Successful Gamblers Horse Racing
Horse racing markets on Betfair are trading to 100.5% to 102%, which in terms of overround is a lot lower than fixed odds bookmakers. Bookmakers hypocritically bemoan the exchanges – I say hypocritically because you can’t have accounts with the exchanges and still moan about them – because exchanges have smashed the bookmakers’ monopoly. Clive Holt is a legend in punting circles and it was his father who first showed him that. This may be the most important skill of all. I can remember going to Monmouth Park with.
American gambler William Benter developed arguably the most successful computer software in the world to attack the giant Hong Kong horse racing market, where the pools routinely reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. During the 2010 racing season alone the betting turnover reached HK$71.65 billion, on just two racetracks! By comparison, all the thoroughbred racetracks in the U.S. combined take in just over $12 billion.
William Benter's software reportedly assesses hundreds of individual variables for each horse, jockey, trainer and track. Using the results, Benter and his team create their own prices and probabilities, and use these to bet against the general public. With amazing success. The rumours are wild, but estimates are that Bill Benter earns something around US$10,000,000 annually from Hong Kong horse racing.
More than any other industry, Horse Racing is based on emotion and feelings, people place bets based on everything from the horse's name to tips from a friend. Nowhere more than the notoriously supersticious Hong Kong race-tracks. William Benter used computer logic to beat the system, and make millions!
William Benter Biography
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, William Benter began using his mathematics skills to count cards. Legend has it that in the mid 1970s Benter came across the book “Beat the Dealer”, memorized it’s strategies and began his professional gambling career at the blackjack tables of Las Vegas.
At the same time Bill Benter was being banned from most of the Vegas’ strip’s casinos (for winning too much money), he met fellow card counter Alan Woods, and the pair decided to have a shot at horse racing.
Successful Gamblers Horse Racing
In 1984, Benter and Woods went Hong Kong, starting with a mere $150,000. The pair relied on their mathematic skill to create a formula for choosing race winners.
When Woods and Benter parted ways, in 1987, Benter refined his computerised probability model. William Benter is now known as having the best statistical handicap method, assigning numerical values to estimate a horse’s probability of winning.
Benter has acknowledged that the increase in computer technology have helped his team’s workload over the years, while greater experience has also allowed this professional punter more accurate betting. For example, while Benter started out examining only 16 variables for each horse in a race, it is now alleged that his team score horses on120 different handicapping factors.
William Benter’s pioneering work with computerized betting, his mathematical skill and knowledge, all have made him one of the most successful gamblers the horse racing industry had ever seen.
Benter is generous with his fortune, donating to charitable causes both in Hong Kong and America. His has even served as president of his Hong Kong Rotary Club.
Further Reading on William Benter
“The High Tech Trifecta”
By Michael Kaplan, Wired Magazine
Wired Magazine considers the operations of William Benter and his peers in software terms...
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/betting_pr.html
“Playing percentages all the way to a billion”
By Max Presnell, The Sydney Morning Herald
Computer betting teams in horse racing in Hong Kong working from mathematical models. This article looks at the strategy of the three biggest punters in the racing industry of all time: William Benter, Alan Woods and Zeljko Ranogajec. And how Benter, Woods and Ranogajec all make billions from horse racing...
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/08/14/1249756405619.html?feed=fairfaxdigitalxml
Successful Gamblers Horse Racing Handicapping
“The Life: Hong Kong Betting Syndicates”
By Jay Johnstone, June 2005
Every punter has a system, but few involve 40-strong teams using bespoke software to routinely deliver seriously fat profits. Jay Johnstone looks to Hong Kong for the closest thing to a sure bet...
http://www.pokerplayer.co.uk/sports-betting/horse-racing/137/the_life_hong_kong_betting_syndicates.html
Successful Horse Racing Gamblers
“The Winning Edge: A punter's program makes millions trackside”
By Yulanda Chung Hong Kong
This Asia Week article considers that the secret to William Benter’s horse racing success is his gambling software.
http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/technology/2000/1103/tech.computing.html