Sport is made for betting

Could it be? TABCorp has announced that pools for the Big6 - their poorer cousin of the UK's Scoop6 could have one pool operating by early next year. BIG6 pools merger on the cards About time - what's the point of having a jackpot pool if it's not the biggest you can possibly make it? It's a good move to do it, but they are still missing a trick. To get the most out of this bet type, they should package the six races up each week for free-to-air TV so it gets the maximum exposure possible.

... but still pull out an average product. Victorian and NSW tote monopoly TABCORP gave been blasted in recent years for their lack of innovation with new bet types. A decade ago they had a bet called the Straight Six requiring punters to land the winner of six races in a row. They sacked it because apparently it was a bad thing the syndicates got heavily involved, pumping tens of thousands of dollars into the pools which rolled over for several weeks. In recent years they have brought out lemons such as Spinner (will the first two horses home be even numbers, odd or 'split' as per two-up, with a 16% margin!), Duet (place quinellas - famously advised as a great bet by King Muppet Robert Nason because 'my mum likes it') and the Mystery 6, which was similar to the Straight 6, but you couldn't pick your own numbers, it was just a lottery ticket. The Big 6 will be on the last six races (no variety for quality of race or how short the favourite is) and mostly likely all ...