BET TYPES

Win
Also known as a Straight Bet, or a Single, this is the simplest bet. A bet on a horse To Win will collect only if the chosen horse is the first across the finish line.

Place
The Place Bet is essentially a Hedged Win Bet. Typically, dividends are dramatically reduced as the chances of collecting any dividend are greatly increased.
A winning Place bet will pay for first, second or third in a race with seven or more declared starters and first or second in a race with between four and six declared starters.
Placing two bets, one for a win and one for a place, is essentially the same as an English Each-Way bet.

Quinella
A Quinella Bet is the selection of two horses to finish first and second in either order in a given race. In English racing, this is known as a Reverse Forecast.

Double
A punter collects if he correctly selects the winners of two nominated races. This is effectively a two-horse accumulator. A Consolation is paid out if a gambler's selections come in first in the first leg and second in the second leg.

Trifecta- A bettor will pick the first three finishing horses in the order of their finish.
The simplest form of this wager is the Straight Trifecta, which is a single combination of the first three finishers. The minimum bet for Straight Trifecta is $2. To purchase, simply tell the clerk: "$2 Trifecta on 1-2-3." A Trifecta is not offered in all races at all tracks, this wager is also called the "Triple" at some tracks.

Superfecta- A bettor will pick the first four finishing horses in the order of their finish. In other words, you must pick the horse that wins first, second, third, and fourth. This type of wager can be costly and is not a very popular among seasoned handicappers.
The simplest form of this bet is the Straight Superfecta, which is a combination of the first four finishers. The minimum bet for a Straight Superfecta is $2. To purchase, simply tell the clerk: "$2 Superfecta on 1-2-3-4." A Superfecta is not offered in all races at all tracks.

Daily Double- A bettor will pick the winning horse in two consecutive races. All tracks offer the early daily double which involves races #1 and #2. Other tracks also offer a late daily double or the last two races of the day.

Pick 3- A bettor will select the winning horse in three consecutive races. Most tracks only offer one or two Pick 3 opportunities per day. Some tracks offer a rolling Pick 3 where every race is part of a pick 3 bet. The simplest Pick 3 bet is the $2 Straight Pick 3. For example, you picked the #2 horse to win race #1, the #4 horse for race #2, and the #6 horse for race #3, you bet: $2 pick 3 - 2, 4, 6.

Pick 4- The first place finishers of four consecutive races must be picked in order to win this wager. The wager must be placed before post time of the first race. If one leg of the pick 4 is a loss the entire wager will be deemed a loss.

Pick 6 - A bettor will select the winner of six consecutive races prior to the first race of the Pick 6. Some tracks place the Pick 6 as the first six races, the middle six races, or the last six races. Prize pool may reach up to $1 million dollars.
Boxed Bet - Betting on all possible combinations in a multi-horse wager like the exacta or trifecta.

Show - For a horse to "show" it must finish the race either first, second or third. Generally pays less than either the win or place bet, but it gives you three chances for a return of your investment.

Combination Bet- Combination of two to four horses to win in chosen order.

Exacta- A bettor will pick the first two finishing horses in the order of their finish.

BET TYPES on America's ADW and PTC

What Makes Hong Kong Horse Racing Different

Apart from claiming that Horse Racing in Hong Kong is an experience like no other in the world, what is it that set this sport entertainment played in this mega city unique all over the globe.

Is it the supporters, the fans, the bettors, the horse, the trainer, the jockey, the Hong Kong people, the culture, or the lifestyle? Or maybe, it is a combination of it all.

Every single racing day of Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Sha Tin and Happy Valley race track fills 46,000 in attendance per card. Betting pools routinely reach into hundreds of millions of dollars. It is truly an exciting event to watch live racing.

The massive support of Hong Kong people is unprecedented. More than a million people place $215 million in bets each race day. Around 65,000 people in this city of 6.2 million maintain telephone betting accounts, so practically they can wager from anywhere their cell phones will work.

And according to Wikipedia another 62,000 people rent dedicated hand-held computers to retrieve up-to-the-second odds and place bets through advance wagering deposit via modem from anywhere in the world.

Purses are some of the richest in the world. Assuring world-beating competition and mundane foreign invaders trying to take a piece of the large pie, horse racing in Hong Kong is rightfully world-class. Horse racing fans would appreciate Hong Kong as a true racing paradise.

Another factor for this very successful sports event is the way HKJC provides top class service and entertainment. The people behind this organization, they deserve the credit.

Aside from being the largest taxpayer, the biggest donor in Hong Kong charity, there’s another aspect in which this business excel, customer service.

