What Does Off-Course Betting Mean?

If you’re a relative newcomer to the world of sports betting, you’ve probably found yourself baffled by the wide variety of specialised terminology on more than one occasion.

It’s easy for experienced bettors to forget how confusing the jargon can be at first - but don’t worry, we’ll explain it all here. In this article, we’ll talk about off-course betting, its history, and what difference it makes to you as a bettor, so that you won’t ever have to feel lost if the subject comes up again.

What Is Off-Course Betting?

‘Off-Course Betting’ refers to any betting on horse racing (or greyhound racing) that physically takes place away from the racecourse - in the USA it’s known as ‘Off-Track Betting’.

This typically takes place either in high street betting shops or at online bookies, and therefore includes the majority of betting on horse racing.

The History Of Off-Course Betting

For much of the history of horse racing, betting could only take place at the racecourse, through licensed bookmakers - although that didn’t stop underground bookies from springing up, hoping to take advantage of the gambling public.

If you’ve seen the TV show Peaky Blinders, you’ll know that there was a lot of money to be made in illegal off-course bookmaking in the early 20th century. New methods of communication allowed them to operate remotely, receiving telegraphed results and updated odds quickly enough to keep up with what was going on at racecourses.

Criminal gangs formed around off-course horse racing betting, and were able to pay off the police to ignore their activities - especially as betting was hugely popular with working class people, and police were reluctant to enforce the law anyway.

Despite government efforts to clamp down on illegal bookmaking, including with the 1906 Street Betting Act, unlicensed bookies flourished in the first half of the 20th century - after all, the demand for betting was unchanged, and it wasn’t practical for everybody to go in person to the races as frequently as they might wish to bet.

It took a long time, but in 1961 the government bowed to the inevitable and legalised off-course betting. Betting shops sprung up immediately to cater to the public’s eagerness to bet on the horses, and soon became a fixture of the high streets.

More recently, of course, the emergence of the internet allowed online bookies to come into existence, making off-course betting even easier for the average punter. These days, off-course betting is the rule, not the exception.

Off-Track Betting Abroad

In other countries, it took longer for off-track betting to be legalised; until the 1970s, only Nevada allowed off-track betting in the USA. Even nowadays, there are 10 states where it’s illegal, including, ironically, Nevada, meaning that there are millions of Americans unable to take part in Off-Track Betting (or OTB as it’s shortened across the pond) at all.

In Canada, meanwhile, it wasn’t until 1989 that off-track betting was legalised at the federal level - but since then, it has flourished nationwide.

What Difference Does Off-Course Betting Make To Bookies?

From the bookies’ point of view, the biggest difference off-course betting makes is the sheer volume of bets it’s possible to take, and the number of bettors they can serve. When legally limited to physically taking bets from in-person bettors at a racecourse, there was an obvious ceiling on the number of customers they could serve, and therefore on the amount of profit they could make.

With the proliferation of betting shops and, later, the advent of online gambling, no such limits exist, and the revenue a bookie can take is almost boundless.

This does of course require far more in the way of investment in technology to handle millions of customers and to ensure the odds are updated constantly to keep pace with the market, but from a bookie’s point of view the advent of legal off-course betting is little short of a licence to print money.

What Difference Does Off-Course Betting Make To Punters?

If off-course betting is so advantageous to bookies, doesn’t that mean it’s a bad thing for customers? Well, not necessarily.

Admittedly, the golden rule with gambling is that, ultimately, the house always wins. You can therefore make a good argument that off-course betting simply means giving punters more chances to lose their money.

However, there are ways for the public to make profits from off-course betting themselves, and not just by hoping to get lucky on a horse. It’s possible to make guaranteed profits through Matched Betting, meaning that the general public can scoop up a chunk of bookie profits for themselves.

This strategy involves taking advantage of bookie offers to lock in profits - to find out more, check out our full guide to Matched Betting. Without off-course betting, there would be far fewer opportunities and offers for matched bettors to take advantage of - so for the wiley bettor, off-course betting is just as useful as it is for the bookies.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Off-Course Betting

For the average punter, the chief advantage of off-course betting is convenience. Plenty of people are keen to bet on more races than they could ever attend in person, and off-course bookies make that possible.

For systematic or professional gamblers, off-course betting is crucial to their income, as they need to be placing large numbers of bets each day/week in order to maximise their chance of coming out in profit.

And, of course, for matched bettors, if it weren’t for off-course betting and online bookies, making money would be almost impossible.

There are also disadvantages, however. Somebody physically present at a racecourse has the ability to assess how the various contenders are looking before a race, which can offer them a small advantage when deciding what bets to place.

Courtsiding, the practice of somebody physically present at a sporting event sending back information to other gamblers or a syndicate, is a clear indication that there are benefits to being physically present at a race. In recent years, courtsiders have even gone so far as to fly drones over racecourses, to allow bettors an idea of the horse that’s likely to win a few seconds before the bookies can update their odds.

That is, however, not something the average punter can arrange - so for most people, the main reason to go to a race in person is for the overall experience of dressing up, enjoying the food and drink, and soaking up the atmosphere. From a betting perspective, the convenience of off-course betting vastly outweighs any disadvantages.

Summary

Off-course betting has changed drastically over the past few decades. From being entirely illegal (though widespread) a century ago, to its legalisation 60 years ago, to suddenly proliferating wildly as online betting took off, it has irreversibly changed the landscape of gambling across the world.

Nowadays, the vast majority of betting is off-course, and this allows punters to bet on far more events - and for bookies to make far more in profit. To take a slice of that profit, though, steer clear of gambling and try out Matched Betting instead!