Time to scrap rather than reform the SP

"Why does the starting price (SP) still exist?" - a question I have never come up with an entirely satisfactory answer to. 

As far as I am aware there is no such thing as a starting price for bets on sports other than horse racing. You bet on Manchester United to beat Arsenal at 2/1, 8 hours before the kick off, and that's the price you get paid at whatever fluctuations there have been in the meantime.

I am pretty sure that most reasonably clued up gamblers on horse racing always take the early price rather than SP when placing their bets, which simply leaves the 'tobys' in the betting shop who get paid at starting price because the do not opt to take the price when handing the betting slip over to the cashier.

A quick scan of the best prices on offer on the morning of the race usually gives you an overround of between 104% (for level weight races with short priced favourites) and 114% (for the more open handicaps). The SP overround is usually about 120%.

The most outrageous exception to this is the Grand National, when in recent years the big corporates and the on-course bookies at Aintree have combined together to effectively rip off the millions of casual once a year punters. On the morning the overrround is about 120% or even less. Then with outrageous inevitability off course money is transferred to the track in the last 20 minutes, and nearly all the horses shorten with an overround of 160% plus for the eventual stating price.

The mythical housewife (sorry a bit sexist I know) who backed the winner of the National because she "liked the name" finds that the SP return on her horse is 14/1 when it was freely available at 25/1 when she placed her bet in the morning, but did not know to take the price.

At the moment a debate is taking place as to the future of the SP. With bookies absent from racecourses an industry SP has been declared, taking into the prices set by the online bookies and the exchanges. The consensus is that this has not changed the overground much (still about 120%) but has led to shorter SP's on the favourites but longer on the outsiders (hence a greater number of 50/1 plus winers since lockdown).

When bookies return to courses the proposal is that the on course market will contribute a maximum of 12.5% to the SP (even though only about 2% of total turnover will have taken place on track). 

There has been some predictable criticism. On course bookies will be paid less for their contribution to the SP, and there are fears from punters that the big corporates will manipulate the new SP to their advantage.

I prefer to see it as an opportunity. Maybe I am too optimistic but could it be that this provides an opportunity for the on course bookies the to offer what us semi-serious punters want? Yes a chance to pit our judgement against theirs as they take a bet without the restrictions so favoured by the household names on the High Street and internet.

We will probably never get back to the pre-exchange days of John McCrirrick's 'jungle', but a lively betting ring greatly enhances a day at the races and with no office money skewing the market maybe that's where the value will be. 

And just like the House of Lords I still have no convincing answer as to why SP is not scrapped altogether.