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Betting is an important part of many sports and increases the emotional and financial investment of the fan or punter who is interested in the sport. Horseracing, for example is a thrilling spectacle and an enduringly popular spectator sport but it would be significantly less of an attraction without the ability to pit your wits against the bookie and part with your cash in the hope of leaving with more, or at least the same money you came in with. Winning big is of course a dream for most punters but winning at all keeps up our interest in the sport and our enjoyment in participating in it. |
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Betting is of course not a new phenomenon and the history of sports and contests have always been interwoven with money wagers. Betting systems have however become increasingly complex and sophisticated and there are now endless ways and permutations in which our humble stake money can be transformed into a bigger or more likely return. Multiple betting options are particularly popular and as well as tipping the balance in our favour with regards to our chances, they offer ways to maintain interest in a series of events and outcomes for one single initial stake. Round the Clock is such bet, based on at least three selections.
Winning is about beating the bookie and to do that we need to understand how fixed odds are generated. For some forms of gambling, like buying a ticket for the national lottery, every ticket has the same probability of winning.
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In sports such as football or horseracing this is not the case and certain outcomes will be more likely than others. A bookmaker assesses the possible outcomes and sets fixed odds based on the perceived differences in each outcome. The more likely an outcome is perceived the shorter the odds will be and the less money you get if you predict the outcome correctly.
Using horses as an example, a bookmaker may offer odds on a horse to win a certain race. If those odds are 5/1 (often termed as 5 to 1) then this is the likelihood , according to the bookie, of that horse winning, i.e. if it ran the race six times it would win once. Similarly if we were to place bets on a series of events with odds of 5/1 we would expect one in every six to win and we would need that outcome to break even given the same stake each time. If the horse does win at 5/1 then for every £1 you bet on it you would get £5 plus the £1 stake back i.e. £6 in total.
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Since a price of 5/1 suggest the more likely outcome is that the horse will not win then bets placed on these odds are betting against the most likely outcome. Another type of bet when the odds suggest the horse is more likely to win the race than not are termed ‘odds on’ as opposed to odds against. An example would be 1/5 (often termed 5 to 1 on), where the likelihood is that the horse will win five times out of six.
These are short odds indeed and for every £1 you bet and win at these odds you will get £1.20 in return, which is your initial stake of £1 plus your winnings of 20p.
To complicate matters further there are win bets and place bets. The examples above are win bets and so the returns for a place bet will be a fraction of the odds for winning.
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Place bets are paid out in the event of your horse finishing the race within a predetermined position, which depends on how many runners in the race. There are no place bets offered for races with 5 runners or less. For between 5 and 7 runners a payout will be made on first and second place only. For races of between 8 to 11 runners third place is also included and fourth is too for handicap races with more than 16 runners. |
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The payout is either a quarter or a fifth of the odds for a place bet, depending on the race. Commonly, place best are offered in tandem with win bets in what is termed an Each Way bet. In the example of a horse priced at 5/1 a £1 each way bet places £1 to win and £1 to place. If the horse wins then the return is the sum of both bets i.e. £6 plus £2 (£1 stake plus one fifth of 5/1)= £8. If it does not win but is placed then you only get the return on the place bet, of £2.
Now, Round the Clock is a way of combining single bets based on three selections (three horses for example). Each bet is an 'Any to Come bet' or ATC which means that any winnings on a single bet are automatically placed on the next in the sequence.As the name suggests, the sequence of Round the Clock is three bets in a clockwise direction.
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To explain this further, lets assume the three selections are horses A, B and C. The sequence starts with ABC, which means any winnings for A are placed on B and so on. The sequence then rotates, 'Round the Clock', to encompass BCA, then CAB.
Round the Clock offers a simple way to get more from a three way bet and is a popular addition to the many ways in which punters can get more from their horseracing or other sporting experience.
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