Guide to Each Way Betting (with Q+A)

With Cheltenham coming up, I’ve decided to write this guide and the subsequent thread to hopefully stop other threads getting hijacked by E/W betting. So all questions in here please.
I’ve deliberately put this in the matched betting forum instead of the newbie forum because I don’t see it as a newbie skill. No offence to any newcomers, but there really is a knack to this. You have to be very confident with horse betting before you do this because if it goes wrong, it can go VERY wrong. You have been warned. Also, this needs quite a big float (1K+) so if you’re just starting out, look away now.

Each way betting is used for two main reasons, when there is an extra place race and when there is what bookies call a “bad each way race”
hopefully you have read Matts guide to extra places
https://matchedbettingblog.com/extra-place-offers/

but i’ll quickly go through the basics. First things first, When you place the bet you will notice that double the stake is taken. This is because when you bet each way you are actually placing two bets, one to win and one to place. Once you have placed your back bet, you now have to place TWO lay bets, one to cover the win part and one for the place part. Obviously, the value of each is half of your original back bet. You need to find the terms of the race and find out how many places they are paying, and at what fraction of odds. This is usually clearly stated.

To find the place odds (in decimal odds), you subtract 1, divide by the fraction of odds, then add the 1 back on.

Lets take Gubstar, who’s being offered at 16/1 with 1/4 place odds and 3 places.

16/1 = 17 decimal
17-1 = 16,
/4 = 4
+1 = 5
so the place odds for Gubstar is 5.

just to be redundant, here’s a harder one

say he’s going off at 11/4 and its only 1/5 odds

11/4 = 3.75 decimal
-1 = 2.75
/5 = 0.55
+1 = 1.55
so now his odds to place are 1.55

Now you know the place odds being offered you can easily compare them to the exchange and lay accordingly.

Doing an extra place race is pretty straight-forward, find a horse with close odds, back, lay, hope! Its usually much better to do several horses over several bookies for these offers to increase your chances of hitting the extra place. Don’t forget, most gubbed accounts can still do the extra place offers.

To take advantage of a bad each race (E/W arbing) you have to understand how it works. Basically a bookie will offer very short odds on the favourite, and unfairly long odds on the others. That is fine on the win market, maybe the other horses really don’t have a chance (especially Gubstar), but because the other horses have a very good chance of coming second or third, by offering a fraction of the odds for the win, the numbers just don’t work anymore. Therefore the odds offered by the exchange are a much truer reflection of the odds on a horse placing, and much shorter than the bookie offers by default because of the combined nature of the each way bet. I hope that makes sense.

The things to look for in a bad each way race is a very very short favourite (about 2.8 and below), a couple of hopefuls (around 4/1ish) and a few complete outsiders (100/1+)

There’s a couple of ways to play these, either back and lay straight away, or you can back early and lay much closer to the off. The price almost always comes in sharply around ten- five minutes before the race and it takes nerves of steel (again not for newbies). You can also choose to fully lay to guarantee profit, or underlay to win more if you place and break even if you don’t.

The problem with this approach is the danger of non-runners, which are two-fold.

First, the bookie will apply “rule 4” which is where they will cut the odds AFTER YOU HAVE BET to take account of the fact there is less competition. This is fine if you have backed and laid at the same time as the exchange will recalculate as well. But if you haven’t, you need to take account of the reduction and lay accordingly. (the bookie will usually list how much they have reduced by on the race page). You can imagine the havok this causes when it happens 3 minutes out and you haven’t laid. It can save a lot of trouble to just underlay when this happens and hope you place.

Second problem is when you have a race with the number of runners on the threshold of the place market rules. A race of more than 8 will pay out on 3 places but if one or more horses drops out and the number of runners drops below 8, the place odds will drop to 2 BUT THE EXCHANGE WILL STAY THE SAME. I assume this is because people have bet on where it will place, so its not the exact same market. Similarly for a race with 16 down to 15 or less.

Handy guide to places:

Handicaps of more than 15 runners 1/4 4
Handicaps of 12-15 runners 1/4 3
All other races of more than 8 runners 1/5 3
All races of 5-7 runners 1/4 2
All races of less than 5 runners – win only

When things go wrong.
Betfair have various markets for various places, and even an each way market, so you might find a lay that is not too much of a loss should things go wrong. You can also keep an eye on what the horses SP will be and hope for a favourable BOG (possibly). Some bookies offer cash out as well.

Further reading:
https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/my-theory-beyond-matched-betting/
https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/ew-arbing/
https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/early-prices/
https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/the-bookie-angel-twitter/

HTH guys, and please chip in if I’ve missed anything.

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deathstar
25

February 1, 2017 at 12:01 pm

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Scorer15 0 February 22, 2017 at 3:26 pm

There’s a lot of great info here but would someone be able to put a real or fictional example step by step to help me get my head round it?

For the extra place races it seems simpler because you can win at both the bookies and the exchange and I get that part.

For e/w arbing effectively I am trying to keep the QL on the win to a minimum, and then underlay the place to such an extent that I make a profit, is that how we get the value from the market? Also, if you were placing £25 on a horse, what kind of odds would you be looking at matching, QL etc?

Thanks!

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supert 4 February 23, 2017 at 11:39 pm

Scorer easy example…. say a race 1/4 odds you back £10 ew on a 16/1… so price at bookies is 17 for win 5.0 for place….
If you ignore commission and can lay win 17.0 and place 4.0 then if wins or places you make £0 on win and £10 on place… if loses you are level in theory minus commission….
Im personally happy just to take a commission loss but that is how i play them but with larger stakes

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supert 4 February 23, 2017 at 11:40 pm

Sorry meant to add lay the win for £10 and the place for £10

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sleepless 9 February 24, 2017 at 12:51 pm

dungpoodle – if you’re still around. Reckon 365 have twigged about withouts.
14.10 Execter looked prime candidate but withouts odds are quite short.

