BONUS BETS- BONZA OR BOGUS? I must be careful mentioning bonus bets near Max. At times some grumpy comments emerge and while more tolerance of my eccentricities has been apparent recently, they still rankle when mentioned!
It seems that the idea that you can be a little at peace if your horse is beaten but placed does not sit easy with the punting philosophy of Max. However, while I too resisted the idea of such bets, a learned older legal friend, well versed in law and logic, insisted I look at these bets and now I am a convert.
Still, bonus bets are under threat from the long awaited federal government intervention into internet gambling and so may depart. I hope not and recently retired from an advisory role I had in which, despite some differences with colleagues in the same position, I argued that there are good and bad bonus bets and they may even be useful to punters when appropriately used.
To look at the good side let’s use a straight forward example to demonstrate my case. On Saturday, my usual punting day and the day most bonus bets are offered by those bookmakers that do so, I note a horse called Max and it is at $5.
I back it using a bonus for second or third but it just misses by a nostril. Annoying, but I have a bonus to reuse the stake and even with some agencies split it over other bets during the next seven days. However, the following Saturday I see a horse I like on form and it is also $5. I use the bonus bet and it wins! As the stake is taken out I receive only $4 back and if I take out, for the exercise, my initial bet the return across the two bet sis $3.
But suppose I had backed both without using a bonus bet. Then it would be $2 out, $5 back and a return of $3. So, what’s the difference? Well, that is in the reduced outlay. By using the same bet twice if both had lost I would have only lost $! with a bonus bet in play but $2 without such a ploy. And that is where these bets can be most useful to punters – they reduce losses.
Of course, you need some rules.
Only use them in races where you would have bet anyway. Some disagree and regard any race with a special bonus e,g, 2nd to last as a must bet race as you are guaranteed a bonus if no win which you can use. But to justify your bet the bonus must win if the first one does not otherwise, in my view, you have been drawn into a race you didn’t like and probably end up giving the bookie extra return.
In the real world, I have finished in front each of the last four years but would not have done so in three without using bonus bets. The sad fact is the as punters we lose many more races than we win in – or at least I do anyway!- so anything that reduces those negative moments must help. In Britian those who use bonus bets well are known as bonus bet abusers by the industry and may have the offers reduced or closed. Research I read when in the position I mentioned earlier also showed most bonus bets are regarded as free and are usually thrown onto outsiders.
They are not free but I tend to use them in my longest priced selections.
Two reasons, one being that if algorithms are monitoring punters using these bets (I am such a small punter I doubt they would be interested) then at least I appear to fit the usual picture. But also, it is a reduced winnings factor. Clearly a $10 winner comes down to $9 return if the bonus bet wins and
that is a 10% reduction but the same bet on even money comes down to $1 which is a 50% reduction.
You get the picture.
Bookies are offering other deals on exotics which merit thought but are not my field and bet boosts are also around for win betting but for mine a bet return is best.
A somewhat new world for punters but will it last as anti-gambling trends fail to understand the these can help the average punter?
Clive Allcock
