Bets can now be placed directly with Tabcorp (NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, NT, TAS) or TABtouch (WA comingled into VIC TAB). All it takes is a click of a few buttons by copying and pasting bet strings into the respective TABs Batch Bet window.
Tote Pro was the name of our standalone exotic betting software released back in the 90s. It used to require you to key all the win prices in manually but it is now fully integrated into the Race Day Live part of Bet Selector where data collection is fully automated.
In addition to simple win, place and exotic betting you can also convert win betting prices into percentages and use them to arrive at predicted percentage chances for multiple exotic betting combinations. You can manage exotic betting combinations by applying upper and lower bounds as well as by adjusting standouts to be included or excluded. This is the professional way to bet but support is also provided for simpler "boxed" type multi bets.
The power of Race Day Live's betting functionality lies in its ability to vary the number of selections and the bet sizes for individual selections and/or exotic combinations. For example the most favoured trifecta combination might be 1-2-3 but rather than box these three runners the smarter approach recognises that 3-2-1 is less favoured and should be bet with a lesser amount than the 1-2-3 combination.
A simpler mode of operation is where the software just groups multiple runners for each placing giving rise to what we call a "multi" bet (not to be confused with betting operator multis, we use the term to refer to when there is more than one selection for at least one place position). The above gives rise to a variety of bet creation possibilities, all of which are summarised in the following sections.
Win, place and each-way bet types as follows:
Exotic bet types as follows:
Some of the above bet creations are a bit hard to visualise so the best way to learn about them is to use the software and simply click the relevant buttons and view the bets that are created.
The bet types discussed above naturally require you to have first selected runners for first, second, third etc. Tote Pro provides numerous data entry controls as follows to help you do this. These are outlined below starting with the most obvious controls which are the checkboxes for picking individual runners:
Note the "Set by number or percentage" pop up dialogue is very powerful. It has checkboxes for each of the four placings so you can click individual runners but you can also click in the line to the right of a checkbox to quickly select all runners down to that runner. There is also a button to "Use System Standouts" according to a system test selected via a drop down list plus there are "Multi Rotations" checkboxes that allow you to "rotate" (rove) standouts from first place to second and third (eg ticking the 213 checkbox and then clicking "Apply Rotations" adds bets with 1st and 2nd selections swapped). Finally there is a fifth column that displays predicted place probabilities and dividends calculated form the win prices you selected on the main window (previously knows as our Place Odds Calculator).
As mentioned above, runners can be selected according to their order in a priced market. Various markets are available for selection via the "Prices to base bets on" drop down list as follows:
Any one of the above options can be used for counting and selecting runners and also for calculating exotic betting probabilities.
Note there is another "Comparative prices" drop down further down the window with identical choices. This is for advanced use and allows the software to determine whether runners and combinations are priced over or under the odds.
Following are some more advanced controls that can be applied when betting.
Defaults for most of the above settings can be changed using the "Setup" button towards the top left of the window (note however that changes to some defaults will only take effect for newly imported meeting files).
The following controls relate to bet creation and betting.
Note you do not need to know the filenames or locations for the bet files as you an simply copy and paste the bets as described above. For those interested however, for Tabcorp the file is BETS.TXT and for TABtouch it is WABETS.TXT.
Details on how betting works can be found below relevant to the TAB you are using.
TABtouch is the default option used by the program mainly because bets are comingled into VIC TAB pools and we have a direct WA TAB data feed for getting the correct TAB venue codes.
To submit the bet strings to the WA TAB, log into their TABtouch website, go to the “My Account” menu and select the “Expert Bet” option – it takes you to a "Enter Your Bet Details" box into which you can paste your bets.
After pasting the bets into the "Enter Your Bet Details" box, you just click the “Log my bets” button to place the bets. If your bets are not successful you will be given reasons why, if they are successful they will be placed without you needing to confirm them but they can then be cancelled within 60 seconds in the lower “Bet Details” box by highlighting them and clicking the “Cancel” button – note in regard to this the actual outlay appears to the right of the "Enter Your Bet Details" box referred to as “Total value of last batch”.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you check “Total value of last batch” just mentioned as it can be much larger than the bet size in the bet string and in the "Bet Details" box (for example without flexi betting a bet for $1 that covers 120 combinations will cost $120). Remember you can’t cancel the bet after 60 seconds (the "Cancle"
To create bet strings for Tabcorp you may need to tick the "Don't use WA format" checkbox prior to clicking the "Calculate Bets" button.
To submit the bet strings to the Tabcorp, log into www.tab.com.au and go to the “My Account” menu and select the “Batch Betting” option (near the bottom of the menu list). This takes you to a "Batch Betting" box into which you can paste your bets and then click the "Submit" button to submit your bets. Then you will be taken to a "Bet Confirmation Summary" where you can click "Confirm" to confirm your bets.
More information on TAB batch betting can be found at Batch betting on the TAB website.
Note the above page also mentions how you can use the TAB "Import Batch File" option to import the BETS.TXT file. Regardless of whether you import or copy and paste, it is important that you enter the correct venue code that agrees with what your TAB is using. The above link provides details on where you can confirm which codes are being used on any given day (metrops are usually fine as they are stock standard SR, MR, BR, AR, WR but other meetings change on a daily basis hence the need to make sure you use the right ones).
IMPORTANT: To make sure the correct venue codes end up in the BETS.TXT file, change the code as desired in the box to the left of the "View Bets" button and then click "Calculate Bets" again (then click "View Bets" or "Copy Bets" as desired).
The Tabcorp bet strings look rather different from the WA TAB bet strings with the main difference being the use of different separators. For example Tabcorp will use /1,2,3/4,5,6/7,8,9/ for trifecta selections whereas WA TAB will use 1.2.3..4.5.6..7.8.9 for trifecta selections.
Also different is the way flexing betting is implemented. When not flexi betting the example from the last paragraph will have a $1 bet in the bet string but will both cost $27 as there are 27 combinations. When flexi betting at say 33% the bet will cost $9 but in the Tabcorp bet string the bet size will be 9.0-F whereas in the WA TAB bet string the bet size will be 0.33.