticket Limit or 500 000/1 odds limit, and all open bets are limited to net pool sizes. e.g.:

1. If you catch a Pick-6 that pays R496 000,00 to a R1.00 unit and you catch it once (100%) the R500 000,00 Ticket limit doesn’t apply - dividend paid: R496 000,00. If you catch a Pick-6 that pays R520 000,00 to a R1.00 unit and you catch it once (100%) the R500 000,00 Ticket limit does apply - dividend paid: R500 000,00

2. If you catch 20% of a Pick-6 that pays R525 000,00 to a R1.00 unit, the Odds limit of 500 000/1 will apply - dividend paid: R100 000,00 (R500 000,00 x 20%)


12. How do I bet on a single sporting event?

As described earlier in the horseracing section, Straight Win bets or Fixed-Odds Win bets dominate the sports betting arena. Competing teams or individuals are each assigned specific odds, which do not alter once a punter has placed a bet, notwithstanding any future fluctuations in the assigned odds. The assigned odds are displayed in all of Hollywood's betting outlets, and a good example would be as follows:

The Harare Derby between Dynamos FC and CAPS United will always draw a lot of interest, and the odds could be like this:

Dynamos FC to win: 15/10
CAPS United to win: 22/10
The match to end in a draw: 2/1

The punter can select from any of the THREE outcomes to bet on, and should he decide to wager R50-00 on CAPS United at the current odds, the bet would be as follows:

22/10 (or 2.2 to 1) x R50-00 = 110/50

This means that should CAPS United win, the punter would win R110-00 and his original stake of R50-00 would be returned.


14. How do I bet on a multiple sporting events?

The sports punter might decide to include more than one sporting event in his win bet, and a possible multiple bet could be made up like this:

Dynamos FC to win the Harare Derby, Manchester United to win the English Premiership and Ernie Els to win the US Open. In our example, the odds might be as follows:

Dynamos FC : 15/10
Man Utd: 2/1
Ernie Els: 5/1

This will result in a multiple win bet of 44/1!

The Bookmaker will calculate the bet based on assigned odds and because the punter needs to correctly predict the sporting outcomes, the odds quoted will be very generous, particularly if that bet was placed at any Hollywood Sportsbook branch.

Multiple betting also presents the sports-punter with an interesting option: he may combine a sports bet with a horseracing bet e.g. Fernando Alonso to win the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and ‘Horse A’ to win the 2nd race at Borrowdale Park. The options are unlimited and the payouts very attractive! In this example the odds might be as follows:

Alonso: 3/1
Horse A: 12/1

This will result in a multiple win bet of 50/1!


15. What is handicap betting?

Some sporting events lend themselves to handicap betting. Rugby is a good example where one of the team can be assigned a handicap: not only must this team win, but it must win by a certain margin of points for the bet to be successful.

E.g. In a match between the Bulls and the Stormers, and the Bulls are the stronger team, the Bulls could be assigned a Handicap of -10 points. If a punter selects the
Bulls in this contest, their winning margin must be greater than 10 points for the bet to be successful. The Stormers on the other hand would be allocated a negative handicap (+10 points) and should a punter select them in this contest, the bet would be a winning one as long as the Stormers win, or finish not more than 10 points behind the Bulls. In this example the following outcomes are possible:

a) The final score is Bulls 30 and Stormers 20. In handicap betting this would be a draw (You add 10 points to the Stormers score, giving a Handicap result of Bulls 30 and Stormers 30, or you subtract 10 points from the Bulls score to give a handicap result of Bulls 20 and Stormers 20.) Those punters who selected the handicap draw,would be winners in this case.

b) The final score Bulls 35 and Stormers 15. In handicapping terms the Bulls have won by more than 10 points, and punters who selected the Bulls would have winning bets.

c) The final score is Bulls 26 and Stormers 19. In handicapping terms, the Bulls have lost this match because their winning margin is less than 10 points. Therefore punters who have backed the Stormers on Handicap, will collect on this result.

d) The final score is Bulls 12, Stormers 14. The Stormers have won this match outright, and have obviously also won the match on handicap. The handicap score would be Bulls12, Stormers 24(14+10 handicap points).