Calcutta auction

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A 10 rupees Calcutta Derby Sweepstake Ticket from the Royal Calcutta Turf Club from 1934

A Calcutta Auction (also: Calcutta sweepstake , Calcutta lottery or short Calcutta ) is a compound from a lottery and an auction .

When the British introduced horse racing in Calcutta at the beginning of the 19th century , a special type of bet arose , the so-called Calcutta auction. This type of bet is very popular in the countries of the former British Empire and the USA.

From a legal point of view, the Calcutta auction is viewed as a game of chance , provided there are corresponding decisions, such as in Australia, Canada or the USA , and holding a Calcutta auction accordingly requires official approval. In these countries , the term pool selling , which describes the Calcutta auction, can be found in many legal texts relating to bookmaking and the totalizator business .

This betting format is mainly used in horse and Formula 1 races, as well as a mile bet on ships ( ship bet ). In horse racing, however, the totalizator system dominates today. The Calcutta auction is closely related to the totalizator system, since here too the individual betting participants bet among themselves (French pari mutuel ), in contrast to betting on the totalizator, in a Calcutta only one participant can ultimately bet on a certain horse namely the one who makes the highest bid at the auction (see below). It is of course possible for a participant to buy several horses, but there is only one buyer per horse.

The terms Calcutta sweepstake (or Calcutta lottery ) are not always strictly separated from Calcutta auction , but the difference should be noted below. First, a description of the original format as practiced by the Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC).

Calcutta sweepstake or Calcutta lottery

The Calcutta sweepstake (also Calcutta lottery ) is a further development of the popular sweepstakes that are common today, especially in private circles on the occasion of large races such as the Grand National in Great Britain. While the original form of the game is a pure game of chance in which sports knowledge has no meaning, in Calcutta it is very important to be able to assess the chances of the individual horses well.

The Calcutta sweepstake consists of two sections: a lottery and an auction.

lottery

Lots are sold before the race (typically 100 at 10 rupees ); the proceeds from the sale are paid into the profit pot ( pool ). After all tickets have been sold, a lottery will be held. A number is drawn for each participating horse.

example

The number 69 is drawn to the horse Black Dream , the number 6 to Cherry , etc.

auction

Before the start of the race - usually the evening before as part of a festive Calcutta dinner - tickets with the names of the individual horses (hereinafter also referred to as "horses") are auctioned in random order using the English auction method .

Participation in the auction is not tied to the possession of a lot. The success of a Calcutta largely depends on the extent to which the auctioneer succeeds in encouraging the public to bid as high as possible.

Half of the auction price is due to the owner of the lot with the number assigned to the horse in the previous lottery, the other half is paid into the prize pool.

The owner of the lottery ticket can now choose between the following options:

  • he can have half of the auction amount paid out and end his participation in the game, which means that he loses any right to the winnings attributable to his horse.
  • he can waive the payment of the amount and stay in the game, he then retains a right to half of the winnings allotted to his horse. The betting participant who bought the horse then only pays half the auction price and receives half of the winnings attributable to this horse.

If the owner of the lot buys the horse himself, he only pays half of the auction price.

Continuation of the example

If Black Dream is auctioned for the amount of 1,000 rupees, the bidder pays 500 rupees into the prize pool and 500 rupees to the owner of the lot number 69 and thus acquires the right to the profit attributable to Black Dream .
If the owner of lot number 69 waives the 500 rupees due to him, the bidder pays only 500 rupees into the prize pool. He thus acquires the right to half of the profit attributable to Black Dream , the other half of the profit belongs to the owner of the ticket number 69.
If Black Dream is finally bought by the owner of lot number 69 for 1,000 rupees, he pays only half the auction price, i.e. 500 rupees, into the prize pool.

While anyone can participate in the lottery and the subsequent auction, ultimately only those who have won the auction through successful bids are financially involved in the prize pool , as well as those winners in the lottery who do not submit their share to have.

Distribution of the winning pot

  • The owner of the horse placed first receives 40% of the prize pool,
  • the owner of the horse placed second receives 20% of the prize pool,
  • the owner of the third placed horse receives 10% of the prize pool,
  • the owners of the horses not placed receive a total of 20% of the prize pool,
  • and the organizer keeps 10% of the prize pool as commission ( deduction ), the payout rate is therefore 90%.

If two or more horses cross the finish line at the same time - this is called a dead race or an ex-aequo placement - the winnings are divided accordingly: Assuming two horses run second across the finish line at the same time, they jointly take second and third place and together get 20% + 10% = 30% of the pot, i.e. H. each of the two receives 15%.

Calcutta auction

The Calcutta is very often carried out in a simplified form without the introductory lottery. This form, known as the Calcutta auction , is particularly common in connection with backgammon , poker , bridge , curling and golf tournaments, as well as fishing competitions, etc.

At the Calcutta auction , the full auction price is paid into the prize pool ( auction's pool ), which, after deduction of the commission for the organizer, is usually divided according to the same key as the prize money for the event being betted.

