Introducing the V86

Starting November 30, the V86 premieres at Solvalla Race Track in Sweden for a ten week trial, replacing the V64  For those locations in the United States carrying the wager, the minimum wager will be 5¢ per selection.  While the goal is to get all eight winners, you can win if you select seven or six horses in the sequence.  40% of the net pool gets distributed to the winners of eight races; 20% gets distributed to the winners of seven races; 40% of the pool goes to winners of six races.  As before, if the payoff for seven or six winners is less than approximately $3, that portion of the pool will be rolled over into the following week's pool.

Unlike the V64 or V75, a player has the option to make his wager only for eight out of eight winners.  If they are lucky enough to have all eight winners, they will be paid 2.5 times the winning dividend for picking eight horses.

Now lets not kid ourselves, this is definitely a lottery-type wager with an onerous 35% takeout rate.  However, it is projected based on testing that if only one person picks eight winners, they will take home (approximately $733,000 or $1,832,500 if playing only eight for eight).  They do project the average payoffs to be $14,659+ or $36,647 if playing only eight for eight) for eight winners; $146 for seven winners; $7.30 for six winners.  Now these are estimates as the currency exchange rate changes.

If you are a Swedish harness racing fan into these types of wagers, I would suggest you check with the mutuel manager of your wagering facility to make sure they will offer the V86 and if they will be offering the eight out of eight only option as this is a fundamental change to the way the Swedish lottery-type bets are handled.

Now, would this type of wager work in the United States?  If people were wagering a few dollars on the wager or if the tickets were being sold at lottery agents, I imagine it would work.  However, if offered like a Pick 6 is at the Meadowlands, it would kill the handle and the gambler with the onerous 35% takeout rate.  Let's face it, potentially a lot of money would go into the wager (especially with a carryover), but if people played more than a few dollars on it, the money would be taken out of circulation and the number of winners would be so few that most of the winnings would become dead money for purposes of churn as well.  Still, it would be interesting to see such a bet offered during the summer months on a Saturday night using early races on the card at eight tracks or at one track.