CSF, Tricast and Forecast Bets Explained: Greyhound Betting Dividends

At the bottom of every Towcester result card, below the finishing positions and starting prices, you will find two lines that most casual fans skip over entirely: the CSF and the tricast dividend. These are not odds in the traditional sense. They are payouts calculated after the race for punters who correctly predicted the first two or first three finishers in exact order. For anyone who thinks greyhound betting begins and ends with picking the winner, the forecast and tricast markets represent a different, often more rewarding, level of engagement.

This guide explains how CSF tricast forecast greyhound bets work, walks through the payout mechanics with concrete examples, and considers when these bet types make strategic sense as part of a broader approach to Towcester results.

How CSF, Forecast and Tricast Bets Work

The Straight Forecast

A straight forecast requires you to predict the first and second finishers in a race in the correct order. If you select Dog A to win and Dog B to finish second, both must finish in exactly those positions for the bet to pay. Reverse the order and the bet loses. The payout is determined after the race based on the starting prices of the two dogs and a formula that factors in the difficulty of the prediction.

In greyhound racing, where six-dog fields mean there are 30 possible first-and-second combinations, a straight forecast is a more selective bet than a simple win wager. The reward reflects that selectivity: forecast dividends are typically several times larger than the winner’s starting price, because you are being paid for getting two things right instead of one.

The CSF: Computer Straight Forecast

The CSF is the industry-standard payout for forecast bets on greyhound racing. It is calculated by a computer algorithm after the race, using the starting prices of all runners to determine a fair dividend for the first-two combination that actually occurred. When you see a CSF figure on a Towcester result card, that is the return per one-pound stake for anyone who correctly predicted the first and second in order.

The CSF exists within a market where betting-shop turnover on greyhound racing reached £794 million in the year ending March 2026. A substantial portion of that turnover flows through forecast and tricast markets, particularly among experienced punters who find win-only bets insufficiently rewarding for the level of analysis they invest.

The Tricast

A tricast extends the forecast principle to three places: you must predict the first, second and third finishers in exact order. With six runners, there are 120 possible tricast combinations, making this a significantly harder bet to land. The payouts reflect the difficulty: tricast dividends can run into hundreds of pounds from a one-pound stake when outsiders fill the places, and even moderate results often return multiples of the CSF.

Reverse Forecasts and Combination Tricasts

A reverse forecast covers both possible orders of your two selected dogs: A first and B second, or B first and A second. It costs twice the unit stake but removes the need to predict the exact finishing order of your pair. A combination tricast covers all possible orderings of three selected dogs — six combinations, so six times the unit stake — and pays whatever the tricast dividend turns out to be for whichever ordering actually occurs. These combination bets reduce the precision required but increase the cost, and the economics only work if the expected dividend is large enough to justify the additional outlay.

Payout Examples and How Dividends Are Calculated

The CSF and tricast dividends are not fixed odds. They are calculated after the race using an algorithm that takes the starting prices of all six runners and computes what the fair payout should be for the specific combination that finished first and second (CSF) or first, second and third (tricast). The core principle is straightforward: the less likely the combination according to the pre-race market, the higher the dividend.

Example: Favourite Wins, Second Favourite Places

In a race where the 2/1 favourite wins and the 3/1 second favourite finishes second, the CSF is typically modest. The market expected this outcome, so the payout is correspondingly small. The tricast, if the third-placed dog was a mid-price runner at 5/1, adds a layer of difficulty but still produces a moderate return. Predictable results produce predictable dividends, and these are the races where forecast and tricast punters earn their smallest payouts.

Example: Outsider Upsets the Order

Now consider a race where a 10/1 outsider wins and a 6/1 shot finishes second, with the 2/1 favourite back in third. The CSF will return significantly more than in the previous example. The tricast, incorporating the fallen favourite in third, could run to several hundred pounds for a one-pound stake. The difficulty of the prediction is reflected directly in the size of the payout, and it is in these upset scenarios that forecast and tricast bets deliver their most dramatic returns.

Within the context of UK greyhound wagering — a market worth approximately £1.46 billion annually — the forecast and tricast pools are where a disproportionate share of the larger individual payouts originate. The win market is the volume product; the forecast and tricast markets are where informed analysis can produce outsized returns from a single race.

How the Algorithm Works

The CSF algorithm is standardised across all GBGB tracks. It uses a mathematical model based on the starting prices to calculate what the return would be if the betting market were perfectly efficient. The model accounts for the overround built into bookmaker prices and adjusts the dividend accordingly. You do not need to understand the formula to use CSF bets effectively, but knowing that the dividend is derived from the SP of all runners, not just your two selections, explains why the same first-and-second combination can produce different CSF payouts on different nights. The SPs of the other runners in the field affect the calculation even though they did not finish in the places.

When to Consider Forecast and Tricast Bets

Forecast and tricast bets are not for every race. They make strategic sense when you have a strong view on the finishing order, not just the winner, and when the likely dividend justifies the higher risk. A race where you are confident about the winner but have no view on second and third is a win-bet race, not a forecast race. A race where you can identify three dogs that are clearly the strongest in the field but are unsure of the exact order is a combination-tricast race.

At Towcester, the most productive CSF tricast forecast greyhound opportunities tend to arise in lower-grade sprints where trap bias is strong and the field is tightly matched. If trap-one dogs win frequently at 270 metres and you can identify a likely second from the remaining runners, the straight forecast offers better value than a simple win bet on the trap-one runner, whose starting price may already be too short to offer a meaningful edge on its own.

The discipline is the same as any other bet type: stake only what you can afford to lose, keep records, and evaluate your forecast and tricast results over a large sample rather than reacting to individual wins or losses. The dividends can be spectacular, but the strike rate is inherently lower than win betting, and your bankroll management needs to account for longer losing runs between payouts.