What Does SP Mean In Horse Racing?

The SP (Starting Price) is the official odds of a horse available to punters at the beginning of a race or at the ‘off’ as it’s commonly known.

The SP can be important to bettors if they chose to take the SP instead of locking the odds in as it determines the winning bet payout.

In this article, you’ll find out how SP is determined along with, the pros and cons of taking the SP and how you can ensure you always get the best possible odds for your bets.

Who Decides The Starting Price (SP)?

The SP was previously determined by appointed bookies at the race track and mirrored the general consensus of the market just before the start of the race. However, when COVID hit the nation and the UK went into lockdown in 2020, things had to change.

When horse racing resumed, restrictions were put in place which meant no bookmakers or crowds were allowed at the track. So, the Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC) conducted a review.

The review uncovered that only 1.4% of horse racing bets are placed at race tracks normally anyway. With bettors only using online bookies during lockdown and the vast majority of bets being placed off-course, The SP is now determined by off-course odds taken from a group of bookies who have a significant share of the whole betting market.

Online Bookies or Race Course Bookies?

Bettors are always looking for the best value and whilst they might get bonuses and offers from time to time, regular punters are on the look out for the best odds on offer day in and day out. The online gambling market is bigger than ever and with odds comparison sites, it’s easier than ever to find the best odds on an event. The Outplayed OddsMatcher Tool provides real time odds updates at over 100 bookies so you always see the best odds on offer.

It does raise a question as to whether there is a need for bookies at the track. Yet, you’ll still see plenty of them track side in their little betting booths at horse and dog races.  If you are at the races then do you use the bookie there or jump on your mobile and place your bets within seconds?

Now whilst the process is similar, the outcome may differ because the odds offered by a bookie at the track can differ to online odds. 

Course bookies determine the odds for a race by the amount of money they take. In general, they aim to make about 10% per race.  Once their costs are deducted they will make approximately in the region of 8%.

As an example, let’s say there is a race with only 2 horses running. The track bookie had a substantial liability on horse A so they decide to drop the price on it to deter any more bettors backing it.  At the same time, they would increase the odds of horse B to make it more appealing, take bets and balance the books a little. The mechanics of it are a little more complex than that in reality though.

Whilst online bookies work in a similar fashion, the volumes are considerably higher as more people are betting online than are at the races.

It’s not a simple case of one is better than the other. More often than not, the online prices will be better as there is far more liquidity (money placed) in the markets. There will always be times where one is offering better odds than the other so if you’re out for a day at the races, check both before placing your bet.

How Is The SP Calculated?

Logic would push you to think that from the selected bookmakers, an average figure would be used to determine the starting price. The issue with this is that there could be concerns the bookies could arrange it so that the odds disadvantage the customers and given them the edge. To avoid this, when the race starts, the odds are shared equally across the chosen bookmakers. This results in the SP being the lowest odds offered by the bookie in the upper half of the selection.

The below example is the odds being offered by ten bookies on a horse. They are ordered from highest to lowest odds. As mentioned above, the SP will be the odds offered by the lowest bookmaker in the top half of the table.  In this case, the SP is the odds of 6.5 (11/2) by Paddy Power (shown in bold).

The horse in this example had odds from 5.5 (9/2) to 7.5 (13/2) so the SP of 6.5 (11/2) in this race looks fair. Because the SP rules are set in stone by the Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC), it can sometimes result in an unfair SP without bettors realising.

Here’s an example of when that might happen:

In this case, a fair SP would be 5.5 (9/2) but because of the rules, the SP is 5 (4/1).

Why choose the SP?

When placing a bet on horses or dogs, bettors can choose whether to take the starting price (SP) of take the fixed odds.

• SP – you accept whatever the odds are at when the race begins
• Fixed Odds – you accept the odds on offer a the time you place your bet

Choosing to take the SP can be useful if the market conditions are uncertain and volatile with fluctuating odds as it can give you averaged odds at the time of the race. It also provides the odds of the overall consensus of the market at the off.  There are times when people will get tips or stable information too.  This can help in that if they know the price is lower than it should be, taking the SP should give them better odds when the race starts.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the SP?

Advantages of SP betting

• Straight forward – no need to monitor the markets or fluctuating odds

• Potential – you could get improved odds if the price increases

• Availability – pretty much all bookmakers offer SP

Disadvantages of SP betting

• Risk – you could miss out on higher odds in the earlier markets

• No influence – you have no control over the final odds you get

• Profits – can be less profitable

• Interference – The bookies can influence the odds you get

How To Place A Starting Price Bet

Choosing the SP is pretty straight forward and is generally the same for most bookmakers. If a bettor deals with a betting shop or on course bookie, they can tell the bookie they want to take the SP. Alternatively, you can choose the SP yourself at online bookmakers.

