The most common type of greyhound betting is very similar to traditional horse race betting. A given race will typically have roughly twenty dogs competing in a heat, and larger races may have multiple heats for placement. For each heat, the odds for the various dogs in the race are posted by bookmakers. Bookmakers examine the performance, breeding, training, and other aspects of each dog in order to best determine their chances of winning. Odds for each dog are then created based on this chance. An example of the odds posted for a given race would look something like this:
Dusk: 12
Razor’s Edge: 8
Lumos: 15
Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.: 25
Popeye: 9
And so on. Obviously, most odds listings will feature more entrants, but for this example these five will suffice. In this posting, the dog with the best odds of winning is Razor’s Edge, who has been given eight to one odds. This means that a bet placed on Razor’s Edge will pay out eight dollars for every dollar bet. Payouts include the original bet as well, so if you were to bet ten dollars on Razor’s Edge and it won the race, you would win eighty dollars, plus your ten back, for a total of ninety. The dog with the worst odds is Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., who pays out twenty-five to one on a win. This means that if you were to bet ten dollars and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. won, you would win two hundred and fifty plus your ten for a total of two hundred and sixty.
While it might seem most profitable to simply bet on the underdog (greyhound betting is actually the original source of the term), keep in mind that the odds posted are designed to reflect a dog’s actual chances of winning. This means that while betting on Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. might pay out more on a win, the bookmakers (who are professionals designed to evaluate a dog’s chances of winning) do not think that it is likely. That said, bookmakers do make mistakes, and there have been plenty of races where the dog with the worst odds has come out on top.
If you are interested in greyhound betting, then joining an online betting group is an excellent place to start. These sites offer books for a wide variety of races, as well as guides on how you can get started placing bets. These sites also often have communities where you can share tips, strategies, and picks with other gamblers. Greyhound betting can be a very exciting and, if you are lucky, a very profitable sport, and with online betting sites it’s also very easy to jump into.