Last January, Hong Kong presents Customer Service Excellence Award 2007. It is organized by the Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence which salutes customer service excellence in Hong Kong. For the seventh time it aims to acknowledge and honor excellent service practicians who have dedicated themselves to continuously enhance customer service culture.

Among many other businesses, horse racing industry receives two honors. Hong Kong Jockey Club welcomes 2008 by winning two awards: An individual award in the Internal Support Service Category and team award in the Counter Service Category, garnering gold and bronze, respectively.

According to HKJC corporate news, Henry Chan, Executive Director of Betting is delighted with the Club's success in winning two Customer Service Excellence Awards. He emphasizes that quality service is a continuing journey and ongoing enhancement is a must.

Another achievement of the organization is that HKJC has successfully become Beijing’s stable for the 2008 Olympic Equestrian Events. In recognition to the world class racecourses and facilities provided, Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has been declared as Outstanding Contributor, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Equestrian Events. The club is also committed to protecting the environment by enforcing Green Olympics in Hong Kong.

A one-day workshop also held in Hong Kong last February, promoting the best care which will be given to horses that will be competing in Olympic Equestrian events in Hong Kong.

In HKJC it’s all about taking care of people and, horses.

Horse Racing in Hong Kong

Soccer in Europe, baseball in the United States, and horse racing in Hong Kong, what do they have in common? The excitement level the sports bestow to their respective audience.

If Europe appreciates soccer, and the United States crazy about baseball, in Hong Kong, well they celebrate horse racing.

Horse racing in Hong Kong is probably one of the far-famed influences of the British colony. They established the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1884, which now famously known as HKJC or Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Ten years after this mega city returned to its motherland China, horse racing continued to thrill Hong Kong people. Given this cultural lifestyle, the sport also developed support from the central government.

In fact Hong Kong’s largest tax payer is surprisingly a horse racing business. HKJC annually draws in over 10% of the city government’s tax revenue being one of the top 10 employers.

In addition to the Club’s philanthropy, it is the largest charity organization with its donation exceeding US$ 1.3 billion for the past three years according to People’s Daily Online (peopledaily.com.cn).

Live horse racing events in Hong Kong are held in two of HKJC’s racecourses, Happy Valley and Sha Tin. Racing season are mostly on Wednesdays and weekends between September and June. Fans are busy during these race days, wherein they are perusing the odds of their favorite horses either thru the newspaper or over the internet.

HKJC run over 700 stakes races yearly. And one of the most awaited showcase racing is the Hong Kong International Races, also known as Turf World Championship. It is a tournament where the world’s best jockeys, trainers, champion horses and contenders are all in one event.

Estimated sports goer during racing season is about 1.2 million each racing day, based on the Club’s statistics. And they employ about 5,000 regular employees and 20,000 part-timers more during the season. From that number alone, imagine the crowd size of this mega sports event. And from there it is not at all surprising to know that HKJC welcomes US$ 215 million bets each racing day.

Everybody wants to have a piece of that daily figure for sure. And apart from Hong Kong, the world is watching.

With off track betting (online), anybody from anywhere in the world could place a bet, provided you have an advance deposit wagering. ADW is like a prepaid transaction, requiring advance deposits. You are to setup an account (telephone or online) before placing a long-distance bet. Like a debit card you can only consume what you deposited.

Given these preparations, anybody could just fire up a hand-held, a laptop or desktop computer and lit up a wired or wireless internet connection. Right there and then you could retrieve up-to-the-second odds of Hong Kong horse racing and place bets wherever you are in the planet.

Indeed, horse racing in Hong Kong is literally, world-class.

Cyber Bets

Online (Horse) betting exchange from a beginner’s point of view.

I’ve had my share of betting when I was a little kid, but not in terms of money. Back then I remember it is all a matter of acquiring betting capabilities against other children. Like winning more cards, more packs, more bottle crowns and candy wrappers. Winning means more opportunities of playing.

During the low technology days, there are only two legal game-of-chances that I know of, one is the lottery or sweepstakes and the other is horse racing. Let’s talk about the latter.

I‘ve seen several horse racing betting stations on my daily travel during college. These stations are always located near main roads and avenues, a positioning strategy to attract more gamers probably. They are traditional type with TV and an army of wagers glued to it. Its popularity is so huge that in an instant you can tell a crowd with a TV is a horse race betting event.

