Ready, Set, Bet Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Ready Set Bet, a betting party game published by AEG. In Ready Set Bet, players are betting on the outcome of a horse race, hoping to earn the most money.

The trumpet sounds. Post time is near. The horses are about ready to take off. And you, dear reader, have the opportunity to strike it rich. Horse racing is a pretty easy sell for a theme for a board game. In Ready, Set, Bet you’ll be betting in real time as horses take off and approach the finish line.

So let’s dive into how it plays and see if it’s worthy of a spot in your gaming collection.  

First, it’s important to note that the horses themselves can be controlled in one of two ways. A player at the table can take control of the horses… essentially rolling a pair of dice and moving the horse that matches the result. If no one is up for this task there is an app that will “roll” for you and call out the results. If the same number is rolled twice in a row that horse gets bonus movement. This bonus is larger for the harder-to-roll numbers allowing them to have more varied movement.

The betting players each have 5 betting chips. At any time after the start of the race they can place one of their chips on the board on the horse they think will win. Each horse has slightly different odds to win and only one chip can be placed on each space, so payouts become worse as other players bet in front of you.

There are a couple of other prop bets available to players. You can bet on the color of the horse that wins. Or if a certain horse will finish in front of another. And a new prop is added each round giving some more variability to the game.

After the race ends you get paid for your correct bets and most of the incorrect ones will cost you money as