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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bobster 1 February 1, 2017 at 2:40 pm

Been looking at a couple of the types of races described (i.e. where the place market is going to be lower on the exchange), and while that seems true to an extent, the win markets on those horses are way off on the exchange (I guess because the bookies are trying to fix the problem with the place market).

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deathstar 25 February 1, 2017 at 2:41 pm

Same here Chris, and Corals have actually reversed my gubbing!

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Chris 19 February 1, 2017 at 2:43 pm

Exactly right which is why I say lay the win as early as possible. More often than not, you’ll get close-ish matches on outsiders early in the day but find they will probably drift out closer to the off. Thats why its important to take good, early prices. Obviously this is far from being a safe method but its done me proud so far. The others I’ve either let run and taken a loss but tried to lay in play.

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deathstar 25 February 1, 2017 at 2:57 pm

To be fair, this is exactly why I say its not for newbies. I know nothing about horses but once you have done a few of these or by watching extra place races you will get a feel for the markets and how they move. I’ve mentioned before but its probably worth saying in this thread, Smarkets seem to have the lowest place prices about 8 minutes before the race and then they seem to get propped up again, whereas betfair will continue to level out until right up to the start.

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devans 0 February 1, 2017 at 3:21 pm

without doubt it’s one of the most profitable markets out here at the moment.
Yesterday I think it was in the 3.10 at Southern. Backed a horse at 12s around midday. Minutes before the off layed it off around 7s.
Place market was 3.2 down to 1.6ish.
Picking those steamers is the difficult part though.

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devans 0 February 1, 2017 at 3:27 pm

Also don’t be turned off and rush for the lay if you start seeing the odds start on drift. Wait for the bigger picture.
#togetherasone #bookiebashing

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Chris 19 February 1, 2017 at 3:50 pm

Murphys Nails 41/24 in the 4.30 Kempton right now at Stan James.

See my previous point about Stan being slow as hell to update odds.

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jamieek 0 February 1, 2017 at 6:08 pm

“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”

Firstly thanks deathstar for the great guide. 1. When you say back early, how early you talking. the morning of the race? 2. How can you back and lay straight away when the exchange prices don’t even have any or reasonable lay prices until say 30 mins before the race? 3. When you say prices likely/always come in sharply before the race are you referring specifically to the place part or both. Wouldn’t making money be really easy if this was the case without even using a bookmaker. If the exchange is offering 4 on place and you know its likely to drop sharply you could just stick £100 on and lay when it drops? Sorry if any these are daft questions

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deathstar 25 February 1, 2017 at 6:53 pm

I wrote the first part of this guide for E/W betting, not specifically for arbing, so when I say back and lay straight away, it depends what you are actually doing. It can be applied to many sports not just horses, golf, motor racing, football and tennis also do each way for tournaments, and of course for extra places. these are rarely bad races, so you would want to back and lay when you can as there won’t be any arbs. the odds may come in a bit but not in any useful way for arbing, so best to just find close matches and take the loss, as you are using this method to profit in a different way.
And yes, usually win and place come in, although sometimes a horse will lengthen – but if that happens the place odds are usually low enough to break even, even if they are going out too.
Maybe someone else could answer about trading on the exchange, I haven’t really looked at it to be honest but I do seem to remember someone mentioning it a while ago.

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jamieek 0 February 1, 2017 at 7:46 pm

I think i get what your saying. To be clear I am talking about the each way betting arb. These “bad races” as you call them Bobster and Chris were just talking about that the bookies giving poor odds on the horses to counteract the place arb. So if you take an early price you will not have this problem since the bookies only drop the odds in the build up to the race then move then a bit closer to the exchange price at the end. Am i understanding this correctly? If so what constitutes as early price is it the day before the race?

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deathstar 25 February 1, 2017 at 8:05 pm

The thing is, E/W arbing is an artform in itself. One skill that comes with practise and experience is the ability to find close odds matches, which again is why I advise against newbies jumping in with both feet.
I personally look at the horses in the middle of the field and see how far apart things are. don’t forget, some arbs are so good you can take a big loss on the win and still profit. I posted one yesterday that was 17/19.5 but still offered £5 for every £50 you could get on. If id seen that earlier it could well have been 19/19.5. You have to find which bookie is offering the most, rather than seeing what a particular bookie has. Its also personal choice for when you place your bets, I’m not convinced there is a “best time” as such, but mid morning is when the bookies seem to settle into the same sort of price range.

