How a bet is placed and settled

Decimal odds, and what the number means

Australian betting is quoted in decimal odds, and the figure is a multiplier on the total return rather than on the profit. A stake of ten dollars at a price of 2.50 returns twenty-five dollars in total, of which fifteen is profit. That is the whole of the arithmetic, and getting it the wrong way round is the most common beginner error, because it makes every price look better than it is.

The price also encodes an implied chance. Divide one by the decimal figure and you have the probability the price describes: 2.50 implies forty per cent. That calculation is useful not because it predicts anything but because it turns a vague feeling into a number you can disagree with. If you would not accept forty per cent as a fair description of the outcome, the bet is not one you believe in at that price.

The five steps, in order

The order matters more than any individual step, because most mistakes come from doing them backwards: opening a market list first and letting it suggest an opinion. Start with the outcome in plain words, find the market that answers exactly that, read the settlement rule, convert the timing, and only then decide the stake.

The last step deserves its own sentence. The stake is a decision about your money and not about the event, so it belongs to the figure you set in advance rather than to how confident you feel in the moment. A price that looks generous is not a reason to raise it.

1. Write the outcome you believe in, in one plain sentence.
2. Find the market that answers that sentence exactly, and ignore the rest of the board.
3. Read the settlement and void rules for that market in the operator's own terms.
4. Convert the start time and the close time into AWST and note both.
5. Set the stake from your pre-decided figure, check the slip, then confirm.

Timing, because the market closes on its own clock

Western Australia keeps one time all year while the eastern states shift theirs for part of it, so the gap is two hours in some months and three in others. Betting screens show events from several states at once, and the times on them may be in the zone of the event, the zone of the operator or nothing in particular.

The close time is the one that costs money. It is not always the start time: some markets close earlier, and some racing markets close at a point set by the operator rather than at the jump. Establish the close in local time before you start reading form, because the alternative is discovering it while a slip is open.

• Find out which zone the list is displaying before trusting any figure on it.
• Note the close time separately from the start time, because they are often different.
• Convert both into AWST once, in writing, rather than repeatedly under pressure.
• Expect interstate evening events to settle early in your evening.
• Re-check the current time gap each season instead of reusing an old figure.

Settlement, and the rules that decide an edge case

Settlement is where a bet is decided, and the rules that govern it live in the operator's terms rather than in any guide. The clauses worth reading once are specific: what happens to a drawn result in a head-to-head market, whether extra time counts, how a market is treated if the event is shortened or abandoned, what a scratched runner does to a racing bet and to a multi-leg one, and what becomes of a player market when that player does not take part.

Betting on sport and racing with a bookmaker licensed in an Australian state or territory is lawful, and that licence is what makes a settlement dispute a process rather than a disappointment: a published complaint procedure, and a regulator behind the licence when the procedure fails. Keep a dated note and a screenshot of anything you may need to argue about later.

• Read the rule for a draw, a void event and an abandoned event before you need it.
• Read how a scratching is handled, in single bets and in multi-leg bets.
• Keep a dated screenshot of the slip and the price you accepted.
• Use the operator's written complaint procedure first, and keep the reference number.
• Escalate to the regulator that issued the licence, not to the regulator of your own state.