Mike Battaglia -- odds maker

[Mike_79]

If anyone's curious, many morning line oddsmakers follow a formula when making their line. They take a 100% base, then add the takeout plus an additional point for each horse entered in a race. They add the additional point for each horse to allow for a margin of error.

For example I'll use New York. Say they have a field of 10. Eric Donovan (New York ml oddsmaker) would add the takeout of 15% plus 10 (1 point for each horse entered in the race) to arrive at his target number for the ml (100% + 15% takeout plus 10 to arrive at his target number of 125% for his morning line to add up to. Not saying this is what Eric Donovan does in relation to his ml, just using him and New York racing as an example.

Other morning line oddsmakers will just set the same target number all the time. Say it's either 120% or 125%. It's up to the individual to deem what they feel appropriate I imagine.

Just a little bit of useless knowledge for anyone curious as to why some lines add up to different percentages from time to time.