Best of the best (BOB) betting pays a winning bet at whichever is higher of two figures settled after you bet. One is the top fluc, the highest price recorded in a window the terms set; the other is the best tote, the highest tote dividend the terms compare. With illustrative figures, a top fluc of $7.00 against a tote dividend of $7.40 pays $7.40, so a $10 winning bet returns $74.00.
It is an operator's product, not a racing rule: each bookmaker defines both parts, the races it covers and how much of a stake it applies to. Tabcorp has moved its tote pools to a single national pool (reported from October 2026), which changes what the tote part can read, so check how your bookmaker defines it now.
How BOB is put together
In best of the best betting, two figures are settled separately and the bet takes the higher:
| Part | What it reads | Known | What the terms set |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top fluc | The highest price in the named source during the window | When the window closes | The price source, the window and the cut-off |
| Best tote | The highest of the tote dividends compared | After the result | Which dividends count |
| BOB | The higher of the two | After the result | Caps, meetings and bet types |
The top fluc part has nothing to do with the tote. Racing NSW says its NSW Official Price service supplies the top fluc at NSW TAB race meetings, working from the larger licensed wagering operators' prices (checked October 2026); elsewhere the terms name the source.
Definitions of the parts differ between rule books, too. Western Australia's Rules of Wagering 2005 (current version, from 7 October 2025) base a WA bookmaker's top fluc wager on on-course bookmakers' odds (r 3(1)). The same rules pay a tote bet on the highest or middle dividend of an Australian totalisator, which they define as one licensed in NSW, Victoria or Queensland (r 3(1) and r 50(2)).
The tote part is where the national pool matters. Before it, that part could take the highest of several pools' dividends. One pool produces one dividend per result, so where the comparison draws only on that pool, the tote part is that dividend and nothing else. Names vary as well, so read which figures the terms compare rather than trusting the label.
Worked: top fluc $7.00 against a tote dividend of $7.40
Example: Illustrative figures for three winners at three meetings, not real races. Each tote dividend is a single figure, as a comparison drawing on one pool would read it.
| Winner | Top fluc | Tote dividend | BOB pays | $10 returns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 | $7.00 | $7.40 | $7.40, the tote | $74.00 |
| Race 2 | $8.50 | $6.90 | $8.50, the top fluc | $85.00 |
| Race 3 | $4.20 | $4.10 | $4.20, the top fluc | $42.00 |
In Race 1 the tote part beat the top fluc by 7.40 / 7.00 - 1 = 5.7%. In Race 2 the top fluc beat the tote by 8.50 / 6.90 - 1 = 23.2%. Across the three, $10 on each winner returns $74 + $85 + $42 = $201 at BOB. The top fluc alone returns $70 + $85 + $42 = $197, and the tote alone $74 + $69 + $41 = $184.
Before the national pool, the tote column could have held the highest of up to three dividends for each race, not one, which gave the tote part more chances to beat the top fluc. With one dividend, the comparison is between two figures only.
Risk: Betting involves risk. BOB lifts the price on a winner only, and a runner that loses costs the full stake whatever its two figures would have been. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
Restrictions on stake and meetings
Paying the higher of two figures costs the operator at least as much as paying either one, and more whenever they differ. Operators recover that cost through limits in their terms. The clauses to look for:
| Clause | What it can say |
|---|---|
| A cap | BOB on the first part of a stake only, with the rest paid another way or refused |
| A race list | Only some meetings, codes or countries |
| A bet-type list | Win bets only, with no multis, each way or exotics |
| A cut-off | No BOB bets after a set time before the start |
| A funding rule | No BOB on bets placed with a bonus bet |
Example: Illustrative terms that pay BOB on the first $50 of a stake and an SP of $6.20 on the rest: $100 on the Race 1 winner returns 50 x 7.40 + 50 x 6.20 = $370 + $310 = $680, against 100 x 7.40 = $740 if the whole stake were paid at BOB.
The cut-off matters because of the top fluc part: once its window has closed, that figure is known. Check when the terms stop taking BOB bets, and on which meetings they take them at all.
When BOB is worth taking over a fixed price
BOB's price has a floor and no set top, though the terms can cap how much of a stake it applies to. When the terms count the whole window, it cannot pay less than the highest official price already recorded in it, and either part can lift it from there. A fixed price is a known number now, so the question is how your fixed price compares with that floor and which way the runner goes next.
