After Saturday’s postponement due to inclement weather and high winds, Monmouth Park’s nine-race opening day card in Oceanport took place Sunday, along with the first full day of fixed odds wagering in the state.
The launch of fixed odds in the Garden State offered plenty of value for New Jersey betting enthusiasts shopping for the best odds.
Fixed odds wagering allows bettors to retain the odds at the time of their bet, as opposed to pari-mutuel wagering, in which odds are not finalized until betting is completed and the race begins.
It is being offered exclusively in the United States for win, place and show wagering on site for all live Monmouth Park races.
“The success today is that we are up and running and up and running smoothly and that Monmouth Park is taking bets on Fixed Odds horse races,” said Dallas Baker, head of international operations for Australian-based BetMakers Technology Group, the company that will manage and operate fixed odds wagering on-site, in a news release. “We absolutely saw the advantages for bettors on site. Once on-line fixed odds wagering is up and running it’s only going to be better for racing fans.”
In addition to wagering on horses and sports betting, New Jersey also is a state with real money online casinos.
Fixed Odds in Action
The base wager at Monmouth Park on fixed odds is $1. Bettors willing to shop found value in the second race, in which Kingdom Queen paid $18.20 to win in pari-mutuel odds. A comparable $2 fixed odds wager returned a closing price of $32.00.
In the fifth race, Hushion paid $17.20 in pari-mutuel wagering with a $2 Fixed Odds bet closing at $28.00.
Fixed odds value was available on heavy favorites as well.
For example, Last Romance returned $3.80 to win on a $2 bet with parimutuel odds but closed at $6.40 on a comparable $2 fixed odds wager in Race 8.
The nine-race program had nine different trainers win, with jockey Paco Lopez, seeking a ninth Monmouth Park riding title, coming home with three winners on the card.
Racing resumes at Monmouth Park on Saturday, May 14, with a 12:15 p.m. first post.
PokerStars Brings New Series to Garden State
PokerStars announced Friday it was unveiling its Bounty Builder tournaments for New Jersey poker players.
The 2022 series is set to kick off Friday and run thru May 23 with 135 progressive knockout tournaments scheduled across the Garden State, as well as in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The online series will have more than $2 million guaranteed across the three states, with $500,000 in New Jersey. Pennsylvania has a $1 million prize pool and Michigan has a guarantee of $700,000.
Poker Stars is coming off its Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which was held March 25-April 11.
Those three states are among the few in which you can play online poker legally. You also can do so in Delaware, West Virginia and Nevada.
