There have been plenty of moans and groans about final tote dividends. But what some punters tend to forget is that they are watching the tote dividends on the toteboard display in the TAB outlet.
Neill de Bruyn writes in the Sporting Post Mailbag that he has looked at the process logically and tried to fathom it out.
No 1: these toteboards show win/place, swinger and exacta in a cycle sequence, so that it could take up to 2 minutes before the win/place display reverts back to win/place again.
No 2: if you are in the tote you see a final “before race” image of the win/pool dividends, then the screen freezes while the race is run and afterwards you see an “after race” image, which I agree may differ from the “before race” image.
Ha, but wat you see in the tote does NOT tell the whole story.
If you log on to your account on “New tab digital betting – mobile”, and you select select “toteboards”, then the applicable racecourse and finally “win/place dividends”, you come upon a display from which you can take very nice screenshots on your cellphone – which I did at Hollywoodbets Greyville on the day of my experiment for all of races 1 to 4.
The dividends/pools which you can monitor on this app refresh automatically every 60 seconds, but there is a refresh button that you can use to display for example every 20 seconds.
Note how the tote only really starts rocketing from 5 minutes before the off.
Check – you will still see movements in the net pools at 0 minutes and also more movements while the screen says “race closed”.
That’s the effect of the commingled pools coming in from the UK, France and Australia.
The final screen obviously matches the official tote dividends declared.
So it is clear, no skimming of dividends.
The tote boards in the Tab does not, or cannot, display all of the final movements.
In fact you have to be pretty quick on the app to catch the 0 minutes and “race closed” images.
For me it is problem solved.
Ed – While Phumelela failed to respond, Gold Circle Commercial Executive Patrick Loker replied to Mr de Bruyn’s letter.
Mr Loker said that the points raised, are the points that they have been making for years – almost since commingling became the norm.
“Most bets are struck by punters within the final 2 to 3 minutes before the close of the race – this includes overseas punters. This automatically means that the majority of the movement of dividends occurs during that time. Even once the system is closed for betting final collates of pools take place i.e. the host system receives the last pools/bets stuck by all of the guest systems since the last scheduled update,” he added.
He goes on to say that this is what causes the final movement of dividends and is shown on on-course tote boards/off-course display screens/ and websites.
“These can naturally reflect dividends that differ to what was displayed at race close. This is the biggest cause of suspicion and the one we have been at pains to try and explain. The reader is absolutely correct – the greater the time difference between viewing/observing the displays the more pronounced the possible changes in dividends will be.”
