Each Way Betting Guide – Rules and How to Calculate Winnings?
Gambling is about risk. No matter how knowledgeable you are about the sport you’re betting on, or how much study you have put into carefully evaluating the right price for the football team or horse you are considering betting on, eventually, you will have to take a risk and hand over your money to a bookmaker or sportsbook. From then on, you have no control over the event you have bet on and will be watching and waiting, along with everyone else. Considering the best bookmaker sign up offers can provide some added value against potential losses.
Some punters are better than others at coping with risk and the fluctuations of fortune. But even the most resilient punter might find their confidence wavering in some circumstances. Let’s say you’ve backed a string of longshot horses. Analysing the bets sometime later, you remain convinced that the bets were good, that the prices on those horses were wrong. But they all lost; not necessarily because you were wrong, but because they were still long-shots. A 20/1 horse that should have been 9/1 will still lose 90 percent of the time. But when you’ve backed a number of them in a row and have nothing to show for your efforts, your confidence will inevitably begin to waver.
Introducing the Each Way Solution
That’s where each-way betting can help. Each-way betting is a popular betting strategy, particularly favoured by those who regularly find themselves betting on longshots. Used well, it can help to reduce your losses and increase your winnings.
Let’s say you’ve identified two horses in two different races who are priced at 20/1, but you think it should be nearer 10/1. You back them both to win, but they both finish second by a nose. In terms of finding good bets, you have clearly done well. If their official odds were correct, they shouldn’t be anywhere near winning. But with simple win bets, you will have nothing to show for your work. In this scenario, each-way betting can help by returning a small profit instead of a loss.
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Principles of Each Way Betting
Before you can put this betting style to use, it’s important to be aware of the principles involved, the most important of which is to understand that an each-way bet is actually two bets, not one. In an each-way bet, you are betting on a contender to win and to finish in the places. The actual range of places that count varies between sports and events, but typically in a horse race, it will be the top three. If you bet on a horse each-way in such a race, these are the possible outcomes:
| Horse wins the race Win Bet Wins | Win Bet | Wins |
| Place Bet | Wins | |
| Horse finishes second or third Win Bet Loses | Win Bet | Loses |
| Place Bet | Wins | |
| Horse finishes fourth, or worse Win Bet Loses | Win Bet | Loses |
| Place Bet | Loses |
As you can see, with an each-way bet, you can still record a profit (depending on the odds of the contender involved and the stake you wagered) even if your selection doesn’t win. Of course, you will also be making two bets, instead of the one bet associated with traditional betting.
Each Way Betting and Odds
Naturally, the place part of the bet doesn’t pay out at the same odds as the win portion. To calculate the return on a place part of a wager, you have to divide the selection’s win odds by a certain factor. Often, this is 1/4 or 1/5. Later on, we will give clear examples on how to calculate your profit from an each-way bet, but for now, it is important to remember that your return on the place part of your bet will depend on the odds in the win market. You should also note that for the place part of an each-way bet, it doesn’t matter if your selection finishes first, second or third. If it finishes in the places, the place part of the bet will be calculated in exactly the same way.
How to Bet Each Way
Betting each-way at a betting shop can be complicated as it involves filling out a blank betting slip in the right format, but online bookmakers tend to make it easy to bet each-way.
If you are considering an each-way bet, the first thing to do is to check the each-way terms for the market you are planning to bet in. These will usually be displayed at the top of the page when you open the market. Check how many places the bookmaker is paying out to (this will usually be in the range of three to five) and the fraction that the bookmaker is applying to each-way bets.
Assuming you are still happy to bet your selection each-way, all you need to do is to click on it as you would for a normal win bet. At this point, the selection will appear in your online betting slip. But this time, when you enter your stake, remember that you are effectively making two bets, so the actual amount you wager will be double your stake. When you have entered your stake, there will usually be a box or a button to click to turn your win bet into an each-way bet, with your total stake and your total maximum potential winnings displayed below.
