Why This Sport is Dying

[ScottJ]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

Bettors were screwed out of literally millions because of a mistake and your response was that the bettor was at fault for not knowing the rules.

If what you took out of what happened Friday was that the bettor should know the rules you either don't bet or are an assh.ole. Or a mixture of both.

I've only.seen one other person online defending it and he's a non bettor and an assh.ole so....

Just to make a point, the millions were actually paid to bettors who were not part of the post time favorite debacle.

That said, the whole situation left the bettors (who along with owners fund the game) at the curb with the weekly trash pickup.

The question in my mind remains the same : "What is wrong about this situation at its core?" Two issues come to mind.

[1] Horizontal wagers that are moved to the post-time favorite are the root cause problem. Bettors deserve consolation payoffs for scratched horses that reward the equity earned through the successful selections in other races of the bet. Eliminate this strange post-time favorite substitution rule once and for all. Consolations are calculated for doubles and some Pick-3s in some jurisdictions, but not all.

[2] Establish uniform rules for handling horizontal wager scratches across all States. How many times have we seen questions about scratch handling that varies based on the track/state?

Some (including tote system providers) will say that calculating these consolation payoffs can be extremely difficult and might require significant algorithm updates.

Yes, all true. So just get to it - protecting the bettor depends on action being taken at the tote system algorithm level.