The major online books mostly pay track payouts. So what you see as the payouts at the track is what you get. But there are alot of disadvantages to using a sportsbook for horse racing if located in the US. The disadvantages depend on what type of player you are and the amount of churn you get.
They pay the same odds, however many have low max payouts. For example: Your horse wins at 30 to 1, well some have a cap of 15 to 1 or 20 to 1. It really gets crazy with the trifectas and stuff. You really need to check the book you are at, since many offer different maxes.
Of course there are some books that offer full track pay outs, ya just need to read the rules at each book. To get a better feel of this, read The Greeks policy. It is not very conducive to horse racing.
Ahh, good point Duke John
Also I have found that sports book maximum also maybe 500 or 1000 per wager again depending on the player this could be kinda low and having to make multiple bets to get your amount in can be time consuming and troublesome. I have found most major sports books that promote horse racing offer true track payouts on w/P/S wagers with a cap on exotic bets.
If you thought The Greek was bad, check out Legendz, even worse. To make matters worse, check out this line from the website:
Being horse betting enthusiasts ourselves, we have carefully put together the best selection of wagers, tracks, and payouts for you to enjoy.
Really? 15/6/3 and 100 on exotics is the "best payouts"?
Standard would be full odds on WPS, 300-1 on exotics and 3% rebate. What the bettor needs to do is figure out the type of bet that's most important, and the track they prefer to play. Some books will pay the full pool if you hit a bet that isn't hit on track, some will pay a 10% bonus on Win and exotics at major tracks, some will offer betting on tracks you can't find with a map, some will offer house Q's, some will offer parlays, some pay higher rebates on exotics, etc.
Bottom line is due diligence will pay off in the long run.
Yeah these max pay odds are why I stopped using the offshore books and now use TwinSpires.
I can bet what I want and get track odds. Plus you get free past performances from Brisnet when you use TwinSpires.
I still do make some bets with offshore if I am unable to bet on TwinSpires. For example, in California you cannot use TwinSpires or XpressBet to wager on Keeneland so I have used my offshore account to wager on those races.