h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On Monday 26/9/99, NZ time, I could not get through to h2g2.

Having time on my hands I spent the afternoon betting, through my internet betting account, on Australian horse races.

I turned $50 into $7500.

Whichever server was down between NZ and the UK I worship their incompetence.

This was the first time in months I have had a bet.

$NZ dollar = UK 33p, US 53c, Aus 80c

Do you only have a tote over there? (I.e. payout = a prize pool divided by the number of winning tickets?) I don't cover that much (read: none) NZ racing in my shop. The time is a bit inconvenient for one thing, as we're always shut by 10pm during the summer, and 6pm during the winter. (GMT).
As far as odds systems go, I dislike totes, mainly because they prevent you making a killing by betting at the right time. However, I think the S.African's have the right idea. All their betting prices evaluate to only a couple of decimal places, unlike such daft prices we have over here like 8/11 and 4/7.
Jim
Occasional betting shop manager.

The NZ Totalisater Board (TAB) is owned by the New Zealand Government and administered by a board elected by the various racing bodies in NZ, plus government appointees.

The online version can be found at

http://www.ebetonline.com/

They cover all horse racing in NZ and Australia. They also cover betting on sport around the world.

Anyone from anywhere in the world can open an internet account. You load your account using a credit card.

Sports betting is at fixed odds. You can also bet on the more important horse races at fixed odds. All other races are done using the tote system. Winnings are tax paid in the winners account.

Grahame - occassional winner

The tote is often seen as the amateurs way of betting, but
'value' can still be found as long as the pool is big enough.
At some of the biggest meetings, if you fancy a horse trained
by a nobody and ridden by a nobody and its winning chances
are not obvious by it position in the last few races, tote prices
can be up to double the SP.

... unless it's French Tote, and once again, our shop system goes and settles all the bets at 1/25... Not helpful. Especially after they said they'd send SP's.
Once again the (high-street bookmaker beginning with L) studio makes sure that the staff in the shops hold them in high esteem because of the technical ability... NOT!

Caveman, did you have a look at the New Zealand TAB site?

It has won awards for its use of the latest technology.

In NZ all horse races in Aus & NZ are broadcast live on the TAB's own free to air TV channel.

Sit at your computer terminal at home, check the form, jockeys, weights, barrier draw posted on the site, place your bet, watch the race, winnings posted to your account 5 minutes after the race. It is pretty impressive.

It is also backed by the resources of a national government as opposed to private enterprise.

With fixed odds betting if you place your bet early enough you can pick up some great prices. Eg: You may get 10 to 1 today on a horse starting at 2 to 1 on race day in 10 days time.

The system in my shop (do you beleieve we are actually opening today, Sunday) to cover four french races and some stuff in Ireland. No Dogs, No Numbers, No nothing. Hopefuly this will give me enough time to sort of the mess the system left for me after yesterday's 1-25 settlement on all the Longchamp races.
We have a server that 'runs' NT 4. It bluescreens once in a while. We reboot daily just to be on the safe side.
The clients are Win95 systems. These get rebooted on average once a day after something silly goes wrong. While I'm not working in the shop, I hack unix systems together in my main job (See home page on h2g2). It's better than the stoneage system we still use in other shops though...
There was a Linux Journal article about the Western Australia (or was it NSW (it's all a long way away from here)) TAB, presumably NZ runs similarly.

(puts index fingers across each other to ward off evil operating systems)

Yes, microsoft products are renouned for their stability - in the off position. They always tend towards it, no matter what you do.
I bet this is being sent to www.Microsoft.com/tapped_transmissions as I type...
There must be an anti-Micro$oft page here somewhere...
See A37513, A21583, A156223, A83873, A10062, etc...