Betting Sabong

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Here in the Philippines there are shops where you can bet on Rooster fights, called "Sabong Express". There is a counter where you can lay down your bets on the "Meron" (red) or Wala (blue) rooster. Above the counter is the screen where the fight is shown. What happens is about 30 seconds of preview period is show where the betting is open. They show the odds, pay attention because as soon as the bets come in, this changes the odds for payout. The initial odds are close to the "true" odds. They also show each rooster on videos so you can evaluate the vigor. They also show past win/loss and body weights for each one.

Now remember how I said everyone betting changes the odds? You can use this to your favor (it is an art), because people can be quite irrational and bet heavily on silly things like "white feather is lucky" or at night when they are drinking lots if red horse. This is called "parimutuel" betting and is also used in (some) horse racing in the USA like the famous "stakes day". You can read more about how it works in depth in "Fortune's Formula" by William Poundstone, which is an excellent book (not just about parimutuel betting). There is also a great example in wikipedia under "parimutuel betting" under the heading "example". Basically the total pool of all bets is used to pay off the winning bet, so the payoff can be much higher if you bet on something no one else bet on. Note that is different than what the actual odds are for the outcome. So it's ideal for betting on something everyone thinks will lose.

What's really great is you can make 100 peso minimum bets, and if you get the hang of it you can play for hours without losing much if at all. One night I was up 2000 pesos after 4 hours, then the next day down 500p after 3 hours. Oh, I amost forgot, you can play on your phone also, but I used a filipina friend's phone for that, so I dont know how to set up an account. I doubt it's very hard though.

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Up 400p tonight. Beer and dinner (walking st falafel) courtesy of the chickens!