TOTE BOARD
One thing that a racetrack could do to make things easier for its patrons is change the way we present the odds. Currently we display odds in an antiquated fashion displaying odds like 3:2, 4:5, 1:9 (which really mean 1:10 or even 1:20). This is confusing to the new fan and at the same time it is not as accurate as converting odds to a decimal display. When the tote board displays odds of 5 or 5:1 is the horse currently 5:1 or 5.9:1? The difference in return is $12.00 verses $13.80. For those that may argue that changing to a decimal display may confuse the current customer. We already display closing odds in the charts and DRF using the decimal form. Another thing that most racetracks do is display odds in increments such as 35:1, 40:1, 45:1, 50:1, 60:1, 70:1 and so on and when they get to 99:1 it stops. If a horse is 39.3:1 why can’t we display the accurate odds?
Listed below is an example of how the odds would look in the decimal form.
| Current Display |
Decimal Display |
| 1/9 |
.05 or .1 |
| 1/5 |
.2 or .3 |
| 2/5 |
.4 |
| ½ |
.5 |
| 3/5 |
.6 or .7 |
| 4/5 |
.8 or .9 |
| 1 1 |
1.1 |
| 6/5 |
1.2 or 1.3 |
| 7/5 |
1.4 |
| 3/2 |
1.5 |
| 8/5 |
1.6 or 1.7 |
| 9/5 |
1.8 or 1.9 |
| 2 2 |
2.1, 2.2, 2.3 or 2.4 |
| 5/2 |
2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, or 2.9 |
| 3 3, |
3.1, 3.2, 3.3, or 3.4 |
| 7/2 |
3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, or 3.9 |
Years ago I visited Roosevelt Raceway and was impressed with one of the features that their tote board offered. It displayed the range of place and show prices each horse would pay. I don’t recall seeing this features before or since but I believe this would be helpful to racetrack patrons and possibly encourage higher handle for these pools.
