21st June 2001 - issue 5

This takes the established football pools theme and extends it to a wide variety of sporting and other events. Put simply you stake £5 for which you get to select or "vote" for one of the choices and if you are correct you share the pool (less expenses and taxes) with everyone else who has made the same choice. If no-one makes the correct choice the money rolls over to a new event. The benefits from this type of betting are two fold. Firstly it's something different, an alternative option which presents betting enthusiasts with a new challenge and new opportunities. Secondly it creates a possible way of winning a large amount of money on a p2p site without any one member having to risk a large amount of their funds to finance the bet.

The major drawback that this form of betting has is the 17.5% tax that Play121 are obliged to pay. When added to the 7.5% commission that Play121 are charging on this type of bet anyone hoping to make long term profits on this type of bet will have to use their research and knowledge to get a statistical advantage of 25% just to break even. (A deduction of 25% does however compare favourably with the Littlewoods Pools typical deduction for expenses, commission and tax of 40-45%) I also have reservations about the rollover policy. I would be reluctant to pay into a pool in the knowledge that my money may go to a future player who is not even contributing to this pool. I would rather do it the other way around and wait until other members have built up the fund to a level where the potential winnings make participation statistically worthwhile. Only time will tell to what extent this becomes an issue or an opportunity.

To give all members a taste of the pools betting, Play121 are allowing everyone to place one vote free of charge. I used my free vote betting on the Derby . The time was 2.50 and the pool was closing in 10 minutes. Each option has an indication of the % of votes it had received and the potential payout to anyone who had voted for it. Whilst this is a very useful guide, you need to bear in mind two things. Firstly that your vote will reduce the potential winnings for that option because you are increasing the number of members between whom the pool will be shared. Play121 have this well covered because when you place the bet you are told how much the potential payout will be with your bet taken into consideration. Secondly you do not know how many members will subsequently vote for your selection bringing down the final share if your selection wins. Comparing the potential payouts with my £5 stake I was able to back Galileo to win £19.93 which was equivalent to 3-1, better than the best odds available elsewhere at that time. Tobougg was showing a very impressive potential payout of 40-1 but when I tried to vote for it the impact of my vote would have brought it down to what at the time was an uncompetitive 20-1. The potential payout on all other horses equated to inferior odds than were available elsewhere, therefore I only voted for Galileo, which actually won. As I placed my vote so close to the deadline no further members voted for this horse and the return stayed at £19.93.

It is very much early days for the Play121 vote pool If the service grows in popularity the impact of single votes will reduce and the potential winnings on display will increasingly reflect the actual sums which are paid out. At this stage the Pools feature should be treated more as a bit of relatively cheap fun with the chance of a substantial payout, (depending on the pool in question) rather than a chance to regularly bet with a statistical advantage. However, it will always be worth checking the status of the betting pool as the deadline approaches as there are likely to be some bargains of which astute bookie free betters will be able to take advantage. This newsletter will monitor and report how this service develops over the coming months.