How to Calculate Wins from Each Way Betting
Once you understand the rules of each-way betting, and how it works, the next stage is to work out how to calculate your winnings. This is slightly more complicated than with a simple win bet or other betting typles, as it involves two separate bets, so it is easier to calculate them separately then add them together to produce the overall profit or loss. But to help you grasp the basics, we’ve put together three scenarios covering the three types of outcome possible with each-way betting.
Let’s say you back a horse in a race, where bookmakers are offering to pay out 1/5 of the odds for place bets on horses that are placed in the top three. You back your horse $5 each-way at odds of 10/1, so your total stake is $10. In this case, the horse wins.
The win portion of your bet returns a profit of: $5 x 10 = $50
The place portion returns a profit of: $5 x (10/5) = $10
Your total profit is $60.
At the start of the Premier League season, you think Chelsea are a good bet to finish in the top three, but you aren’t sure that they are a good bet to win the competition. Their odds are 10/1, but in the Premier League Winners’ market, your bookmaker is offering to pay out 1/5 the odds down to the third place, so you back them at $5 each-way. Chelsea have a good season but end up second.
The win portion of your bet returns a loss of $5
The place portion returns a profit of $5 x (10/5) = $10
Your total profit is $5.
Before Wimbledon begins you are convinced that Novak Djokovic will be able to reach the final, but for additional insurance, you decide to back him each-way with a bookmaker that is offering to pay out at 1/4 the odds for any player that finishes in the top two. You back Djokovic each-way for $5 at odds of 2/1. Unfortunately, Djokovic is knocked out by Rafael Nadal in an epic semi-final.
The win portion of your bet returns a loss of $5
The place portion returns a loss of $5
Your total loss is $10.
The Pros and Cons of Each Way Betting
The most obvious benefit of betting each-way is that it enables you to make a profit even if your selection doesn’t win. This is particularly useful if you are betting on a selection at long odds, or if you are the type of punter who prefers a regular stream of winners. It also offers a degree of assurance for situations when you are convinced that your selection has a good chance so that you don’t lose out completely if it narrowly fails to win.
There are, of course, disadvantages to each-way betting. Each-way terms offered by bookmakers aren’t always generous, and for short odds bets, you can end up making a loss even if your selection finishes in the places. Another problem, particularly for newcomers, is forgetting that an each-way bet is effectively two bets, with a double stake, so if you bet each-way regularly and back a sequence of losers, your losses will mount more quickly than with traditional win betting.
The Each Way Accumulator
Accumulator bets are popular with many punters, particularly those who bet with small stakes as they offer the chance to bring up a big return for a small outlay. But as anyone who has ever placed an accumulator knows, this can be a frustrating way to bet. It only takes one of your selections to be beaten narrowly for the whole bet to fail. One solution is to try an each-way accumulator. This works in the same way as a normal each-way bet. It is effectively two separate accumulators, but one is betting on all of your selections to place. That way, if one of your horses finishes second and the others all win, you will gain the consolation of collecting on the each-way part of the bet.
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Each Way Betting Variety
Each-way betting is obviously confined to markets where there a significant number of contenders, and it is most popular with horse racing betting. Punters who bet each-way on horse racing regularly will know that there are standard terms that bookmakers generally apply. For instance, each-way bets in handicap races are generally paid out at 1/4 the odds, while non-handicaps, which are, in theory, more predictable, usually offer 1/5 the odds for each-way bets.
And the number of places on which a bookmaker will pay out vary according to the size of the field, ranging from two places in fields of seven or fewer to four places in fields of more than sixteen, and in the Grand National, which typically features a field of forty runners, some bookmakers will pay 1/4 the odds down to the fifth place.
Each-way betting can also be applied to other sports, where it mainly features in tournament outright markets. In football betting, many punters make a series of each-way bets or each-way accumulators attempting to predict the winners of a number of tournaments before the season begins. And each-way betting in golf is particularly popular, given the high number of competitors in each tournament and the longer odds that result.
Each Way Betting Conclusion
Some punters prefer the simplicity of the straight win bet, but there is no doubt that betting each-way can offer some advantages. It is particularly handy when you are betting at long odds in a horse race or are trying to find the winner of the Masters, or if you just want to reduce your risk on a particular bet. The shrewd punter never discounts the each-way option and uses it to their advantage.