Tote or Exchange?

Perusing the harnesslink.com site, and I see an ad for Betfair (it is licensed and contributes to pools in Australia).

The ad shows what they have been doing by facilitating a partnership with racing and acting like an off track betting site. It is titled "Exchange or Tote" and says the following:

Get the Best of Both Worlds at the Tote at Betfair

It’s a one-stop shop with Exchange and tote betting all under the one roof.

Choose between backing and laying on the exchange and betting in tote win and place markets.

Or have a quinella, exacta, trifecta, daily double or quaddie – on all races, from all codes. All from the one account.

The decision is all yours.

It’s the complete betting experience.

Absolutely brilliant and shows what we can be over here if we can lobby to get some of these laws (that were built for racing monopolies) changed. The principle is simple. You like a horse at Grand River. He is 3-1 on the exchange, but looks like he will end up at 2-1 on the board. What to do? Bet the exchange price and try and get matched at 3-1. If it is the other way around and you think you can get a better price on track? Well, in the same account, bet the horse right into the pools. Further, you don't like the third race. You hate the chalk who is sitting at even money, but you don't like anyone else. What do we do in North America? Sit the race out. Not there. There you lay the chalk that you hate, trying to get matched at 6-5, and participate.

And the best thing? All that action contributes to racing pools and purses, albeit in a 21st century business model.

Great stuff by a very sharp company.

Note: I am a believer that you do have to be a bettor, and one with passion to understand a bettor. I stumbled upon a blog tonight. It is Andrew Black's blog, who is a founder of betfair. It is not a shill blog for his company, in fact he says that clearly. It is just a a blog about betting the horses. It is interesting, but not surprising perhaps that the founder of the largest betting site in the World that spawned a whole new demographic of bettor, is a horse racing fan and a gambler. Just like us. But I bet we have less money.