Variants and additions

  • Fields : If there are a large number of participants, several starters will be grouped and auctioned off as a package ( field ).
  • Buy-back : If z. If, for example, in a backgammon tournament, the ticket with the name of a player is not bought by the player himself, but by another participant, that player has the right to a share of up to 25% or up to 50% in the ticket to buy with his name for an aliquot share of the auction price from the owner of the ticket.
  • Highest bidder's choice lot : In order to increase the attraction of the auction, a so-called highest bidder's choice lot can be auctioned first; With this ticket, the buyer declares which starter he would like to bet on after being accepted. In this way there is more competitive bidding , and this has a positive effect on the amount of the auction pot.
  • The Sack : Tickets for which there is no buyer for the minimum bid are put into the so-called sack and at the end auctioned like a single ticket.

Pool selling

The Calcutta auction as a type of bet in horse racing has been known as a pool selling in the USA at least since the 1860s . Henry Deedes describes this type of bet in great detail in his book Sketches of the South and West: or, Ten months' residence in the United States , published in 1869 , because, according to the author, it is completely different from the form used in Great Britain (there were mainly bookmaker betting usual).

Deedes' description corresponds exactly to that of a Calcutta auction , with only three lots being auctioned

  • 1st chance : a highest bidder's choice lot
  • 2nd chance : another highest bidder's choice lot
  • The Field : contains all remaining horses

The owner of the ticket with the winning horse wins everything ( The winner takes all ).

A description of pool selling with identical content can be found at Junius Henri Browne on the occasion of a race with only four starters, with all four tickets being auctioned.

Miles bet

A popular form of Calcutta auction is the mile bet on ship trips lasting several days ( auction sweepstake on ship's daily run ). One such ship bet is the focus of Roald Dahl's short story Dip in the Pool ; In the novel Diamonds are Forever , Ian Fleming devotes an entire chapter to such a bet on the RMS Queen Elizabeth . Both authors give very precise - if not exactly identical - descriptions. First the description according to Fleming:

Every noon the captain announces his estimate of the number of nautical miles which the ship will cover by the next noon; z. B. 720 to 739 miles. The nineteen numbers 720, 721, ..., 738 are now written on lots, these are mixed in a container and auctioned off in the order in which they are drawn. The ticket with the number 738, for example, means the bet that the ship will cover at least (≥) 738, but less than (<) 739 miles.

There are also two other tickets: Low field , i. H. You bet the ship will travel less than 720 miles and high field if you bet the ship will travel 739 miles or more. In the ship bet described by Roald Dahl, the tickets High field and Low field are placed in the container just like the other numbers and auctioned as soon as they are drawn.

At Fleming, on the other hand, these two fields are not placed in the container; instead, after the individual numbers have been auctioned, a ticket with the title Choice of high or low field is called up for auction: the buyer of this ticket declares after the bid whether he is for High field or low field decides. Finally, the remaining field is auctioned. There are therefore 21 tickets in total.

Regarding the number of tickets, Dahl explicitly writes: The captain has estimated the day's run ending midday tomorrow, at five hundred and fifteen miles. As usual we will take the ten numbers on either side of it to make up the range. That makes it five hundred and five to five hundred and twenty-five. And of course for those who think the true figure will be still farther away, there'll be 'low field' and 'high field' sold separately as well. In other words, low field means "<505", high field "≥ 525", and thus there are another twenty tickets with the numbers 505 to 524, in Dahl's description there are therefore 22 tickets.

The owner of the ticket with the correct prediction wins the pool (the winner takes all ), from which a deduction is deducted beforehand , with Fleming 5%, with Dahl's description in the amount of 10%.

Order of auction, Melbourne Cup Calcuttas

In the original form of the Calcutta auction, the individual horses (starters, tournament participants, ...) are auctioned in random order.

If the highest bidder's choice lots are auctioned at the beginning , this of course means that the favorites are auctioned first. In the very popular Calcutta sweepstakes associated with the Melbourne Cup , however, it is customary to start with the long shots (i.e. the underdogs) and only auction the favorites at the end of the auction. This allows bidders to better assess the size of the pool towards the end of the auction, which reduces the risk of high bets on the favorites.

At the Melbourne Cup Calcuttas, the prize pool is usually divided in such a way that prizes are not only paid to the owners of the tickets with the names of the top three horses - they receive 60%, 25% or 10% of the total prize money - but also to the owner the last placed horse receives a price, namely 5%. Because of this regulation, it is definitely attractive to bid on hopeless horses, since such a horse can at least take the last place. NB The horse that actually crosses the finish line last is considered to be the last placed horse. A horse that does not complete the race is not considered to be last.

An interesting element of the Calcutta auction is the determination of an appropriate bid for each individual horse, as the payout depends directly on the size of the pool and therefore on the bids made. In this way, the value of each horse often fluctuates very strongly during the auction. Even if a bidder knew which horse won the race and thus received 60% of the pool, he would still not know the exact value of his ticket - unless this horse was called up for auction last - because the Payment of the sum of all successful bids, d. H. depends on the final value of the pool.

When deciding how much to bid for a single “horse”, the probability of victory, or second or third place, is not the only decisive factor, but also the total expected amount in the pool. This is - if all bidders would behave optimally in the sense of probability theory - independent of the order of the auction.

Web links

credentials

  1. ↑ RCTC
  2. ^ Henry Deedes, Sketches of the South and West: or, Ten months' residence in the United States , 1869, p. 35 ( online in the Google book search)
  3. ^ Junius Henri Browne, The Great Metropolis: A Mirror of New York , 1869, p. 573 f. ( Online in Google Book Search)
  4. ↑ Venture capital investing and the "Calcutta auction"