Exchange Pool Wagering
Basic Features
Advanced Features
Exchange pools are a type of wager where you must win the first half for a chance to bet the second half. They can be extremely lucrative bets with pools in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. They are almost always carryover pools and can be hard to hit, however for good handicappers they can provide a nice return on investment. Some tracks even force-out the pool if it grows to a certain size. At that point even a partial winner may win tens of thousands.
While the name is similar, exchange pools have nothing to do with betting exchanges and exchange wagering as offered in New Jersey and other countries. Exchange pools are a normal parimutuel pool and come in a few common types. While fully legal, until recently they have been restricted to on-track and phone in wagers.
- Twin Trifecta (TT, TR2, Twin-Tri) – This pool is split between two trifecta bets and is the most common of the exchange pools.
- Tri Super (TS, Tri-Superfecta) – As the name states the first half is a trifecta with the second half being a superfecta.
- Super Super (SS, S2) – A very rare pool that combines two superfecta wagers. Normally no longer used as it was extremely hard to win.
- Big Quinella (BQ) – A somewhat rare pool that combines two quinella wagers. By far the easiest to hit but also generally the lowest payoffs.
In an exchange pool you play each half seperatley. First you would wager on the first half pool. If you happen to select all of the necessary runners correctly you will win a portion of that days pool (normally around 20% but varies by track) and win 1 wager per winning dollar into the second half. The remaining 80% of the pool goes to the exchange payoff. For example if I were to bet a first half Twin-Trifecta (TR2) $5 1/2,3/2,3,4 and the order of finish is 1/2/3 I would have 5 winning dollars and thus get 5 exchange credits plus a portion of the days pool. After you have won exchange credits you can then place your second half wagers. Each straight combination costs 1 exchange credit. You can place as many combinations as you have credits for. If you pick the winning combination for the exchange half of the pool you will win your share of the exchange pool. This can be far more than the 80% of the current days pool because of carryover’s. If no one wins the exchange half of the pool the current carryover plus the exchange portion of the pool will be added to a carryover for the next instance of the pool. There is one exception to the above.
Many tracks offer a “force-out” at the end of their meet or when the pool gets over a certain amount. On these days at least one person will take home the entire pool even if the track must pay all tickets to do so. I.E. In a twin trifecta if no one gets all three selections in the 2nd half correct it will pay to anyone with 2 selections correct, if no one has 2 correct it will pay to everyone with 1 correct or even to everyone with an exchange ticket if no one has 1 runner correct. As you can see exchange pools are an interesting addition to AmWager and we believe they can help you increase your return on investment.