Best Bet

The Best Bet pinball machine, produced by Victory Sales Company in 1947, is a one-ball horse-racing payout game, part of a long lineage of similar horse racing titles dating back to the early 1940s. Records indicate Best Bet is actually a conversion built on the chassis of several earlier games, including Bally's '41-Derby', 'Club Trophy', and 'Longacres', as well as Victory Sales' own 'Whirlaway', 'Pimlico', and 'Thorobreds' — making it a late entry in this well-established genre rather than an early one.

As a one-ball payout machine, Best Bet's gameplay centered on wagering-style mechanics rather than flippers or ramps (flippers had not yet been introduced to pinball in 1947): players would shoot a single ball and its landing position determined the payout, echoing the odds-based structure common to horse-racing pinball of the period.

The Best Bet machine reflects the aesthetic conventions of mid-20th-century electromechanical games, with a horse racing theme that was already a popular, well-worn choice by 1947 given its many predecessors. Unfortunately, no specific details about its designer or exact production numbers are known, leaving enthusiasts to appreciate it as a late example in a long chain of horse-racing conversions.