How Mutuel Betting Works

The basic concept behind Mutuel is reasonably straightforward. You make your selections for a sports event in the same way as you do for traditional sports betting, but you aren’t offered fixed odds when you put your money down. You’ll be offered “probable odds” based on the breakdown of the betting pool at the time. Be aware that these odds are subject to change, which you’ll be able to plainly see in the example we provide later on.

Every Mutuel wager placed on a betting market goes into a specific pool for that market. When the relevant event is finished, the total amount of wagers is added up. The house takes a small cut/commission off the top, and then divides what’s left between the bettors who made the correct selection. They are paid out based on how much they wagered.

This sounds more complicated than it actually is. It will become a lot clearer if we use an example to demonstrate. For the purposes of this example, we’ll assume we’re wagering on a horse race with just five runners. We decide to back horse number one for $10, and horse number three for $10. The house takes in the following wagers on the race.

• Horse #1 — $200
• Horse #2 — $400
• Horse #3 — $100
• Horse #4 — $200
• Horse #5 — $300

These wagers total $1,200. Please note that we’ve used small numbers here to make this example easier to follow. In reality, there’d be a LOT more money in the betting pool.

First, the house takes its cut of 10% for $120. This leaves $1,080 in the betting pool. The potential payouts for each horse are then calculated by dividing the remaining pool by the amount wagered on that horse. Feel free to look over the potential payouts list below.

• Horse #1 — $5.40
• Horse #2 — $2.70
• Horse #3 — $10.80
• Horse #4 — $5.40
• Horse #5 — $3.60

We’ll now explain how you can use this information. Since the potential payout for horse number two is $2.70, this means anyone wagering on horse number two could win $2.70 for every $1 wagered. This includes their initial stake. If horse number one won the race, we’d receive a total of $54 for our $10 wager. If horse number three won the race, we’d receive a total of $108 for our $10 wager.

As you can see, the potential payouts are all different. The total amount paid out will always be the same, but the amount per $1 wagered changes based on the total amount wagered on each selection. The more that was wagered, the smaller the payout per $1. This can be compared to fixed odds betting, where the odds for the favorite (and therefore the potential payout) are the lowest, and the odds for the outsiders are the highest. Although the odds aren’t fixed here, there will typically be more money coming in for the favorite than there will be for the outsiders.

The big difference, as we’ve mentioned, is that we don’t know for sure what our potential payouts will be when we actually place our wagers. As we mentioned earlier, Mutuel betting operators show the PROBABLE odds prior to the relevant event starting. Although these are described as probable, there’s no guarantee that the eventual payout will be anywhere close. It all depends on how much money has been taken in on the different selections at the time we place our wager.

For example, let’s say we had placed our $10 wagers on horses one and three long before the race started. The betting pool at the time was broken down as follows.

• Horse #1 — $50
• Horse #2 — $200
• Horse #3 — $20
• Horse #4 — $150
• Horse #5 — $80

At this point there would have been $500 in the pool, leaving $450 after the 10% commission. The probable odds we’d have seen for horse number 1 were $9 per $1 wager ($450/$50). And for horse number three they were $22.50 per $1 wager ($450/$20). This is obviously not what ended up happening. When we originally placed our wagers, no one knew how much money was going to come in for the various selections, which is why these numbers don’t match up.

This highlights how difficult it is to make money with Mutuel betting. An essential part of any sports betting strategy is to identify the value in the betting markets. We do this by determining the likely probability of a wager winning, and comparing that probability to the relevant odds. When the probability of winning is greater than the odds suggest, we’ve identified value.

With Mutuel betting, it’s impossible to know for sure whether there’s any value or not. The probable odds at the time of placing our wagers are subject to change, and as we’ve just demonstrated they can change drastically. So what seems like a value wager at the time of putting our money down can actually end up being a very bad wager.

That’s why it’s very hard for us to support Mutuel betting. While we realize that it’s popular, even among professional gamblers, we don’t prefer to expose ourselves to that much uncertainty. One positive about this form of betting that we can point out, though, is the wide range of different wagers available.

Types of Mutuel Wagers

In the example we provided above, we used a simple “win” wager. This is the most common Mutuel wager, but there are other types too. Each of these works in the same way in terms of how the potential payouts are calculated, but they are based on different outcomes.

Here are some examples.

• Place Wager
• The terms of this wager will vary depending on where in the world you live. In North America, a place wager is on a selection to finish either first or second. In other parts of the world it’s a wager on a selection to finish anywhere in “the places.” How many places count towards this wager depends solely on how many participants there are.
• Show Wager
• This wager is specific to North America. It’s a wager on a selection to finish first, second or third.
• Across the board
• This is a combination wager, available in North America. It’s effectively three different wagers — a wager, a place wager and a show wager. If the relevant selection finishes first, then all three wagers win. If it finishes second, then just the place and the show wagers win. If it finishes third, only the show wager wins.
• Each way
• This is another combination wager, typically available in most regions outside North America. It combines a win wager with a place wager.
• Exacta
• A wager on two selections to finish first and second, in the correct order.
• Any2/Duet
• A wager on two selections to finish anywhere in the top three places.
• Trifecta
• A wager on three selections to finish first, second and third, in the correct order.

These are just some of the many options available. These wagers can be extremely difficult to get right, but they tend to over very attractive payouts. This is what makes them so appealing and perfect for recreational bettors.

Official site — https://legendary.bet 

Official chat — https://t.me/legendarybet_chat