Take Out, Take Out, Take Out

April 24, 2008

Those of you that have been following harness racing online might have noticed there has been a bit of a kerfuffle over the high take out rates in Ontario.
With that in mind I decided it was my responsibility to add some value to the conversation. So the below harness racing track take out table is […]


Ontario Should Give Tax to Players - Reduce Takeout 7%

April 18, 2008

Dean Towers, blogger and speaker at the upcoming Standardbred Wagering Conference has proposed an immediate reduction in takeout in Ontario, funded by a reshuffling of a tax decrease horsemen received in 1996.
This tax going back into the industry must be repealed and a mechanism must be put in place where it is returned in an […]


Fixed Odds Misconceptions

April 16, 2008

From the NZ TAB Fixed Odds Blog
A popular one is that once the ‘book’ is losing heavily on a runner it is backed on the tote to reduce the liability. While on the odd occasion it would be nice to balance the ‘book’ by doing the above it’s a situation that has never happened in […]


Is Betfair Good for Australian Racing?

April 2, 2008

Pull the Pocket has a great post on the Australian Court ruling that Western Australian Racing’s decision to make betting with Betfair illegal was a restriction of trade.
In a unanimous ruling, seven High Court judges said WA’s Betting Control Act of 2007, which banned Betfair from operating in WA and punters from placing bets using […]


NZ TAB Harness Racing Fixed Odds Blog

March 25, 2008

We have a new blog on the network run by the New Zealand harness fixed odds desk.
Harness Odds blogs about the happenings at the Harness Fixed Odds desk and aims to keep you up with the wagering scene.
If you bet on NZ races then this is the blog to follow. Check it out here […]


Hidden Positives, 1989 Style

February 18, 2008

(Pompano Park image courtesy of Nenortas Photography)
I had just finished writing an exam; in I think Modern Symbolic Logic, at the downtown campus at the University of Toronto. I was 18. I had $1.50 in my pocket – streetcar fare. I sped to the bus stop and finally made it […]


Harness Bettors are Cool. Yes, they are

February 18, 2008

Image Credit 
I write about horseplayer issues on my blog quite a bit. Let’s face it, horseplayers are a forgotten lot. To other gamblers we might be “those crazy guys who bet that egregious rake.” To the general public we are even worse; perhaps we are “degenerates who yell at TV screens […]