Andrew Riddell

In light of our recent agreement with the South African Racing Board and sponsorship of the sport on Racing UK, we thought it would be appropriate to give you an insider’s view of South African racing. Viewable most mornings on Racing UK, in partnership with Betfair Poker, one of the faces that you might see is Andrew Riddell, Betfair employee and Racing UK’s South African pundit.

A South African’s View of Betfair

Coming from a country which was originally split between the Totalisator (pool betting) and bookmakers it was very refreshing when an Exchange was offered to the S.A. market, albeit only to the bookmaking fraternity(people with licenses). Being connected and involved with people in the industry though, it was freely available to me. At this stage Betfair was in its infancy and was not involved with S.A racing.

It was like being a kid in a candy store except these sweets could often cost a pretty packet! Normally I would never punt more than 2 horses in the same race but, on occasions, would punt up to 5 horses in the same event on the exchange, finding it hard to believe what phenomenal value I was getting. I, and others, soon learnt though that value did not always guarantee profit! It was a good learning curve and, to survive, things had to change.

Betting margins (Overrounds) are much bigger in S.A. and at opening call the market can be well in excess of 200%. (The simple reason being that punters in South Africa rarely take the price: they always ask for the next price up). Even with the extra stretch afforded to clients the markets were still out of proportion, but a bit truer, due to the fact that very rarely do big priced winners over 20/1 win, and therefore are seldom backed by the public, leading to lopsided books for bookmakers, and in effect causing them to be betting to well under 100%.

Enough of how it works where the sun shines, here are a few pointers on how I make SA Racing profitable on Betfair.

1. I generally start laying from the bottom up. I would rather lay and have a big liability on an outsider than a hot-pot favourite: smaller profits but more regular!
2. I look for markets where horses are trading at an incorrect prices due to factors not related to form i.e. A strong jockey on board (Strydom, Marcus, Shea, Khan) meaning punters are taking much shorter prices than the horses form merits. Better value = more money in the long run.
3. If you are predominantly a layer, the best market is a well funded market. This leads to more activity and prices that are often similar to the course price, especially on favourites that are fairly strong in the betting market.
4. If you are a punter looking for extra value in a race, look for a quiet market and request bigger than normal prices. You will be surprised how often you are matched at prices you thought impossible to get.
5. Like U.S. racing, the S.A. markets are busiest during the final minutes before the off (post time). This is when you sometimes get to lay horses at completely the wrong price, people start to panic which can lead them to taking prices much shorter than course price.

Last but not least, sometimes you have to get lucky. But as South Africa’s greatest golfer, Gary Player, said “The more I practice the luckier I get.”

Best of luck in all your betting this month!

Andrew Riddell