Tips for Finding Value Betting on the Races

It seems like everyone is looking for value these days – whether it’s at the grocery store, at the car dealership or at the races. Part of finding value is knowing where to place your bets, and that’s why many punters use expert reviews by Efirbet to figure out the best way to wager.

You will hear people talk about value all the time at the track, but what does it really mean? We know an important part of winning money at the track is knowing where the value lies, but a further explanation is needed to really understand that statement.

Simply put, value means you are getting better odds than the actual odds of a particular horse (or a particular combination if you are playing an exotic bet). It’s important to note that it doesn’t mean you are going to win that bet, and in fact there are many times you will lose on a value play.

Think of it like this, say there is a horse that has a 10 percent chance to win (don’t ask how you know he has exactly that chance of winning, you just do). If he’s going off at a 5-1 odds, that’s a pretty poor bet because he’s only going to win once out of 10 races and when he does you’ll only collect $12 on a $2 win bet (from a total cost of $20).

If he’s going off at around 10-1, then that’s right about where he should be odds-wise. But what if he’s going off at 30-1? That’s a big value play, but remember that if he only has a 10 percent chance to win, that means he’s going to lose 90 percent of the time. So in that hypothetical situation, you are not always going to cash your wager, but over the long run you will come out ahead. At those 30-1 odds, you’d cash for $62 with a $20 investment using the scenario from earlier. Of course that’s easy to say and not quite as easy to do, as opportunities like that don’t come along all that often.

Another part of finding a value play is going against the grain. That means if one of the public handicappers is touting the horse hard in his online selections or on the TV feed, then there’s a good chance that many people are going to follow his or her advice and bet on that horse. That generally means that any potential value on that horse is gone, but the flip side is now other horses in the race offer great value.
So in situations like that, examine that “hot horse” and see if the reasons he’s being touted are valid. If they are, then maybe that’s a good race to skip. But if you find some holes in the argument – maybe the horse is coming back from a long layoff or that particular trainer or jockey has been cold lately – then it might be time to stand a stand against him and look for the value on another horse or horses in that race.
Of course there is much more to finding a value play than outlined above, but those tips should give you a good start!