bmeadow
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
With Betfair I can bet on that nag to come last
While exchange betting won't prove the panacea its supporters hope (it's for win betting only, you need a computer with a funded account, if there's not much liquidity nobody will care, etc.), it does have potential to increase handle. Let's say there's a six-horse race with three obvious favorites at 9-5, 2-1, and 5-2. There's no value playing the race--but with an exchange, I could bet against the other three horses, thus creating handle where there was none. Let's say I need 3-1 to play a particular horse. At the track, he's 5-2, too low to play. On an exchange, he's 4-1. So I can beat a big bet on the exchange instead of no bet at the track, again creating handle where there was none. I could give many further examples of situations where an exchange will create handle, but this all may be moot unless the mathematically challenged horsemen's groups (which favored the most recent takeout increase) agree to contracts with any exchange. And given their sorry history, I don't think this is any sure thing.— December 8, 2010 1:14 p.m.