The Durban July is fast approaching and we thought it would be a good idea to go over some of the bet types that you will be able to take on the day!
We’ve already covered fixed odds bets and starting price bets as well as place bets in previous articles which you can access by clicking the links below.
Fixed odds and starting price bets explained
Place Bets and Special Six Place Bets
What is an Open Bet?
An Open Bet is a tote/TAB type bet taken with a bookmaker. The bookmaker lays the bet, and pays the dividend as declared by the tote on the winning combinations.
No fixed odds are agreed at the time the bet is placed. The winnings and therefore the payout is determined after the outcome of the event on which the open bet was struck becomes known, with reference to the dividends generated by the totalizator.
How to place an Open bet
Simply log on to the Hollywoodbets web page (www.hollywoodbets.net or web.hollywoodbets.net), log in with your username and password and then click on the horse racing tab, and then the South Africa tab and then the Greyville Turf/Poly tab. This is where you will find the Vodacom Durban July tab which is listed as Race 7 (Vodacom Durban July Race).
Click on this tab and this will bring up the Durban July field sheet. Once you have accessed the sheet, you will then click on the drop-down menu located at the top right-hand corner of the field sheet (This drop-down page will originally read Win/Place). You can then select which Open Bet you’d like to place.
How to take an open bet on our mobisite
If you don’t have a cellphone betting account you can set one up by following these steps provided on this link — > How to start betting on your mobile phoneIf you already have an account, then simply log on to https://m.hollywoodbets.net/ . You will then arrive at our home screen. Then log in to your account.
Then click on the Greyville TurfPoly tab which is circled below.
Then you will be able to select your race. *The Durban July is race number 7. And is circled in the image below.
There are 7 types of Horse Racing Open bets:
1. OPEN WIN BET: a bet on a horse to finish first.
2. OPEN PLACE BET: a bet on a horse to finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd or in some instances 4th.
3. SWINGER: this is a bet where the object is to select any two horses in a race to fill any two of the first three places in that race in any order i.e. 1st and 2nd, 1st and 3rd or 2nd and 3rd.
4. EXACTA: The object of this bet is to predict the horses that will finish 1st and 2nd in the exact order in a race. This outcome is more difficult to predict than the Swinger bet, and hence the payout will usually be bigger.
The horses French Navy and Mac De Lago have been used in the example below. In order for you to win your bet, you would need French Navy to finish first and Mac De Lago to finish second.
5. TRIFECTA: In this bet, the punter must select the first three horses past the line in their exact order. This bet is similar to the Exacta bet, but obviously more difficult because you are selecting the first three and therefore the payout will be larger.
As is the case with the Exacta Bet, you can add more combinations to the Trifecta Bet but you will be charged extra per combination.
6. QUARTET: In order to win this bet, the punter must predict the first four horses past the line in their exact order. This bet is similar to the Trifecta bet, more difficult and consequently, results in a larger payout.
As is the case with the Trifecta Bet and Exacta Bet, you can add more combinations to your Quartet but you will once again be charged extra per combination.
7. DOUBLE: For this bet to be successful, the punter must predict the winners of any two consecutive races at the same venue. This is an obvious extension of the win bet.
Boxed Bets
If you’re not too sure of which order your horses for your Trifecta or Quartet will place but think they will all come in the top three (Trifecta) or four (Quartet), then you can take what is known as a Boxed Bet. This bet allows you to cover all of the finishing combinations. You can add more combinations to your Boxed Bet but you will once again be charged extra per combination.
So if we use the below image as an example, we can see that French Navy, Mac De Lago, and Abashiri have all been selected on a Trifecta Boxed. So as long as all three horse finish in the top three, regardless of their finishing order, you will win.
*Note
Open bets can be taken as percentages. For example, a punter took a floating banker quartet. The punter decided to spend R48 on the bet which consists of 96 combinations; he gets a fractional bet of 50%. If this bet subsequently becomes a winning one, and the dividend is R1 540, the punter would receive R770 (50% of R1 540).
It is important to remember that in all tote bets, your stake is included in your pay-out. Therefore if the full dividend is R500, and you took 10% of your combinations, you will receive R50 – regardless of how much you spent. You should always hope for a big pay-out when taking percentages.
If you feel like taking your full amount of combinations more than once, then you will get paid that many times the dividend for your winning bet. Therefore, if you play 10 combinations for a R100, you have taken this combination 10 times! So if the dividend is R500, and you catch it 10 times, you will get paid R5 000!
