The Fun Of Betting On Horses And Punter Types

Whether you are weekend punter or a professional punter we all love to watch these magnificent horses running and even better collecting our winnings when it occurs.
But we have to be realistic here and understand we cannot win most of the time as implied probability of a race i.e. the winner is governed by the decimal or fractional odds on offer by the bookmakers and the betting exchanges.

So why is horse racing betting fun?

Punters look at a race or races from different view points and I will try and add some Phycology to this, but I am not  a qualified Phycologist.

1. The Weekend Punter

They place a £5 or £10 bet at the weekends on big events like the derby or a local race track to them. They scan the horse racing portals looking for the winners.

Sounds easy?

Well it is and it isn't and I will explain.  

The implied odds approach.

Horse A is 1.61 in other words it is odds on to win and will most likely win most of the time.

Now lets call our punter Joe he looks at Horse A and says it's a potential winner and there is a easy £61 pound profit here plus the stake money of £100 returned as well.
Now Joe earns a good salary and this amount of money has little impact if it loses.

So the financial impact of it losing the race and the decimal odds on offer for horse A combined will provide enough inertia or confirmation for Joe to place a bet. 
Now lets us add market hype and tabloids and TV to the mix and this adds more gravitas to this bet.

Is Joe that really bothered about the race details yes he is and it a group race and he is happy to take the plunge. Now joe's  background a horse racing fan especially the more select races.

So what does Joe does he places his £100 bet and he is not really bothered about watching it  and goes shopping with his partner. He later finds it has won, and that's £61 profit from the bookmaker or betting exchanges less costs.

Now let us examine the fallout here.

Scenario 1

What fun has Joe actually had with horse racing by backing Horse A?

1.  The monetary return an adrenalin rush, a £161 monetary return and a profit for a time period of 1m 10s on shorter distance flat races or 3m 50s on longer jump races for example.
 Let us give this a weight of 10 where 10 is the highest out of a possible total score of 50.

2. Picking the horse A out in the morning. Well he did little work here assessing the market.

           The market phycology did the talking Joe's O-level in maths enabled basic maths deduction here, i.e. the decimal odds were short. He did not know the probability of this horse winning the race,
            but instinctively knew it would be knocking on the door at the end of the race. Now would he been that keen at 4/1 or decimal odds 5.0? I will leave it there.

            Joe used external influences as well in horse selection and really did not perform any horse form analysis.  We will weight this has 5.
            The odds and marketing did the trick plus the prestige of the race.

3. Joe did not watch the race and we do not count the race replay available as he knows the result so we will weight this 0. The fun of watching the race has been ignored here which is unusual for a group race.

4. Joe's partner was given the £61 profit approximately so she is happy without being sexist. So we will weight this has quite high as it makes him feel good weight it 8 and it is fun he can return a profit with
little work.

5.  Joe performed no horse form analysis so no fun/self satisfaction was gained for getting it right for horse A being the winner so we weight it has is 0.

So in summary our total weight score is 10+5+0+8+0 = 23 out of a score of a possible score of 50.

Now we can express this score as a percentage of just under 50% fun factor, which is near the odds of a flip of a coin for  having fun. A rudimentary approach but
it just gives me a yardstick on Joe's fun factor,

So Joe enjoyed placing the bet for pure monetary terms for himself and his partner!'

Now Joe scored 23 so my opinion is he just wanted a quick profit hit on a odds on shot in a featured event, but that is my opinion. Now would he do the same in a class 4 at
a lower meeting?  I will let you decide but I thinkyou know the answer.

Ok so what am I getting at here?

Let us  take Fred in Scenario 2 who likes a beer and a bet on the horses on a Saturday with  a bit of football mixed in.

Scenario 2

Now let us look at the £10 punter in the pub called Fred with his mates watching the race with the tabloids on his phone now this is a different punter type  than Joe and I will explain.

Is Joe smarter than Fred?

Let us contrast and compare later.

