N00b with a Question...
 

G'day lads,

I'm not much of a punter, only bet around $10 every 2 weeks or so while down at the pub. I've been betting casual for about 2 years, mainly on trots and dogs, so I've learned things via observation. Took me while to figure out what NTD meant.
Anyway, I was just wondering about how the economics of the betting system works. Example: when there's 5 mins left till race, the place odds look very attractive, sometimes the place pays more than the win, but as it gets to the 2-1min mark till the race starts, the price on places crashes and the market seems to correct it's self making the place pay less than the win.
So, in short, is it people waiting close to race time to place their bets that lower the odds? And if so, does the extra cash they injected into the race help the lesser backed racers pay out more.
Hope that makes sense...

Cheers, Clint

Peope will see the big place price and a heap of people might back it, this causes the price to shorten because thats how the TAB works. Its possible for the win to be $1.40 and the place to be $5.50 because they are 2 separate pools of money but odds are that wont happen because people see the big price and go back it and if enough people do that then ll those big odds are gone. This happens alot more in greyhound and harness because of smaller win pools and if a few decent bets are placed on it then bam odds are shortend ight in and other odds will drift out to bigger prices when that one shortens

Yes mate that's how the tote works - say for example if the punters crunch a fav, then every other horse's price will get bigger, how much bigger depends on what price they are, as in 2nd fav, 3rd fav etc.

Thanks for the confirmation guys. Now to convince other punters not to bet on the horse that I just did :)