Oh, and “bad each way race” is a bookie term, not mine. I think I would call them “good each way races” 🙂

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beesty2016 3 February 1, 2017 at 8:51 pm

Excellent guide deathstar much better than how I explained it back in June. It’s amazing to see how many people are on the bandwagon now and making decent profits from it. Well done!! I do fear though that a law will come in changing the races to a 1/6 1/7 or even an 1/8 of the odds in the future. Also I saw someone questioned my profits. That’s fair enough but I was doing 100s ew at the height of this and feel that bet365 had me as a real mug better. I also did hit a couple of extra places to a massive extent and was doing what I called crossing where I’m doing multiple horses in a race and saving on commission when one placed and the other didn’t.

Other things to consider is BOG even if you find one early in the day that may only make a quid or 2 due to low bookie odds there is a chance that it will drift and you can win a bit on the place market. E.g a 9/4 that goes off at 5/2 will make you an extra fiver if it places or 25 quid if it wins off 100 ew stakes.

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deathstar 25 February 1, 2017 at 9:08 pm

thanks beesty, and hats off to you because your guide gave me the impetus to go for it!

I fear you may be right, sky have been doing an extra place race with 1/5 odds most days lately which I actually think is much worse value than just having standard places with 1/4. don’t really know who they are trying to appeal to either, could well be a trap.
I’m not sure if the rules on place payouts are actually governed by someone or whether they are convention, but I think sky have found a way round it.

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MonkeyTennis 1 February 1, 2017 at 9:33 pm

This is a really good summary, deathstar.

One area to clarify: in your first reply you said “Remember though that if you are betting on a few horses in the same race, you don’t need to match ALL of the bets, just the highest odds because of combined liabilities”

If you backed Gubstar at 50/1 and Superhorse at 10/1, but you only laid Gubstar, then if neither horse wins you’re down, aren’t you? Or did you mean something different?

Also, my experience of Betfair place odds is that they too bottom out about 8 minutes from the off, then start going up again – but for outsiders only. Shorter priced horses tend to keep falling. I think this is explained by the volume traded. The more likely a horse to place, the more is traded earlier, giving a tighter variance. Longer shots are subject to greater variance for longer; their markets mature less quickly. (Grey Warbler yesterday came right down to 5.2 to place about 10 minutes before but went off about 6)

I can’t see bookies changing the place rules again soon. ‘Good’ races outnumber ‘bad’ ones, and the each way bet is the classic mug punt. Making it even less appealing would be shooting themselves in the foot.

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Mr M 19 February 1, 2017 at 11:12 pm

This a great thread, thanks deathstar and there have been some great EW threads in general recently so thanks to all that are contributing. I feel that I am close to getting this, but I am still not quite there yet.

One of my main issues is having the time to check odds whilst at work and often miss opportunities. But also, getting enough on at the bookies. I did manage to get on Murpheys Nails at 41/34 for the win, waited until about 5 mins out and got 9/3.4 on the place. However, I could only got £5 on ew. Underlayed and would have made £27 if the horse had placed (which it didn’t). I keep seeing people say how much money they are making on this, but I am having no luck with longshots placing so can’t help but think I should have taken the guaranteed £7-8. How are you guys getting more money on, multiple accounts, or bets in shop?

I saw someone mention trading the place earlier (or at least I think that is what they meant) does anyone do this? The place was around 6/6.6 with 30 mins to go and steamed in to 3.4 (may have got lower) I’d probably have been able to get more than a fiver on that, as the place coming in tends to be common.

Lastly, and as suggested on here, I am trying to pick the races the night before to watch in the morning at work (when I can). So I would be grateful for anyone’s view on the races I’m looking at for tomorrow:

Clonmel 13:20
Towcester 13:35
Wincanton 14:35

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