One of The Griffin’s most popular pieces this year was about the different betting markets available around the world on the Dubai World Cup meeting at Meydan, and the wildly varying prices on offer in a wide range of regions.

It paid off too, to some extent anyway – take Al Quoz winner Sole Power, who generally paid between 6-1 and 8-1 in most places but paid a whopping 13-1 in Hong Kong.

Nice for those who got it!

So welcome to part one of the Hong Kong International Races edition of “Wagering Around The World” – essentially taking the same principles from the Dubai piece and applying them to Sha Tin’s biggest day of the year.

This week, we’ll look at the four features in 2014 and try to take any lessons from last year, while next week we’ll look ahead to potential betting opportunities in different markets around the world on the big four this year.

With commingling expanding, gradually the opportunity to create a virtual, global book very much in favour of the punter is decreasing

One piece of betting advice, especially if you will be at Sha Tin – it is illegal to place bets with other betting operators while in Hong Kong, so if you are wanting to take the alternative odds on offer, make sure you either have your bets before you arrive, or have a friend lined up to take the overs outside Hong Kong.

For the purposes of this piece, we have used four different oddsmakers, three totalisators and one fixed price market: the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s tote pool, naturally the largest on offer, as well as the New South Wales tote from Australia and France’s PMU, while we have also taken the starting price from bookmakers in the UK.

This year, the New South Wales tote has joined the new global frontier of commingling, meaning that those customers in Australia’s biggest state will now get HKJC odds, as do customers in Victoria, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. However, the rest of Australia will have their own tote through Ubet, albeit with next to no liquidity – last year, the average size of the Ubet win pool on the four features was A$85,000 (HK$480,000), while the size of the HKJC win pool on those same four races averaged more than HK$25 million.

Slight difference.

With commingling expanding, gradually the opportunity to create a virtual, global book very much in favour of the punter is decreasing. Nevertheless, the opportunity still exists – so hopefully, there is a chance to capitalise.

Here are the four HKIR features from last year:

2014 Hong Kong Vase

2014 Hong Kong Sprint

2014 Hong Kong Mile

2014 Hong Kong Cup

We’ve also found some other big discrepancies from 2012 and 2013:


Some key points:

  • Familiarity is key, so look to back horses in countries where customers would be less likely to know them.
  • Anyone taking 3.3 about Cirrus Des Aigles in France when there is 17.3 out there needs their head read!
  • It hardly needs to be said, but one must accept that they are most likely taking unders about Hong Kong horses in Hong Kong – and the shorter they are, the more one should be wary. Imagine taking 1.95 about Designs On Rome when there was 3.1 available in Australia, or even 2.75 fixed available in the UK. Not to mention the Sprint quinella, too. A winner is a winner, but those with peniaphobia (a fear of poverty) should be avoiding unders like the plague.  
  • On the same token, don’t bother backing a horse greater than 10-1 with the UK bookies. Only once did they offer best price about a horse at double figures, that being Golden Harvest in the Sprint, although the price about Khaya in the Vase was also significantly over the odds after he was slammed late in Hong Kong. 16-1 Straight Girl, 16-1 Grand Prix Boss, 33-1 Pleasure Gains – two of the three may have placed, but they were all gross unders.

Next week, using this data and our own analysis, we will identify potential value betting opportunities in Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and France .

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