Now I will not go over old ground for Joe as above but we allocate weights as follows,

1. Monetary return weight =  10  Fred is looking to back at  3/1 ( not odds on ) or bigger then there is really no adrenalin rush here, plus its more ammunition for the day!

2. Picking the horse out Fred sequentially scans the races on their smart phones we will score it 4. Now do not get me wrong if they are  in a Pub then why not.

3. We will score 10.  This is  important as their are two competitions in parallel here. The race and the competition amongst his friends on who has picked the winner. 
    
    This competition and not the race is important as it is a social binding the horse race event and a adrenalin rush brings te friends together.  So I would say this is the biggest factor here for fun!

4. We will score this 3.  Fred wins and will most likely buy the drinks in the next round. Its not the same fund its more expected.

5. Now this is open to debate as you always get one who is a secret horse form studier and has had the nod from a mate that a horse is a good thing. Also Fred might have binged horse form at 5am in the morning. So we will score this a 5.

Total = 10+4+10+3+5 = 32 out of a total of 50.

Now this is quite a good fun factor score but an average Saturday in the pub  with Fred and his mates.

 

Scenario 3

Now this is the best scenario and it combines some of scenario 1 and 2 to make scenario 3.

The betting amount is a percentage of your betting bank.

The money won is ploughed back into the betting bank.

The horse form is a great part of this scernio as the monetary side is just process and a turnover and P&L that is equated and analysed over the end of the year.
i.e. profit or loss.

Watching the race in any environment is irrelevant as you can watch the replays anytime.

Now the stake to bet on horse A could be £5K depending on the betting bank size which supports this and is not part of the serious punters income.

Now I am not a professional punter and I will never be one but,  we do not bring fun into this scenario as it is a business and a way of living. This is  a numbers and odds game and putting money
through the markets (races). 

I do not have the figures and I do not  want to know.

Scenario 4 the Cobra

A great sub-heading and I think the bookies watch for these types of punters and they must because these provide a different approach to betting cycles.

Their bets are selective and the frequency personal to them and when the conditions suit them over a year.

A professional punter in scenario 3 is more obvious to a bookie as they know who they are and their betting odds ranges and this is not being disrespectful to them.

So let us look at the makeup of this Cobra punter and this is just my opinion, like it or leave it.

By the way I am not a Cobra punter so I will make this quite clear.

Cobra Punter Profile

Knows the racing code they like to participate in, the class of races, the tracks or courses, the trainers, the jockeys, knows the horses, understands odds and implied probability, understands breeding, understand race tactics, understands ground conditions and there are many more.

Now the above is a big list and it should be, the cobra punter picks their race or races and that is the advantage over a bookmaker.

So how does the Cobra get this knowledge,

1. Naturally gifted.

2. Seasoned punter.

3. Well connected.

4. Involved in training horses.

5. practice makes perfect 12 hours per day and more.

A simple Cobra punter bet who like Horse B.

11th July 2026

Horse B at Course C with Jockey J and Trainer T and Going G and Distance D and Breeding B and CL Class of race and Odds I.

Now horse B has been on Colin's the Cobra punter for some weeks it's already had a return race to a 2 mile chase and is a seasoned handicapper.

The Odds are just right based on the opposition and form of the other horses. Now he has done is own book for the race in question and has formed an opinion
and is ready to place the bet.

Now Colin rings around for odds and gets what he wants, but with a bit of negotiating as we say.

Now horse B is 4/1 2nd favourite and the bookmakers duely oblige. Colin has the horse at 7/2 on his book so he is busting the odds here.

Now their is two hourse before the race and the bets is down a little bit early but Colin likes to get prepared and settle down for the day.

The horse is now 3/1 and colin is feeling smug but guess what he does not lay the bet he lets it ride.

The horse wins and theprofit is made and the extra price of 4/1 is the profit rolling on for the year  and the eaxtra fractions in the right direction add up over the year.

Colin is good and the bookies know it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!