A rather embarrassing error in this piece from Enda Brady for Sky News. No Irish jokes please:
British gamblers are making history today when bookies use decimal odds at a racecourse for the first time.
Until now bookmakers have always priced up horses using fractions but a campaign aimed at getting more young people interested in the sport claims their methods are "outmoded and unfamiliar".
Racing for Change says that using decimals will give customers better value by improving competition and offering a wider range of prices.
"We need to attract a younger audience and to do that we need to overhaul betting language that is alien to anybody who went to school since the UK went decimal in 1971," said Chris McFadden, chairman of Racing for Change.
Punters at Ascot racecourse today are able to use the new betting system, which could spell the end for much-loved racing phrases like Burlington Bertie (100-30) and Double Carpet (33-1).
"There are some dinosaurs in racing who won't want this, but we'll give the gambling public whatever they want," bookmaker Paddy Power told Sky News Online.
Under the new system - widely used already in Australia - odds like 9-4 would be priced up as 2.25.
2 comments:
Excellent. That reminds me of a similar blunder in an Investor's Chronicle 'Masterclass' on fixed-odds financial betting that I've held on to.
'Fixed-odds financial betting is an exciting way to make money from the world of financial markets. You tell the bookmaker an outcome you'd like to bet on and he quotes you odds on it hapenning ... The bookie quotes you odds on this of two to one and you put £50 on this happening. If you're right, you'll get your money back, plus a prize of £50. If you're wrong, you'll lose your stake.
Of course, this is about the simplest possible wager that you could make with fixed-odds financial betting.'
Apparently this is what they will use for decimals, they will say 2.25-1 rather than 3.25. So, in essence, no improvement whatsoever on the current system. I think Scott wrote about it when he was commenting on Racing for Change's proposals a few months ago. Ridiculous!
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