If you think that your selection of horse might not necessarily win, but it might be placed, say in the top three, then on most races with more than just a few horses running bookmakers have an option to place an ‘each way’ bet.
An each way bet is a combination of two bets. These are a bet on the horse to win and a bet on a horse coming in either second or third (or even fourth) place. Reduced odds are paid out on horses that are placed, often 1/3 or ¼ of the odds offered for a win.
Half the amount staked goes on the win bet and half goes on the place bet, so if you made a £10.00 bet, then £5.00 would be staked on a win at the full odds, and £5.00 would be staked on a place at say ¼ odds.
Let’s look at some examples. The current ante-post odds being offered by Paddy Power on Solwhit to win the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival are 4/1. Say we decided to put a total £10.00 each way bet on this horse. We would have wagered £5.00 on Solwhit to win and £5.00 on him coming either second or third. Paddy Power is offerin ¼ odds for a place.
If Solwhit won, we would receive back £5.00 x 4 = £20 for the win part of the bet plus £5.00 x (4 x ¼) = £5.00 for the place part of the bet plus our original stake of £5.00. In total this is £20 + £5.00 + £5.00 = £30.00. Note that if we had just bet on the win our return would have been £10.00 x 4 = £40.00.
If Solwhit finished in either second or third place, we would receive lust the place part of the bet, £5.00 x (4 x ¼) = £5.00 plus our stake for this part of the bet of £5.00 = £10.00. This is the same as our total stake so we won nothing, though we did hedge our bet.
Generally it is not worth betting favourites each way as the odds are too low,
Say on the other hand we went for Medermit to win this race. Paddy Power’s odds are 14/1, so a total each way bet of £10 would return £5.00 x 14 = 70 for the win part, 5.00 x 14 x ¼ = £17.50, plus our stake of £10.00, which is a total of £97.50. If Medermit was placed, then we would receive £22.50, a much better prospect than the first example.
Each way bets are only worth it when the odds are favourable.