The widespread introduction of All-Up betting in Australian TABs heralds an exciting new era for small punters. At last, they have been handed a real chance to make big killings with small outlays.

All-Up betting is now operating in N.S.W. and Queensland and will soon be on-stream in Victoria as well. This provides the service to the vast majority of Aussie punters.


All-Up means exactly what it says. You can go 'all-up' on two, three or four horses at the same meeting for win or place, or a bit of both.

I have an approach to this form of betting which I thoroughly recommend to anyone who has $11 to spare. Yes, that's all, $11. Not much when you consider the returns can be tremendous.

The plan is to select four horses at a meeting. You then couple them up in 'allup' bets into six doubles, four trebles and a four-horse accumulator. You can bet for a win or a place. Naturally, should you wish to try the foursome both win and place you will need to spend $22.

We'll call the horses A, B, C and D. They would be coupled up in the following 'all-up' bets:

DOUBLES
A-B, A-C, A-D, B-C, B-D, C-D.

TREBLES
ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD.

ACCUMLATOR
ABCD.

Your bet is $1 on each of the 'all-up' combinations. You have, then, four strong selections running for you, of which two must win (or place) to give you some return.

Let's assume you are betting for a win. Should you strike only one winner, your money has gone. Get two winners and you begin to make some headway. A winner at 5-2 followed by a 3-1 winner would see you get an 'all-up' double return of 14 units, leaving you three units ahead.

What if you got three winners at 5-2, 3-1 and 3-1? Well, you'd now have three doubles up, plus a treble. Let's see what this would return: The first double ($3.50 x $4) would return you $14. The second double would return the same $14. Then you would have the two 3-1 shots ($4 x $4) giving you $16. The treble would be $3.50 x $4 x $4 for a return of $56. Now, how’s that for a collect? You have a total return of $100 for your $11.

The fourth winner, should you be so brilliant as to nab it, would make the day. You would have another three doubles up, three more trebles and that four-horse accumulator!

Now we'll assume you are backing for a place, as most prudent punters would be. We'll say you get lucky and snare all four placegetters, paying $1.50 (for $I), $1.90, $2.70, $2.20. Your doubles would be $1 50 x $1.90, $2.70, $2.20 and $1.90 x $2 70, $2.20 and $2.70 x $2.20, giving you a total return on the six of $25.40.

Now for the trebles: They would bring you a total collect of $34.10. The accumulator of all four selections would return $16.90. Altogether, for $11, your four horses have returned you $76.40. Had you been betting in $10 units, with an outlay of $110, your return would have been $764.

You can see the enormous merit in this idea. A good day with your foursome could see you very well off, even with $1 staking. For safety sake, you could even take the four selections for $1 win each, to boost your return should only one or two of them score.

What you should not do with 'all-up' betting is adopt a scattergun approach. That is, don't pick lots of horses and randomly couple them up in doubles, trebles etc because most times you will completely miss out on any divvies whatsoever. You'll have winners and placegetters cropping up in different combinations, but never together!

As with all forms of betting, there has to be a systematic approach. You may decide one day that you have two good things on the card; these are gallopers you are reasonably confident will win.

You can take them for an 'all-up' double-then couple them with a couple of value placegetters. You could then have, say, your first good thing as a win leg, all up your potential placegetter for a place, then all up the next potential placegetter for a place and then all up for a win on your second good thing for the day.

If you have, say, $33 to spend on the day, you could have flow-on 'all-up' bets. In this way, you select six horses. You couple up ABCD, then BCDE, then CDEF. That's a total of three bets at $11 each.

One final piece of advice: When you are filling out All-Up tickets do be very careful. It's easy to make a mistake, because there are a lot of squares to be crossed. If you can, take a bundle of cards home with you, then fill them in at a leisurely pace. Always double-check them.

By Richard Hartley Jnr

PRACTICAL PUNTING - JULY 1987