If you're anything like me then you love the idea of a nice payout for a smallish stake. The best way I know of achieving that is the good old placepot (or your national equivalent: pick 3, pick4, pick 6, etc).

Obviously, trying to win the 'pot with a single selection in each race is akin to searching for and hoping to find a needle in a haystack, so the savvy punter uses a permutation of more than one horse in some of the races. This is more commonly known as a perm.

But then it's quite easy to encounter the opposite conundrum: too many permutations.

Enter the multi-race bet ticket builder, a clever piece of web software I've had developed that recognises the unlikelihood of your longer priced horses winning (or placing) in all legs, and creates a series of 'most likely scenario' tickets based on how you identify A, B and C selections.

Let me explain in more detail...

Let's say there's a race where the favourite is 6/4 and you quite like it. But there's also another horse in the race who you think is over-priced at 8/1, though clearly is a less likely winner than the favourite. In terms of the multi-bet builder, we'd call the favourite an 'A' selection, and the 8/1 lively sort, a 'B' selection.

If there was another horse who you thought might sneak in at a longer price, then you might add it in as a 'C' selection.

This process is repeated throughout the number of legs in your bet (e.g. three in a Pick3, six in a placepot, etc) and, as you make your choices, the multi-bet builder calculates the 'part-perm' combinations for each of the following:

- All 'A' selections on one ticket
- Any five 'A' selections with each 'B' leg
- Any five 'A' selections with each 'C' leg
- Any four 'A' selections with each combination of two 'B' legs

You can de-select some of these options if you like. Personally, I very rarely use 'C' selections on placepots, but I do occasionally use them on multi-race win bets, like the jackpot.

OK, enough theory. Let me show you how this works in practice. This is the opening portion of the screen you will see:

The numbers represent the following fields, some of which MUST be entered and some of which are optional:

1. Date - this is pre-populated to today's date, but can be changed if you need/want to.
2. You may choose any track from UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and South Africa - again this field is optional.
3. Select the number of legs in your multi-race bet - it is mandatory to select this one.
4. Choose the start race leg - optional, but will help you if for instance you are playing rolling Pick 3's.
5. Select a base unit for your bet. For example, if you are planning to make a 10p perm placepot, then the base bet would be .1 (mandatory field)
6. Choose your total budget. Again, this is a mandatory field.
7. If there are races with more than 20 runners, select the 40 runners option from the dropdown.
8. Once you've completed the fields you need/want to, hit the 'Create' button.

You will now be presented by a series of numbers and boxes, similar to the image below (for a three race sequence bet)

It's now a case of simply 'dragging and dropping' the relevant numbers to the appropriate boxes in the grid. So for instance, if you like horse #6 in the first race, drag it to the 'A' box. If you think horse #2 also has a chance, though less so than the #6, drag it to the 'B' box.

As you complete each race (see the numbers on the left side, corresponding to your selection of start race in the first part), the tickets are automatically created beneath.

Let's look at both a part completed, and a fully completed example. First, a ticket with partial completion.

We can see from the above that as the first two legs have been completed, four tickets have been created. These are, as follows:

Ticket 1 - The 'all A' ticket

Ticket 2 - The first of the 'A's with 1 B' tickets

Ticket 3 - The second of the 'A's with 1 B' tickets

Ticket 4 - The first 'A's with 2B's' ticket

Now let's look at a completed ticket. In this example, I've used different numbers for each leg, so that you can see how the ticket combinations are pulled together. (Click the image to see full screen).

In this example, I have included A, B and C selections to illustrate all the possible ticket combinations.

Note that the tickets are always displayed in the order: all A's (ticket 1, in this case); A's with 1 B (tickets 2-4, in this case); A's with 1 C (tickets 5-7, in this case); and, A's with 2 B's (tickets 8-10, in this case).

Also note that the total stake here is in dollars. This is because the selected race meeting is from Belmont Park, a US track. Each track will calculate the ticket totals using the local currency denomination.

To de-select any of these combinations of A, B and C, simply untick the relevant box - they're located between the race boxes and the ticket combinations.

Finally, if you'd like to accentuate any of the tickets, you can tick the 'x2/x3/x4' box on the ticket(s) you'd like to emphasise. For instance, I generally use the 'x3' or 'x4' for my 'all A' ticket, and the 'x2' or 'x3' for my 'As with 1B' tickets.

The multi-bet builder will automatically calculate the revised total value, and each individual ticket value as well.

And that's it. One important note - when dragging and dropping, your cursor MUST be over the number as you place it to a box, or it will not release.

Click here to access the ticket builder.