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Scorer15 0 February 24, 2017 at 1:45 pm

Cheers Supert,

I just wasn’t sure if it was that simple as looking for the arb or whether I was missing something else. I think I need to just watch a few races and see how the odds move nearer the start.

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dungpoodle 0 February 24, 2017 at 10:09 pm

sorry sleepless been busy and yes i think your right 365 have twigged in the 210 exeter was a prime race normally ,i made 170 that race by backing them all to win wo the fav using sky bet for the rags they went massive prices got 11to4 liantara with hills and 10 to11 cascaye 2 place only on bet victor,,,had to put over a grand on to make my 170.
also sleepless theres not been many races suitable recently i went 3 weeks leading up to xmas without a bet,then from jan1st to roughly jan 15th they were everyday or every otherday.

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sleepless 9 March 3, 2017 at 12:15 pm

Copy from a BillHill post

For the record, I’ve found the BOG times are as follows, (N/T = no time limit)

188Bet 10am
10Bet 9am
Bet365 NT
BetBright NT
Betfred 8am
BetVictor NT
BetWay 9am
Coral NT
GentingBet NT
Ladbrokes 9am
NetBet 9am
PaddyPower NT
Sky Bet NT
Sun Bets 9am
Totesports 8am
William Hill NT

Now don’t quote me on these times, as bookies have a habit of changing terms without telling anyone, but I hope this helps. But unless you are with 188 then anytime after 9am is safe for all BOG bets. Obviously bookies only want people who don’t have a job to go to, to get these offers ?

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wottsy 4 March 4, 2017 at 9:35 am

Someone might have mentioned this, but a quick way of working out the place odds on a 1/5 odds race without a calculator is to take away 1, divide by 10, double it then add the 1 back on. Lot easier than dividing by 5 as you just move the decimal place.

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westmatch 29 March 10, 2017 at 11:32 am

With regard the extra place races, Betfair do e/w odds aswell as win and place only.
Wouldn’t it be easier to lay e/w and hope for the extra place or am I missing something better in laying on the separate win and place markets?

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ncfcmikey
Blocked
1 March 31, 2017 at 2:24 pm

MY Q after reading the My theory beyond MB (there’s no official guide ay?)
1) Firstly in a bad ew race – are you looking to put your money on the favourite?
2) What time should I place my bets at for example the night before the race I’ve made a list of bad ew races. First one starts at 2.40 at Newbury for example. When do I place my bet at the bookies? I heard you lay the win part immediately and the place part few mins before the off?
3) Does that bookie angel still work or shall I find the races myself?
4) I wanna start with small stakes at the beginning – is 5(10 as a whole) EW good enough at the begg.?

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orlandosteve 2 March 31, 2017 at 2:34 pm

1. Think you have missed the point.You need to back a horse that is an outsider to win but has a good chance of placing, so the favourite is the horse to avoid-that’s the one making it a bad e/w race in the first place.

2. Pick a horse that has close win odds with bookie/exchange back e/w and lay the win at that point. Could be the night before, could be the morning, could be an hour before….just when they are close. Lay the place when you think you have the maximum profit but usually close to the off.

3.dont know, not looked at their feed in ages.

4. Not even close to enough, you will earn 20p if your lucky, add two noughts to your figure you will be a lot closer.

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ncfcmikey
Blocked
1 March 31, 2017 at 2:42 pm

Thanks Steve, for the beginner budget part I mean the first few days while I’m learning!

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orlandosteve 2 March 31, 2017 at 2:56 pm

Oh sure, to find your feet use those low stakes, you won’t win much but you won’t lose much either. That would be ideal to get a “feel” for it.

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FoG_BLoG 49 March 31, 2017 at 3:02 pm

Small stakes are good for practising and getting used to the process.

Be very careful and disciplined because things can get messy real fast when dealing with big stakes. You could lose 100’s or 1000’s in a flash if you lay the wrong horse, if smarkets crashes, or if a horse becomes a non runner.

You’ll learn more from doing than from asking. I mean ask away but also get stuck in with a few races and you’ll see how it works.

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deathstar 25 March 31, 2017 at 3:54 pm

what steve and fog said. with the emphasis on starting slowly. yes do £5 e/w until you get the hang of it, and remember to look at the things you need to be aware of, for example how the market moves throughout the day and then in the last few minutes, and how much liquidity there is on the place market and how it piles in closer to the off. (also look at whether there would’ve been enough to cover your bet if you had laid x10 as much)
As fog says, the best teacher is experience. Also, don’t get disheartened if it does go wrong, once you’ve done a few you will see your cash going up. after all the best way to learn is by making mistakes! There are factors out of your control as well (Like non-runners cutting the places) but its better to get the hang of getting out of situations when there isn’t much riding on the outcome.

Also, to quickly point out, bookie angel do things slightly differently: they look for badly priced horses that they think will drop in price to start with, back them e/w, and then wait for the price to come down, and then underlay so they are winning more if the horse places and breaking even if not. I (and I think beesty) generally lay the win at the same time (ish) as the back – so obviously the back and lay are pretty tight, and then wait for just the place part to come in. Although its the same mechanics, their theory is not quite the same as they don’t lay the initial win part off until the price comes in – this takes a lot more skill and knowledge of horses than i possess. (thats not to say they are not worth following, i’m just pointing out its a slightly different strategy and probably the reason why there hasn’t been much from them by the looks of it, obviously you need a lot of criteria to be met for that to work, right race, right horse, right conditions etc)

Good luck.

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