The Hong Kong Jockey Club announced today (12 January) that the Quartet and First 4 racing bet types will be combined to form the “Quartet & First 4 Merged Pool”, effective from the race meeting on Sunday 18 January. Quartet and First 4 will now be offered for every local race with six or more starters and a new jackpot feature will be added to the Merged Pool.
Merged Pool adopts a “one pool wagering" concept with real-time odds and dividends calculated by combining wagers on the two bet types into one pool. The Quartet & First 4 Merged Pool still functions as two separate bet types, as it is only a change in the mechanics of back-end odds calculation.
“The Merged Pool is a remarkable enhancement to the current pari-mutuel framework. It brings significant benefits to our customers with a seamless change in the user experience,” says the Club’s Executive Director of Customer and Marketing Richard Cheung.
From the customer end, the way of betting, such as the betting ticket and user interface on different devices will remain unchanged, as will betting information displays such as odds display for each combination, and other betting arrangements including minimum dividends and Flexi Bet offerings.
The enhanced liquidity of the Merged Pool should make the odds more robust, as the degree of odds fluctuation induced by a single bet will be reduced. It will take a larger wager to move the odds significantly. Information transparency will also be increased as the new Longitude technology deployed can calculate the odds very rapidly on every possible outcome.
For each Quartet & First 4 Merged Pool, a 0.5 percentage of the turnover will be deducted and credited to a Jackpot Reserve Pool for jackpot allocation to offer higher return on specific racedays.
“The Club always places high importance on technology developments and we will continue applying this new technology to enhance our betting services and offerings," Mr Cheung explains. "This not only enables us to meet our customers' needs, but also helps the Government combat illegal gambling in Hong Kong.”
The Club first deployed Longitude technology in the relaunch of Quartet in January 2014 and is now expanding its use to the Quartet & First 4 Merged Pool, which will be the first of its kind in the racing organisation globally.
For more information, please visit www.hkjcracing.com or call the Club’s Hotline at 1817.
