We promised in Part 1 of our Beginner’s Guide to Photo Finish™ LIVE Wagering series that we’d soon dive deeper into the wonderous world of playing the ponies, and now it’s time now to do just that.
To recap what we’ve already covered, you now know we’ll be using the tried-and-tested pari-mutuel horse wagering system paired with decimal odds. With that in mind, let’s dive into some of the different kinds of wagers horse race bettors place just to give our community an idea of what the future of playing the virtual Photo Finish™ LIVE ponies might look like.
Straight Wagers
Straight wagers are like the vanilla ice cream of playing the ponies – not overly adventurous, but still a damn good time. Straight bets involve solely betting on a single horse in a single race.
At the core of straight bets are three terms; Win, Place, and Show.
Let’s break each of these bets down
- Win Bet: You cash a bet only if your horse takes first place.
- Place Bet: You cash a bet if your horse finishes first or second.
- Show Bet: You cash a bet if your horse finishes first, second, or third.
Now that you’re familiar with the ingredients that go into the vanilla ice cream of horse racing bets, let’s get wild and toss some sprinkles on things.
Here are a pair of additional betting options that routinely utilize a base of Win, Place, and/or Show:
- Across the Board: Essentially three bets in one, an Across-the-Board bet is the equivalent of placing separate bets on the same horse to win, place, and show. If your chosen horse wins the race, all three of your bets would cash.
- Win/Place, Place/Show: Similar to Across Board wagers, Win/Place and Place/Show bets are combo bets. If your chosen horse wins a race and you made a Win/Place wager you would win both bets. If the horse finishes second you would only cash the Place side of this bet.
Exotic Wagers
Moving from left to right down the ice cream shop line, we’ve now entered the mad scientist portion of the pony betting program. We’re talking candy bar-infused and rainbow-colored stuff over here.
Let’s get to know some of the most common exotic wagers bettors place in the horse racing world:
- Exacta: For a bet to cash you must select the top two finishers in the correct order.
- Quinella: For a bet to cash you must select the top two finishers in any order.
- Trifecta: For a bet to cash you must pick the top three finishers in the correct order.
- Superfecta: For a bet to cash you must select the top four finishers in the correct order.
Box Bets
If your tolerance for risk-taking rests somewhere in the middle of straight and exotic wagers, box bets might be for you. ‘Boxing’ a bet in horse racing means you are playing all combinations of the horses you selected so that you win when they come in any order.
There are multiple types of box bets you can place, such as an exacta box, trifecta box, and many more. For example, if you bet a trifecta box wager, you select three horses to finish in any order in the top three positions.
Box bets let you wager on multiple horses without the stress of nailing the exact order they finish in.
So, there you have it. Consider yourself across the basic knowledge of what it takes to play the ponies. With wagering coming to Photo Finish™ LIVE, you can bet (literally!) we’ll be talking much more about this subject.
