Bar Betting Term Meaning

The betting term ‘Bar’ represents a price for entrants in a race or event whose odds have not been quoted individually due to their price being further out in the chosen betting market.

The reason for giving a Bar Price is to condense the list of names for a particular race or event. For instance, if you have a large field in horse racing, various forms of media (TV, radio and print) will list the top 8 or 9 entrants, starting from the favourite: 

This does not mean that the remaining 16 horses are all 20/1. The Bar Price highlights the next lowest odds from the runners that haven’t been listed. So, some runners might be 100/1 within the bar price.

Online bookmakers have partly made this term redundant. A good example of this is the 2019 Grand National. Four weeks before the race, there are 99 runners listed. This is too many to squeeze on a TV screen in your local betting shop, so it will use the Bar Price listing method to display the top horses. 

However, an internet betting platform has an abundance of space, meaning that all 99 horses and their odds can be listed, so there is no requirement for the Bar.

While this term is predominantly used in horse racing, there are actually several other events in which it is commonplace. Golf tournaments, especially the Majors, have large fields, as do most big tennis tournaments. Therefore, you will often see a Bar Price for outright winner markets here. 

You can also find it related to football, for example; teams to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup:

It is a little frustrating to some punters because they cannot spot any outsiders that have good value. Such as the bettor doesn’t know the price of the Netherlands or Portugal. Perhaps, if one of these countries was priced at 40/1, the punter would like to place a wager. Fortunately, with internet sports betting and platforms not using the Bar Price system, you will never miss out on a good price again.