Skybet extra place races

Hi there,

As you probably know, Skybet are the most high profile, and aggressive bookie when it comes to extra place races. This strategy means that they are proactively trying to attract money, so prepared to lay most bets. Therefore it is pretty imperative that Cleeve members have an account with them.

There are a few clear  reasons that they are prepared to lay most bets... 1) they are usually shorter odds on every runner in the race, than you can find elsewhere in the market. 2) they do not go best price guarantee on their extra place races. 3) they also pay 1/5 odds a place, when usually the rest of the industry is paying 1/4 of the odds a place.

Given one of our betting strategies is to back some selections EW when we think they have a very strong chance of winning, but only a place gives us a return, albeit a negative one, extra places are VERY IMPORTANT. Given that most of our selections are well-backed, the lack of BOG is not really a factor for us.

Sometimes, for example, Skybet will go 3 places, on a 7 horse race, but offer odds on a runner (that is a member selection for us) at 3/1, rather than the generally available 7/2.

This in our mind equates to a 50% increase in places paid, than is generally available... that is 50% is offset by a decrease in the odds that they are offering, but only by 28% to what is generally available in the market. Therefore it appears to be a good value proposition!

It is not always a good value deal, as it might be an offer of 7 places, when 6 is generally available (15% increase)... but the odds offered are 5/1 rather than 6/1 (20% loss), in which case we would be loathe to advise it. There is also another couple of points that we need to bear in mind... if we fancy the horse to win, we should certainly fancy it to be in the first 6, however if it is a long odds outsider we might take, what at first glance, looks to be bad value, as we feel we are still getting a 'good' price (10/1+?).

The long, and the short of it is that it is a bit of a subjective call. We are also aware that some members may be subject to Skybet restrictions, however, as we have said before, we must consider the larger group... before the individual.

Therefore we will advise Skybet extra place races for member selections, but only when we feel there is value to be had. Of course some members may want to take the extra places, even when we don't recommend them... but at least now you have an insight to our thinking.

Best wishes
the team at Cleeve