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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dungpoodle 0 February 8, 2017 at 2:21 am

great post,i recently have been restricted on 365 to 35p took 13 grand off them since xmas using a slightly different method when ew punting,i bet without the fav or 2 favs and back ew i will post an example here of the prices and how i won big the race was a novice chase at lingfeild,here goes betting without 2 favs
next in 1to50
next in 28to1
next in 28to1
next in 200to1
next in 200to1
next in 200to1
next in 200to1
so 1point for me is to get 100 back the place on each horse. 28to1 quater the odds 2places means putting 12.50 ew the 200to1s is 2 ew,so for an outlay of 66 pound at least one had to get placed to get me 100 back barring an act of god and if the win bit comes in boom which it did as the 1to50 shot fell 2 out which also got me another placed..
the 1to50 shot was 1to4 on betfair place only 3 places,so i won a very nice amount.365 are clueless pricing up this market its something you guys need to look at very seriously.
i dont mind telling people now as i cant get a bet on now with most firms .GOOD LUCK

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 4:12 pm

I havent understood your post dungpoodle but it sounds to me that you said that you made £13,000 off 35p stakes on bet365 in 6 and a half weeks.

I don’t believe that but maybe you have something – if you could explain it.

Is this only for bad e/w races? You are betting e/w without the two favourites. So in a ten horse race you still can get a payout if your horse finishes 5th if both favs finish ahead of him?

Is there anyway to lay these bets? Or to check which are good value/bad value?

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 4:22 pm

Ah right. I see now, you won that before you were restricted to 35p and now you are restricted you don’t mind sharing. Sorry I read it like you won all this while restricted already.

I think by leaving out the favourites you are making a bad e/w race into an even worse e/w race and taking advantage somehow. The trick I don’t get is how to identify the horses that are value given that there is no market on the exchange for these markets.

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 4:27 pm

And by betting on a pretty obscure market the prices are not being corrected as they usually are on the normal e/w market when the e/w snipers start flooding money into the market and the bookies start shortening their prices drastically so as not to be overexposed on the to place bet. So may be able to keep more value for longer.

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MbPunter 18 February 8, 2017 at 4:32 pm

I think what hes saying is you can back every horse to lock in a profit in that specific example.

2 horses.
£12.50 ew at 28/1, 1/4 odds for top 2.

4 horses.
£2 ew at 200/1.

So £66 outlay. Worst case is £100 return. 12.50 at 7/1 for the place.

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 4:40 pm

Thanks MBPunter. I finally got it. But you wont find a race like that very often with a 1/50 fav!

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sleepless 8 February 8, 2017 at 5:11 pm

Looks like he found 130 races @ £100 return.
Say 100 to allow for winners

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 5:17 pm

Nah sleepless. @ 100 return – 66 outlay it is £34 profit. So would need to have found a lot more races than that.

I think he was betting at higher stakes and got lucky, maybe he had £660 on that race so £125 on the 28/1 shot gives over 3000 right there on the win and 1000 on the place and the other which placed is another 1000. So that’s half the profit right there on one race. But you cant have a strategy based on one freak race where the 1/50 fav falls ….

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 5:33 pm

Is this an actual real horse at 1/50 or a made up example. It’s probably an example but then you got so specific about how he fell 2 out.

I can’t see any horse that short favourite this year. Douvan was 1/14 last week in Punchestown and won, but I haven’t seen anything like 1/50 all year and I have recorded most odds as I track them for spotting early price value.

I can even tell you Buveu D’air was decimal odds 1.06 on 31 Dec in Haydock 13:10 which was abandoned. But no other horse I have recorded with shorter odds than either of those.

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MonkeyTennis 1 February 8, 2017 at 5:40 pm

@Fog, the 1/50 refers to the odds of the 3rd fav winning if you discount the fav and 2nd fav. Not the odds of it winning the race. So if that one fell it leaves a place open to another outsider.

I think. I haven’t thought it all through though and I’m heavily restricted at 365.

But definitely worth looking at, thanks for sharing @dungpoodle

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sleepless 8 February 8, 2017 at 5:41 pm

He said took 365 for £13,000 meaning return, not profit?.

Anyway you’re right – his figures are weird. He needs to give us more detail.

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 6:02 pm

Probably this race then?

https://www.attheraces.com/racecard/Lingfield/10-January-2017/1300

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sleepless 8 February 8, 2017 at 6:13 pm

You continue to impress me Fog!.

If you take out the 2 favourites, surely the odds for the 100/1 shots coming in will drop significantly.

365 must have a program that can recalc. odds, based on probabilities, if a horse is taken out the equation. Bet you could do a spreadsheet for us Fog.

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sleepless 8 February 8, 2017 at 6:18 pm

PS his Act of God is if all his selections fell, refused etc. and only the two favouites finished. Rare, but quite possible, maybe?.

btw what are the rules for number of places when “betting w/o”?
Is it the number of runners less 1 or 2 and then what if NR. The mind boggles.

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FoG_BLoG 47 February 8, 2017 at 6:53 pm

The 100/1 were all 200/1 all morning, they tend to come in a lot close to the race as the each way snipers flood the market, which is a problem that the ‘without’ markets probably don’t have. Even the 20/1 shot was 50/1 in the morning.

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