mike79
Active member
In effect, you are betting into a separate book, one without Murray in the field but with his percentage of the market taken off the over-round. In the long run, the worst outcome for the bookmaker is that they give away free money into betting accounts that their customers may well just keep betting with, while depending on the actual result, it may not cost them too much anyway.
The quality of the offer depends on how likely the winner is. At Ascot last week, one firm was refunding up to £100 if Animal Kingdom - who started at 5-4 - won the opening race on Tuesday, which was pretty generous given that you're taking out nearly 50pc of the market. But from the bookie's point of view, if you're going to put free money into people's betting accounts, you might as well do it on the first race on the first day of the biggest betting meeting of the Flat season. It's all about keeping the turnover churning.
Murray is around 7-2, which takes out about 22pc, though on the plus side, it's 33-1 bar the top four so you can back the other three proportionately up to the maximum refund and unless there is the biggest shock for decades, the worst than can happen is that you come out even. Don't expect to do it more than once or twice with any particular firm, however. It is a way to pull in "recreational" punters, not hand out free money to shrewdies.
bookies don't go to 100% books though
murray is over 4/1 on betfair