Each-way terms unfair to punters on course, say bookies

Punters are being forced to take suppressed starting prices on markets due to bookmakers betting win-only on course being removed from the sample used to determine the returns.

The situation has been labelled “grossly unfair on racegoers” by bookmaker Bryan Hazell, who says the standard each-way terms enforced by the Gambling Commission (GC) mean layers are having to offer win only markets or risk betting over-broke - a situation where they lose money regardless of who wins - to form a competitive each-way market.

Hazell argues that when a market is created with a short-priced favourite, offering standard terms, such as 1/5 the odds on each-way bets in fields of eight or more, means bookmakers are lowering the price on other runners to create a margin - meaning punters are getting, for example, 33-1 about a runner who would be 66-1 in a win-only market.