Today, since almost all aspects of life are coping up with technology it’s no surprise to see horse betting exchange in cyberspace. An off-tack internet gambling facility that connects you whether you’re at home, in the office, at school or anywhere else. You can place your bets through legal internet and telephone wagering.

There are loads of online exchange that offers horse racing. Mostly from the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Hongkong to name a few. Now you get the pleasure to gamble across the world without moving a seat.

Legal internet gambling works in what they call Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) where in bettors are required to set up accounts and deposit money in advance, before they can make their long-distance bets.

Horse betting has single and multiple-race types of bet with which names and terms might differ in one country to another. Some common examples of single-race bets are (1) the bettor picks the winner of the race, (2) the bettor picks either the 1st,2nd or 3rd placer of the game and (3) the bettor picks the 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishers in order. Common examples of multiple-race type is the same with the single-race bet but this time the bet is spread out to the number of Leg Race.

Online betting exchange like the conventional also has its own rules by which they call betting systems. There are several betting systems in an online scenario. But the most popular among race-type or sporting bets are fixed odds betting and parimutuel betting.

Both systems are used to games with relatively short time period which players or participants finish in a ranked order. The difference between fixed odds and parimutuel betting is that the former determines the payout after all bets has been counted and closed, while the latter agreed the payout at the time you place your bet.
Now let’s go to horse betting with its advantages. Aside from winning personally, let me emphasize one good public proof of its advantage. Well they say the haven of horse track racing in Asia is Hongkong. Under Hongkong Jockey Club (HKJC) are two famous race tracks: the striking Sha Tin and the 150-year-old Happy Valley Horse Racing Track. The thing is HKJC is not your ordinary organization that promotes horse racing. The institution happens to be the biggest taxpayer of Hongkong, as well as the largest private donor of charity funds according to Wikipedia.

The disadvantage of course in an individual level is losing and being addicted at the same time. In a bigger picture there might be illegal institutions that just saps cash out of everybody without paying taxes.

Gambling has pleasure that pays off risks, win or lose. To bet or not to bet is up to you. Mine is an overview of a beginner in an online horse betting. Or gambling thru the electronic media as a whole.

Taxes, Charity and Service of HKJC

There must be something about Hong Kong Jockey Club that enables them to be Hong Kong’s largest tax payer and biggest charity donor. I’m not sure if it is a one big secret to understand that, but let met try.

Let us first understand the HKJC’s operations. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Organization is a non-profit establishment and a company limited by guarantee. It is the only licensed business for the operation and management of Hong Kong’s horse racing.

Subsidiaries of HKJC are: (1) Hong Kong Club Charities Trust, (2) Hong Kong Club Membership Services Limited, (3) Hong Kong Jockey Club (Managers) Limited, (4) HKJC Football Betting Limited, and (5) HKJC Lotteries Limited.

Hong Kong Club Charities Trust is the vehicle which all of the Club’s charitable donations are distributed and administered. They support 106 local communities and charitable projects in four key sectors: (a) education and training; (b) medical and health; (c) sports, recreation and culture; and (d) community services.

Hong Kong Club Membership Services Limited provides recreational facilities and offers services / programs for the members of the club. The organization derives all its income from membership fees and charges. A totally self-financed business.

Hong Kong Jockey Club (Managers) Limited on the other hand benefits HKJC’s employees. It provides employee retirement schemes and benefits.

HKJC Football Betting Limited and HKJC Lotteries Limited are subsidiaries that are inclined to betting business and lottery business, respectively.

The business keys here are (current and future) members combined with the world-class customer service and an internal strong financial management. This is the heart of HKJC.

Now one of the strategies to come up with more members is marketing. And part of that marketing is upgrading the race course facilities in which the club did and will continue to do so in the future.

For example, years ago HKJC invested to improve Leading Edge at Happy Valley and the MezzaOne at Sha Tin. It has been modified to air-conditioned venues that are fitted with audio-visual equipment with comfortable seating; a wide variety of food and beverage; and convenient betting facilities.

HKJC also adapted to technology innovations including off-track betting (OTB) stations and online betting through advance wagering deposit (ADW).

In terms of asset management HKJC sees to it that Finance and General Purposes Committee reviews and approves all investment objectives and guidelines regularly. These assets are managed by external professional fund managers and by the Club’s Treasury Department. The cautious approach in risk management is demonstrated by the extensive financial modelling that takes place before investment strategies are implemented.

To date the club remains Hong Kong’s largest tax payer, with total tax payments (betting duty, lottery duty and corporate profits tax) amounting to an average of HK$10 million equivalent to 10% of the total tax collected by the Inland Revenue Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.