Dark Horse Bets ‘SmartPicks’ delivered a serious longshot special on September 24 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
The odds suggested that What A Rush didn’t have much of a chance to win Friday night’s third race at the Milton, Ont. oval, but the data-driven SmartPicks element of Dark Horse, the user-friendly horse betting mobile application, selected the 48-1 winner.
And it did so with confidence.
Despite sporting the highest odds in the field of 10 trotters, the SmartPicks confidence factor in What A Rush winning was a whopping 88 per cent.
Eighth and 13 lengths behind the leader at the quarter, What A Rush, with Ed Hensley driving, moved up to sixth at the stretch call, and then rushed by his rivals to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:55.1 for trainer Brett MacDonald.
“I think he had a shot,” said MacDonald. “I always think he has a shot, especially if they go big fractions because he has such a good closing kick. I was at Grand River, so I missed that info. from the Dark Horse app, but I know this horse always gives 110 per cent every night and loves to do his work.”
The end result: a $99.60 payout for a $2 win wager on the 10-year-old bay.
“It still amazes me the sophistication behind the artificial intelligence engine that predicts some of these longshots,” said Chris Lush, Chief Technology Officer, Woodbine Entertainment Group. “The team here at WEG spent the past few years refining the predictive algorithms. This is essentially machine learning, where we feed historical data into the model and let the system predict the winner based upon tens of thousands of past races. What’s great about pari-mutuel betting is that’s it not the player against the house, rather, it’s player against player, which gives us the opportunity to help our customers win.”
The first version of Dark Horse was launched in 2020 and used as an opportunity to collect real time data and user feedback. Leveraging the insights from that period, WEG dedicated several months modifying and streamlining the app to reflect the wants and needs of customers.
Lush is thrilled with how the latest version of Dark Horse has been embraced by users.
“We are exceptionally pleased. We are witnessing exceptional take-up on the app and the majority of users are new to horse racing. The challenge, historically, has been the complexity with pari-mutuel betting. We needed to find a way to engage a new audience and position it in such a way that it simplifies the betting process creating a fun and enjoyable experience.”
And, as seen in the third race last Friday at Mohawk, it can deliver quite a rush.
“I truly believe that Dark Horse Bets is the only betting app that helps the players win, and of course, a winning experience is a fun and engaging experience,” said Lush.
The app can be downloaded for Apple or Android devices at DarkHorseBets.com. Dark Horse Bets is also available in the Apple App Store.
Dark Horse Bets is only available in Canada.
(Woodbine)