‘s Edward Randall gives betrescue.com members his overview on the Opportunities.
This is a hugely popular market amongst racing punters as it’s great value for money. It incorporates every race across the meeting, so no need for the last minute dash to the betting booth! How it works is simple. A “Winning distance” is the distance, in lengths between the horse in first place and the horse in second place.
We then add all of these, across all the races together for the makeup.
Naturally, if you’re expecting most races to go to the wire, with only a few nose hairs separating the front two, you’d be more inclined to sell. If you think that the favourites in most races are particularly strong, with a few demolition jobs likely, you’d probably be looking to buy.
At the time of writing, are quoting 100-110
Historically, this is a pretty consistent price, but not always with a consistent result.
The 2010 festival saw a makeup of 94.7, with the highest in the last 5 years being the 110.6 of 2008.
That’s roughly the buy price for this year’s festival. One for the sellers? Our traders obviously fancy a few big wins. What do you think?
Everyone loves a Jolly. Whether it be the star of the show putting on a once in a lifetime performance for the adoring crowd, or the hugely fancied runner who has an off day, to the delight of the bookmaking world. Like it or not, the favourites are where most business is done.
At we have another fantastically popular market called “Festival Favourites” Which is an index based on how well we think the Jollies will perform.
It works like this:
Points are awarded depending on where the favourite finishes in the race. If the favourite wins, 25 points are awarded. For 2nd, 10 points are awarded. For 3rd, 5 points. Anywhere outside the top 3 is 0 points.
These are then aggregated over the course of the meeting.
Again, at the time of writing, have gone 203-213
If we look into more detail, that means that over the 27 races, that’s an average of roughly 7.7 points per race. Seem quite high? It will do to those of you who saw the festival last year. The makeup was a poorly 145 as the bookies danced all the way to the bank. Extrabet fear a real turnaround this year and sadly for the bookies, looks like the Jollies will perform much better.
So where do you stand? A great week for the fancies or a great week for the layers? The cool thing about spread betting is you can choose which side you’re on.
So. You’ve got an interest in every race already, but as an astute punter, you’re always on the lookout for value.
Another market extrabet offer on every race is called the Match Bet
It’s a great way to express your opinion on the race.
What happens is we’ll pick out 2 horses. We’ll then predict how much one horse will beat the other by (in lengths, not places)
For example, Horse A/Horse B 1.5 – 3
This means we think Horse A wins by about 2 and a bit lengths.
You’ve studied the form, heard the trainers interviews and spoken to the guy you know who knows a guy who’s cousin once went on a date with Kauto Star. Horse A should blow Horse B away. Maybe even lap it!
Naturally you’re a buyer at 3 and the formality that is the races proves you all right. Horse A wins by 13 lengths, even keeping the pace up at the end to make sure it wins by as much as possible.
That’s a 10 point win to you. Job done.
Its always wise to consider what would happen if the result were different? Say a stumble 3 from home meant Horse A’s assault on the winning post was badly hampered?
Horse B comes though and beats your nag by 3 lengths.
This means that you’ll end up with a negative makeup of -3. Your horse lost by three lengths. Makes sense right? So the difference between 3 (the buy price0 and -3 is 6
6 point loss I’m afraid.
Although, don’t forget, with spread betting you can sell as well as buy, meaning you can bet on either outcome. Another great thing to remember with is that we offer stop losses on every market, but no stop wins!
That means we limit how much you can lose, but not how much you can win. Seems like the total opposite to most bookies huh?
is the most exciting way to enjoy this year’s Cheltenham festival. Don’t miss out on the action and the multitude of markets we cover and today.
New customers at can claim a £25 and £100 in .
Good Luck!
Edward Randall
