'Great offer' by Victor Chandler

[The Great Punter]

This must be the offer of the year at least from the bookie's point of view.

In tonight's Champions League match between Maribor and Kiew I fancy Maribor but not completely so I ask them for a handicap price on Maribor by 0,5 goals. The odds offered to me is 1,90.

This might seem okay at first but when looking at their prices on all three possible outcomes this is a very poor price.

They have 4,75 3,50 1,60

This means that by backing both the home win AND the draw I can get slightly over 2,00 in odds instead of the 1,90 offered to me!!!!

Could someone preferably from Victor Chandler explain this to me? I tried to get an explanation from the operator but she didn't understand what I meant!!?!! She even said that I should have thought of this before calling!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!

Normally the odds for a handicap bet like this should be better than normal match odds since there are only two possible outcomes.

[Gregg]

GP,
If you were 'The Great Punter' surely you would not want to point these things out to us???

The 2 prices that you were quoted are for 2 separate markets, albeit on the same match.

If you believe that our ½ goal line on Maribor is short then why not back the other side? This would surely represent the value.

From a fellow 'punters' point of view if you really had to bet Maribor, then bet them on the 3-way line and split your stakes.

We like to offer our customers a plethora of betting opportunities, many different ways to enjoy their favourite sport.

In offering all these separate markets to our clients around the World, there will be the occasional small discrepancy. Surely for the shrewd punter this would create an opportunity and not an obstacle???

Gregg Rathbone
Victor Chandler International Superbook

[The Great Punter]

Thanks for the reply Gregg!

First of all I didn't write this to offend you in any way (from your reply it seems you are slightly upset).

I just wanted to point out that in my opinion something was wrong here.

I know I could have split the bet up and backed Maribor and the draw for a combined handicap bet.

But the point is that you always get better odds by backing a half-goal handicap than combined bets. You only have to look at the odds offered by all the other bookies offering these bets!!

Again let me stress that I am very satisfied with your service and odds offer, but I also think that you as a bookmaker can understand my point of view/surprise when I saw your odds.

You say I should then have backed the other team, Kiev. at 1,60??. 1,60 and 1,90 (handicap) is too high a profit margin for a bokkie, at least in my opinion.

Anyway, let's not waste more time on this.

Cheer up down there!

[chris]

You say ' the point is that you always get better odds by backing a half ball handicap than combined bets' and this is the case here.
The 3 way betting percentage is 111.16% and the other is 104.76% so the odds are better. You just want to back the wrong side. Bet the favourite and you are getting extremely good value compared to the 3 way betting.

Gregg wasn't getting upset about it it is just that he can't see what your going on about. A 1.60 team offered at 1.90 and you are complaining. I can't see it either.

Thanks
Chris

[The Great Punter]

Hi Chris,

I am sorry but there probably has been a mistake here, but I was/am pretty sure that the odds for Maribor on the 1/2 goal handicap was 1,90 and 1,60 on Kiev.

It seems that I have understood the operator wrongly or she gave me the wrong price on Kiev in the handicap.

Does this mean that I would only get 1,60 on Kiev in the 3 way betting and then 1,90 on them to win in a handicap match?

regards,

[Shawn]

Slightly off-topic here but a question for Chris & Gregg:

Do you guys routinely offer half-ball handicaps? Can we just call up and get them the way we call up for Asians?

Do you offer anything else that's not well-publicised on the websites? (Asians are in the fine print, or at least they were, on the VC International site, but I've never read a word about half-ball.)

Thanks,
Shawn

[chris]

G.P.
Yes, that is correct,you could have backed Kiev -½ -190 on the handicap.

[Cons]

Chris, I have been trying to get a response to this question for quite some time, albeit to no avail. What's the outlook on the online system? When will it finally be implemented?

Cheers,

Cons