After you have read this have a look at the table lower down this page showing tote odds for the first race at Moonee Valley on March 22 this year. The "Tote win odds" and "Tote place odds" are the final tote odds from SuperTab for the nine runners, but they could just as well be from any state TAB.

The win market totals 119.14%. The place market 361.93% for three places. That is equivalent to 120.64% for the win market. The bigger effect of rounding down dividends will explain why tote place markets offer even poorer value than tote win markets.

The two "Tote break even" columns are adjusted for the tote take out and show what the tote prices would be if all moneys bet were returned - in other words, a market of 100%.

It's by seeing these significant differences that you realise what you are up against. On the occasions when any of those "Tote win odds" or "Tote place odds" dividends were genuine value, then many, if not all the other win and place odds would need to be significantly higher than the prices given in the "Tote break even" columns.

That might mean for example that a punter who is getting $5.20 tote win odds really needs $7.00 to break even!