FootyTAB

In Australian rugby league, FootyTAB is the name of the legal betting agency, operating in both the NRL and the Brisbane Rugby League since betting on league was legalised. Betting is also offered on other games including the pre-season, State of Origin and Test matches.

FootyTAB offers three types of bet, "Pick The Winners", "Pick The Margins", and "Pick The Score".

In Pick The Winners, punters are required to select all the winning teams in a round. In order to make selection more difficult, points start are given by a panel appointed by the TAB to the team considered less likely to win. So that the scores could never possibly be exactly equal after the start is added, points start are always given as half points. This points start is summed to the actual score for the match to create a total score and the team with the greater total score is declared the winner. For example, in the first round of the 1993 season, the results and total score were as follows:

For split rounds coinciding with State of Origin matches, "Pick The Winners" and "Pick The Margins" are conducted separately for each week of the split round. However, punters betting on the first week of a split round were also required to bet on the State of Origin match in the appropriate format.

Since the introduction of golden point to resolve draws in 2003, these points have been taken into account in all forms of FootyTAB betting.

In "Pick The Margins", punters are required to select the results of every game played during a round. This involved determining who will win and by what margin they will win. For "Pick The Margins", points start given by FootyTAB are not considered. Thus, using the points spreads then current, the correct results for the opening round of 1993 would have been:

Originally "Pick The Margins" had two point spreads, 1-12 and 13+. However, with the increase of scoring due to the 10-metre rule introduced during 1993 and the popular desire for larger dividends, FootyTAB increased the number of point spreads to three (1-10, 11-20 and 21+) for the 2001 season. Before draws were largely eliminated by extra time in 2003, it was possible also to bet on a match being drawn as a fifth selection.

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