Looking for Casual Kentucky Derby Betting Pool Rules

[albionmoonlight]

Some friends are throwing a Derby party, and I have been tasked with coming up with an easy, casual way of playing the ponies.

Basically, I am looking for something that will be easy to administer that can also maximize fun and strategy. Also, knowing the friend group, I expect this to be much more of a low-stakes affair, for what that is worth.

Anyone do something like this before? Anyone have a simple rule set or advice on how to run it?

People will mainly be coming to socalize and eat and drink, so this does not need to dominate the party. But, having been tasked with coming up with a pool, I want to come up with the most fun pool possible.

So, any and all advice would be appreciated.

[PurdueBrad]

The best one I've seen at a party is the horse auction. Each horse was auctioned off, they even had little fake paddles for us, etc. They may, I can't remember, have given something like 60% to the winning horse's owner, 20% to 2nd place, 10% to 3rd place, and 10% to last place.

[QuikSand]

One easy way to sort of simulate parimutuel betting is to sell/give people "tickets," let them sign their names and drop them into a jar labeled with each horse's number and name. After the race, you give the pot either to all the people who dropped in for the winner, or perhaps select one ticket from the jar to take the prize (can be done before or after the race, actually).

In theory, the favorites (maybe you include the morning line odds on papers next to the names?) should get the most tickets, more or less making it a "value bet" setup.

[albionmoonlight]

One easy way to sort of simulate parimutuel betting is to sell/give people "tickets," let them sign their names and drop them into a jar labeled with each horse's number and name. After the race, you give the pot either to all the people who dropped in for the winner, or perhaps select one ticket from the jar to take the prize (can be done before or after the race, actually).

In theory, the favorites (maybe you include the morning line odds on papers next to the names?) should get the most tickets, more or less making it a "value bet" setup.

Worked like a charm. The winning horse only had one ticket bet on it, so there was none of that messy math involved.

Thanks.