Best odds guaranteed (BOG) means that if you take a price about a horse and it then starts at a bigger price, you are paid at the bigger one. Take 6/1 in the morning, horse drifts to 10/1 at the off and wins, you get 10/1. If it shortens to 4/1 you keep your 6/1. It is the single most valuable concession a bookmaker offers to a racing punter, and it changes the whole calculation about when to bet.
Early price versus SP
Every horse has two prices that matter to a fixed-odds punter. The early price is whatever the bookmaker is offering at the moment you bet, from the morning show onwards. The starting price (SP) is the official price returned at the off. In Britain the SP is set under rules from the Starting Price Regulatory Commission, an independent body, by sampling the prices of a panel of major off-course bookmakers in the final moments before the race, and taking the price at which the sample splits in half so that at least half the panel offered that price or longer.
Without BOG, taking an early price is a bet against the market as well as a bet on the horse. If the price drifts, you have left money on the table. If it shortens, you have beaten the market. Over a season those cancel out for most punters, and the bookmaker’s margin is baked into the early price anyway, so early-price punting without BOG is slightly worse than SP punting on average.
BOG removes the downside. You keep the upside of a shortening price and are protected against a drift. That is why bookmakers restrict it and why it is worth seeking out.
Worked example
You back a horse at 09:15, £10 to win at 6/1. It drifts all day and is returned at an SP of 10/1. It wins.
Without BOG: £10 x 6 = £60 winnings, plus £10 stake, £70 returned.
With BOG: £10 x 10 = £100 winnings, plus £10 stake, £110 returned. The concession is worth £40 on this bet.
Same bet, but the horse shortens to 4/1 SP and wins. Without BOG or with it, you are paid at your 6/1: £70 returned. BOG never pays less than the price you took.
Each-way bets are covered on both halves. £5 each-way at 6/1, SP 10/1, 1/5 odds, horse finishes 2nd: the place half is settled at 10/1 rather than 6/1, so 2/1 instead of 6/5. £5 at 2/1 returns £15 rather than £11. Small money, but it is the right way round.
How Rule 4 fits
A Rule 4 deduction applies to your early price if a horse is withdrawn after you bet. If the SP is bigger than your deducted price, BOG means you are paid at SP, which is formed on the reformed market and carries no deduction. If your early price after deduction is still bigger than the SP, you get the deducted early price. Either way, you get the better of the two, which softens the Rule 4 blow for BOG bets.
Common exclusions and caps
BOG is a promotion, not a rule, and the terms vary by bookmaker. Check them before assuming you are covered. The common restrictions:
- Time window. Many firms only apply BOG to bets placed on the day of the race, often from a stated morning time such as 08:00. Ante-post bets are almost never covered.
- Markets. Usually win and each-way singles on UK and Irish racing. Multiples, forecasts, place-only and specials are often excluded, as are some overseas meetings.
- Caps. Some firms cap the extra payout at a stated amount per bet or per day, or only apply BOG to stakes up to a limit. Others apply it only to the first bet on a horse.
- Account restrictions. Bookmakers can and do remove BOG from individual accounts they consider to be winning or price-sensitive. If your account has lost BOG you will usually see it in the terms or be told at the point of placing a bet.
- Industry SP. Where a bookmaker returns its own SP rather than the industry SP, check which one BOG is measured against.
None of those figures can be given here because they differ between firms and change without notice. Read the promotion page of your own bookmaker and read it again every few months.
Why it matters for morning punters
If you bet in the morning you are betting into a market with less information than it will have at the off: no going update, no non-runners, no paddock reports, no late money. Prices move more between 09:00 and the off than at any other point. BOG means you can take an early price for a horse you fancy without caring which way it moves.
That has a practical consequence. Without BOG, the right time to bet is when you think the price is at its biggest, which requires predicting the market. With BOG, the right time to bet is as soon as you have an opinion and a price you are happy with, because a drift costs you nothing. It turns a market-timing problem into a form-reading problem, which is where you want to be spending your effort.
It also means the morning punter with BOG is in a better position than the SP punter on every drifter and equal to them on every steamer. The only punters who do not benefit are those who bet so late that early price and SP are the same thing.
Quick rules
- BOG pays the bigger of the price you took and the SP. It never pays less than your taken price.
- Covers early-price singles on UK and Irish racing at most firms. Multiples, ante-post and some markets are usually excluded.
- Caps, time windows and account restrictions vary by bookmaker; check the terms.
- With BOG, bet when you have an opinion. Without it, you are also betting on which way the market moves.
- Rule 4 still applies to your early price, but BOG gives you the undeducted SP if it is bigger.
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