At the time of writing, horse racing fans in the UK still have a number of epic Flat meetings to look forward to; from the Ebor and the St Leger to British Champions Day.
And then, in October, comes the return of the National Hunt campaign as the great and the good of jumps racing jostle for the sport’s most prestigious prizes.
If you regularly bet on horse racing, you’ll no doubt already be familiar with the benefits of the Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) promotion, which ensures punters get the best price possible on their selections.
Paddy Power has announced a major change to their Best Odds Guaranteed promo… and it might just change the way you bet on horse racing in the weeks and months ahead.
Does Paddy Power Offer Best Odds Guaranteed?
The Irish firm will continue to offer BOG to their customers, albeit with one significant change.
From August 11th, only bets of £5 or more will be eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed adjustments.
“Any bets placed below this stake threshold will not be eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed and will be settled at the price taken or at the starting price (if SP is selected),” a company spokesperson said.
An important side note is that the change will not impact betting shop customers, who will still be able to utilise BOG in their local Paddy Power shop even if they want to stake less than a fiver.
No reason has been given for the change, but it continues the recent trend of bookmakers and horse racing as a sport not seeing eye to eye – more on that later.
What Is Best Odds Guaranteed?
We all want the best value possible when placing our bets, right?
That’s exactly why Best Odds Guaranteed was created in the early 2000s; to ensure that punters are able to access the top price no matter when they placed their bets.
Bets placed with BOG ensure that you get the best possible payout. That may mean that the odds you took are the highest value for that particular horse, or it may be that their price drifts to the point that they’re longer odds by the time they come under starters’ orders.
In which case, you’ll be paid out at the SP – bumping up your payout without you having to lift a finger.
The caveat is that Best Odds Guaranteed is only available from certain times on the day of the race. Paddy Power has long been one of the market leaders in that regard, offering BOG from 08:00 on race day – as do the likes of Betfred, BOYLE Sports, Coral, Ladbrokes and William Hill.
However, at the time of writing at least, you’ll have to wait until 09:00 at betting sites like BetVictor, Betway and Sky Bet.
Too many punters are still underestimating the power of BOG. Taking 2/1 but enjoying an SP of 5/2 may only pay an extra 50p in the pound, but if you are betting across a calendar year – or longer – those 50p boosts can soon mount up.
Uneasy Relationship
Although Paddy Power haven’t offered a reason for their changes to BOG, it continues the troubled relationship between the betting sector and horse racing.
Bookies are seemingly finding it harder to make racing pay these days, which comes as no surprise when you consider the astronomical fees they have to fork out – each shop, for example, pays around £30,000 a year in media rights and betting levy contributions.
That cost increases once again when you factor in the charge for offering live streaming and media syndication, so each bookmaker has considerable overheads to cover before they even make a penny of profit from the sport.
Betfred, who have long battled media rights holders over their pricing structure, have recently announced that they will close 132 betting shops this year. As a by-product of that, racing will miss out on annual payments in the region of £4 million.
When racing was made exempt from Gambling Tax increases during the Autumn Budget, the sport’s stakeholders celebrated royally. But the news was less rosy for bookmakers, who were forced to shoulder the tax burden as the duty paid on sports bets and casino gaming was subject to an almighty hike.
And so the same betting firms needed to find a way to cut costs – ending their sponsorship of key races and meetings, in something of a snub to the sport – was a decision take by Coral, BetMGM and others.
Maybe Paddy Power’s BOG changes are only the beginning as the formerly special relationship between betting and racing continues to sour.