Below are examples where they might slightly differ.

William Hill

With William Hill, they display both the current odds and another option to click on the SP.  This then opens the bet slip as above with the SP selected.  If you changed your mind and wanted to take the current odds, you simply either click the on-screen odds of 1.15 or click on the 1.15 odds in the bet slip.

Bet365

Bet365 slightly differ to William Hill in that they don’t have columns for the current odds and starting price. Instead, you would need to click on the current odds to open the bet slip. Once the bet slip is open, if you click on the 1.14 you‘ll then see a pop up with the option of clicking on the SP.

One thing to mention is when using the William Hill mobile app, you won’t see the current odds and SP columns. It will display current odds only but once you click on the odds, the bet slip opens and you can chose the SP as you would do with Bet365.  With so many online bookies about, some might slightly differ in their layout but the option to take the SP will be available somewhere.

This selection is a good example of where taking the SP might be a good idea. Aurora Vega has extremely low odds so a punter may think the only way these odds will go is up. If you take the SP and the odds drift out higher, then you’ll make more profit.

How the above selection might turn out:

Let’s say you decide to place a £10 win bet on Aurora Vega.  The current odds are 1.15 but you decide to take the SP and the horse wins.

• SP is 1.1 – your return is lower than if you had taken the current odds. £10 at 1.15 would have returned £11.54 but you only receive £11 back.

• SP is 2 – The odds have drifted and your returns are better than if you’d taken the fixed odds. Your £10 stake will return £20 (including your initial £10 stake). This means that taking the SP in this scenario has increased your returns from £11 to £20.

This case demonstrates how the SP can have a big influence on your profits. These were extremely low odds but if you imagine a similar scenario with higher odds, you can see how it’s possible to vastly increase your profits.  However, don’t forget it can also work the other way around and your profits could take a big hit in the wrong direction.

This leads to another little gem on offer from quite a few of the bookmakers – Best Odds Guaranteed.  This completely removes the need to even consider whether or not to use the starting price or take the fixed odds.

Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG)

BOG basically merges the benefits of placing fixed odds bets with a potential advantage of SP bets.  In essence, it means a bettor cannot be disadvantaged with their choice of odds.  You put a £10 win bet on a horse at fixed odds of 5 (4/1) but when the race started, the SP was 10 (9/1). This means that if the horse wins, you get £100 back instead of £50 thanks to the BOG being offered by the bookie. You can read more about this with our comprehensive Best Odds Guaranteed guide.

Advantages

• Can increase your winnings massively

• Lets punters bet early without risk

• You don’t miss out on higher odds

Disadvantages

• Not offered by all bookies

• Not offered on all races

• Possibility of being stake restricted (Gubbed)

Regarding the above, at the time of writing this article it is worth mentioning that Bet365 currently offer BOG on every single horse and dog race. They offer BOG from 8am but at 10am they will price match their competitors on every ITV race giving you the best market price available coupled with BOG. What’s not to like!

Here’s a list of some of the big players that offer BOG:

For more information on taking advantage of Best Odds Guaranteed offers, please see our comprehensive BOG guide.

SP History

Starting prices have been around since the 18th century for on-track markets. As the industry has grown and there became more and more off-course markets, it was deemed vital that on and off course starting prices reflected each other.   Another view was that the starting prices needed to be independent of the bookies (off-course).

The first governing body of SPs was The Starting Price Liaison Committee formed in 1994. This then changed to the SP Executive in 1999 who were a collection of representatives from the Press Association, the SIS and the Mirror Group.  The objective of the SP Executive was to independently assess the procedures being used to determine the Starting Price. They also were tasked with dealing with the integrity and accuracy of the starting prices being given by off course bookies. In 2004 this led to the current committee, the Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC). 

As briefly mentioned earlier, the SPRC undertook a huge review of starting prices during the COVID pandemic.  As you’d expect, they found that on-course betting now accounted for less than 2% of all horse racing bets taking place. This meant that the existing system of using on-course SPs no longer reflected (and hadn’t done for a long time) the market correctly.

On the 24th February 2022, the SPRC held a board meeting and agreed to carrying out recommendations made by its Technical Sub-Committee. In summary, this meant changing the way the SP sample was collected so that it reflected the markets more accurately.

The details of the report can be found here.

Summary

The starting price offers a regulated way to determine odds and payouts for bets that win. The SP will reflect the market opinion when the race starts and provides a fair option for punters to go with what the markets decide. Whilst it can save the hassle of monitoring fluctuations in the market and offer security, it can also lead to punters having uncertainty and reduced profits.