So you’ve been away for the summer and now it’s time to get back to your books, your research, and your busy schedules. But before you know it, the school holidays are behind you and you’ll be itching to get back out on the horse races. And, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t? The beach certainly wasn’t making things any easier, what with all that skin-munching and sand-scratching, and the occasional iguana attack. But enough about you, let’s get back to the topic at hand: making a betting pool chart.
The Basics
When you get back to your full strength and your studies, you’ll want to start by setting some time aside to make your betting pool chart. Now, this is a pretty straightforward process, which might actually be the easiest part. Basically, all you need to do is head over to your local bookstore or online retailer of books, and buy a few good quality reference guides on sports betting. If you’re doing this as an academic exercise, you might also want to consider buying some books on probability and statistics too.
Once you’ve got your pool chart ready, it’s time to enter your wagers. You can either do this manually or, if you’re using Excel, you can create a simple automated betting slip. Simply follow the steps below:
Step one:
At the top of your betting slip, you’ll want to enter the name of the event you’ll be wagering on. Using the codes below, you can find detailed information about the horses and the respective odds:
Step one code:
- H – Horses (Racehorses)
- D – Drags
- S – Shorties (Short-distance races)
- C – Chase (Middle-distance races)
- L – Lingering Issues (Long-distance races)
At this point, you can either check the odds manually, or, if you want to get fancy, you can use a tool designed for creating betting lines for use with sports bets. Doing this will not only make the process much easier, but it will also save you a great deal of time. And who doesn’t like saving time?
Step two:
The second step is to list your wagers. To keep this simple, let’s say you’ve got four friends and you want to pool your resources to make some casino-quality wagers. You can either do this in person or you can use a tool designed for creating conference calls and scheduling meetings with other people. Either way, once your wagers are in, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Step three:
The third step is to list the payout for each wager. You’ll need to make a decision here whether you want to receive your winnings in cash or in kind (ie. Free Horseshoes for Life). Most casinos will happily give you the in-house version of PayPal which you can use to pay your debts. If you’ve got other debts, like student loans, you might want to consider setting up a PayPal account too.
Step four:
The fourth and final step is to calculate the score. This is pretty straightforward if you’ve followed the steps correctly (and we hope you have). Simply add up all the wagers and divide by the number of participants. For example, if you’ve got three participants and you’ve placed four $10 wagers, your $40 win will be divided by three, giving you a $13.33 return on investment (assuming the race was fair and you didn’t eat your own leg).
If you’ve done all of this correctly, you’ll have a very simple-to-follow betting pool chart that will not only assist you in your wagering decisions, but will also look fantastic when displayed on your bookshelf or on your smartphone.
Where to from here?
Now that you have a functioning betting pool chart, you might wonder where to from here. There are many different directions you can take this information. If you’re using it for academic purposes, you might want to take a look at some of the books available on the subject. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get more betting experience, there are many sites that offer online sportsbooks where you can place your wagers. And if you’ve got the money to burn, you can play live casino games with real money, or you can use a virtual wallet to practise with.
Remember, though, whatever you do, make sure you keep a backup of your source materials somewhere. Also, if you have other forms of ID, you might want to consider bringing them with you to the casino. After all, we all know that life is uncertain and if you lose your ID, you might not be able to prove who you are. So, be smart about where you store your important documents and be sure to keep copies of everything.