Many people wonder if horse racing wagering is legitimate, or if it's all just a scam to rip people off of their hard earned money. The other issue is whether horse racing wagering and handicapping services can actually help you, or again scam you out of money. This article should settle both issues.
Pari-Mutel:
First of all, horse racing wagering is called pari-mutuel, from the French words which mean mutual wagering. The important thing to remember is that you are betting against others, with all the money for each type of wager going into a pool. The track then pays out the pool to the winning ticket holders, less the track takeout, which varies for each track.
Takeouts:
The average track takeout is about 17.5% for win, place, and show wagering. In addition, there is a breakage, which is too complicated to necessitate explaining here, but it amounts to a little bit more for the track. So let's say on average the track gets 20% of the pool for these wagers.
So, 80% of the pool gets paid out to whoever holds the winning tickets. If the winning ticket is an even-money favorite, a lot of people will get paid. If the winner is 40-1, there will be a few ticket holders raking in a lot of money. It isn't possible to know what percentage of people win more than lose, but it's probably less than half which is 40%.Takeout Times Portland
Exotics:
Exotic wagers are more complicated to figure out. Average track takeouts are vary from 20-25% for exacta, trifecta, superfecta, and rolling wagers, with highest takes on the super. (Exacta: top 2 horses, Trifecta: top 3, Super: top 4).
Each exotic wager goes into a pool for that race. The winners split the pool. This can amount to a majority of bettors cashing in tickets if the results were predictable, or two people cashing for $40,000 each in a $100k superfecta pool.
The great thing about exotic wagers is that at major tracks the pools can get very large. It is not uncommon to see superfecta pools over 100k for every race on a major track weekend.