With illustrative figures, 40 minutes before the start, the official price has peaked at $5.50 so far, under terms whose window counts all of it:
| Your fixed price | What happens next | BOB pays | $20 at BOB | $20 at the fixed price | Better on a winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5.20, below the floor | Firms to $4.40; tote $4.60 | $5.50, the floor | $110.00 | $104.00 | BOB, by $6.00 |
| $5.80, above the floor | Drifts to a high of $6.40; tote $6.10 | $6.40 | $128.00 | $116.00 | BOB, by $12.00 |
| $5.80, above the floor | Firms to $4.40; tote $4.60 | $5.50 | $110.00 | $116.00 | Fixed, by $6.00 |
Three rules follow. A fixed price below BOB's floor cannot beat BOB on a winner, caps, cut-off and deductions aside. A fixed price above the floor wins unless the runner drifts past it or the tote pays more. And bets past the cap or the cut-off, or on races the terms exclude, get no BOB at all, which leaves the fixed price as the only choice.
Starting price betting covers the plain version of a price set at the close, with no comparison at all.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A floor under the price is not a floor under your result: a runner that loses still costs the whole stake. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
BOB vs best tote
| Best tote | BOB | |
|---|---|---|
| Pays | The highest tote dividend compared | The higher of that and the top fluc |
| On the same terms | Never more than BOB | Never less than best tote |
| What closes it | The terms' cut-off; it reads only dividends, so it has no fluc window | The terms' cut-off, which has to allow for the top fluc window |
| Race 1 above | $7.40 | $7.40 |
| Race 2 above | $6.90 | $8.50 |
On the same caps and cut-off, BOB pays the same or more: in Race 2 the top fluc lifted a $10 return from $69.00 to $85.00. In practice the two products can carry different caps, cut-offs and lists of meetings, so compare the terms that apply to your bet rather than the names.
Risk: Betting involves risk. Paying the better of two figures says nothing about whether your runner wins, and on a loser both products return nothing. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
Scratchings, dead heats and missing figures
- A late scratching. The top fluc part is a fixed price that may have been recorded before the scratching, so it can carry the Stewards' deduction, while a tote dividend carries none. With an illustrative 12c deduction, a $7.00 top fluc falls to 7.00 x (1 - 0.12) = $6.16 on the face-value reading of Racing NSW's BR 14(4). If the cut comes off the winnings only, it falls to 1 + 6.00 x 0.88 = $6.28; scratching deductions sets out both readings. A $6.40 tote dividend would then win the comparison, paying $64.00 on $10 against $61.60 or $62.80. Whether the parts are compared before or after the deduction is set in the terms.
- A dead heat for first. A tote dividend is declared after the result, so the dead heat is already counted in it, while the top fluc part is cut under the bookmaker's dead heat terms, which dead heat rules explains. Check how the terms compare the two.
- A missing figure. A race with no tote dividend, or a runner with no official price, leaves one part empty, and the terms say what is paid instead. For WA bookmakers, when the pricing information body sets no price, WA's rules use the middle Australian totalisator win dividend as the top fluc odds (r 51A(2)).
Where BOB bets lose money
Costs use the illustrative figures from this page.
- Assuming BOB beats every fixed price. In the third row of the fixed-price table, BOB paid $110.00 against $116.00 at the fixed price: $6.00 less on $20.
- Staking past a cap. $100 on the Race 1 winner returned $680 instead of $740: $60 less.
- Forgetting the deduction on the top fluc part. After the illustrative 12c deduction, a $7.00 top fluc paid like $6.16 on the face-value reading.
- Ignoring the floor. In the first row of the fixed-price table, a fixed $5.20 taken when BOB's floor was already $5.50 returned $104.00 on $20 against $110.00: $6.00 less.
Seeing the fixed side before you choose
Both of BOB's figures are unknown until the window shuts and the result is in, which leaves the fixed price as the only number you can line up before the jump. B337's Terminal sets the prices of 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports next to each other, plus Betfair back and lay, flucs and closing lines. No tote dividend can be compared in advance, since there is none until the tote declares it.
Prices on the board come in on a repeating cycle rather than tick by tick, so confirm the one you want in your bookmaker account. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds. Horse racing betting sets BOB beside every other way to be paid. Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them. Betfair is a trade mark of its owner, and B337 is not affiliated with it.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A sharper price is still a bet: it changes the return if you win, and a loss still costs the stake. See responsible gambling for limits and support.