Free Mini Derby Horse Racing
A horse racing game in the style of the casino derby machines, where little horses race round a track under a dome while players bet from the stations around it. Six horses, three bets, a race about every twenty seconds, and a $1,500 play-money wallet shared with our other games. No download, no sign-up.
How to play Mini Derby
- Look at the field. Six horses go to post. Each has a price for every bet, shown as what $1 brings back. The board across the top of the track shows the last ten winners and what each paid.
- Pick a chip from the rack, then tap a horse (or a pair, on the Quinella tab) to put it on. Tap again for more. Undo takes the last chip back, Clear takes them all.
- Tap Race. The gates open and the horses run. You can skip to the finish.
- Collect. Winning bets are paid at the price posted when you bet. Then the next field goes to post.
The bets
- Win
- Your horse finishes first.
- Place
- Your horse finishes first or second. It pays less than Win because it wins more often.
- Quinella
- Pick two horses. They must finish first and second, in either order. With six horses there are fifteen pairs.
Reading the prices
Prices are shown the way the casino machines show them: what $1 brings back, your dollar included. A horse at ×3.4 turns a $5 Win bet into $17.00 if it wins (your $5 and $12 more). The lowest price is the favourite, marked FAV on the board and on the track. Each horse's chance to win is shown beside its Win price.
Prices are fixed when the field goes to post and don't move while you bet. There are no other players and no pool: what you see is what a winning bet pays.
The house edge
Every price is worked out from the horse's true chance and set to pay back 90% on average, then rounded down to the tenth. So the house keeps a little over 10% of what's bet, about what the old Sigma Derby machines kept on their kinder settings and less than the 16–18% today's casino derby machines are reported to keep.
| Bet | Pays back | House edge |
|---|---|---|
| Win | 89.3% | 10.7% |
| Place | 88.3% | 11.7% |
| Quinella | 89.7% | 10.3% |
The rounding costs most on the shortest prices, which is why Place, with the lowest prices, keeps a little more.
House rules at this track
| Field | Six horses a race, drawn from a stable of a hundred |
|---|---|
| Bets | Win, Place and Quinella |
| Stakes | Whole dollars, $1 to $1,000 on any one horse or pair. Bet as many as you like. |
| Prices | Fixed at post, shown to a tenth, from ×1.2 to ×999.9 |
| Dead heats | None: every race has a clear order, decided to the nose |
Is it rigged?
No. Each horse's strength is drawn at random before the race, and its prices come straight from that strength. The race is then decided from those same strengths, with your browser's built-in secure random numbers, without looking at what anyone bet. A favourite at ×2.5 wins about 36% of the time, exactly as its price says. We checked every bet over a million races. The horses' names are only names: nobody is better than anyone else from one race to the next. How we check the odds.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. It's play money only, with no real wagering, no sign-up and no download.
Is this the Fortune Cup or Sigma Derby game?
It's our own game in the same spirit as those machines, with the same three bets as the modern ones: Win, Place and Quinella.
Can I bet more than one horse?
Yes. Put chips on as many horses and pairs as you like, across all three tabs, before you tap Race.
Do the last few winners tell me who'll win next?
No. Every race is a fresh field with fresh strengths, so the results board is history, not a hint, the same as a roulette wheel's last numbers.
What if I run out of chips?
Start over with a fresh $1,500 from the menu, or from the card that comes up when your wallet is empty.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It's built for a phone held upright first. Turn your phone sideways during a race and the track fills the screen.
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- All Mini Velvet games
Back to the track ↑ Play money only. No real wagering. About Mini Velvet