Just wondering what the cut is typically for steakhorses. Not necessarily PRO-level steak horses, which I'm sure can command top dollar. Let's say "very good" players, in the mid-to-upper-600's and up. What's the range?
A 50/50 split is by far the most common split arrangement I have seen. The problem is that even if the backers giving 50/50 splits don't realize it (because they haven't actually systematically kept track of all their wins/losses over time), the majority of these backers are losing money over time doing this. At a 50/50 split you horses have to win 2 out of three times on average, 66.6% win rate, be 2 to 1 favorites, just for the backer to
break even. If your horses are less than 2 to 1 favorites and win less than two thirds of the time, you are losing money.
To be able to make money as a backer with 50/50 splits you have to back players that than can consistently get in games with suckers where they are 2 to 1 favorites, and that doesn't happen near as often as we would like to think. And amazingly, when most players find a game where they are that heavily favored, they somehow find a way to come up with the money themselves and don't want a backer for the matches where they are stealing a lollipop from a baby. Funny how that works. The backers are for the tough matches where you aren't stealing and it could more realistically go either way.
Now lets say you back players who on average have a 60% chance to win (3 to 2 favorite) in the matches you back. That is still pretty heavy favorite and you probably don't consistently back matches with odds quite that high in your favor, but if you do, then at a 70/30 split (70% to the backer, 30% to the player) you will just barely break above even over time.
So if you feel like you are backing matches where you are 60% favored to win, and aren't really backing to make money but just want to be involved in the action and have fun and at least not lose money, then a 70/30 split will more or less keep you even on money. If you feel you typically back matches where you are 60% favorite to win, and are actually trying to make some money doing the backing, then you need an amount of the split that is higher than 70%, 75% of the split if you just want to make a little, 80% of the split if you want to be a little more profitable. And if you feel you are backing matches where on average you are less than 60% favorite, like maybe you average 55% favorite, then you also need more than 70% of the split just to break even and not lose money, and an even higher percentage of the split yet if you want to actually make a little money.
