My friend and I had a flutter on the horses yesterday. The horse I chose came last by such a distance that it was rather funny. We both placed “each way” bets and neither of us won a thing, although we had some fun giggly excitement. I was wondering, though. I know that “each way” means that I still win something if the horse comes second or third. There are still a few things unclear to me though.
If the horse had come first, would I have gotten more money on my “each way” bet than if I had just backed the horse “to win”?
If the horse had come second, would I have received full odds or some part of the odds?
Ditto for if it had come third?
My friend and I are “too cool” to ask the males in the shared house we live in as they will laugh at our girlie ignorance. So any answers on the Dope, so we can impress them with out betting knowledge?
From what I can remember you can tell from the race the “each way” odds in advance.
If you place a £5 bet on a horse to win and it wins at 12/1 then you get £60 + your stake back.
If you place a £5 bet on a horse “each way” you get a % of the odds if the horse finishes 2nd or 3ed (rewards for 4th too where there’s a large field of horses running) but this will normally be a third or a quarter of the original odds so it’s as though your horse won at 3/1.
Remember though that a £5 bet will cost you £10 to place
In the states, single horse bets are win, place, or show. If you want to cover your horse, you bet “across the board” which is really just asking to bet all three options, so a $5 bet across the board will cost $15.
Each horse has odds for each finish, obviously with higher payouts for win than place than show. A win bet pays a win, a place bet pays a win or place, and a show bet pays win, place or show.
For simplicity sake, lets say the odds on your horse are 4:1/3:1/2:1 and you bet $5 across the board. Your $15 bet pays $45 for a win, $25 for a place and $10 for a show.
Pookah, do you pay 2 or 3 times the bet value for an each way bet? It sounds like another term for across the board, but Ponster’s posts indicate that it’s different.
I’m having a hard time understanding the logic behind the odds if an each way bet pays the same as a win if the horse wins. Ponster are you saying a place bet doesn’t pay if the horse wins? And if you’re really betting to win or place, why do you get paid on a show? And possible payment on a 4th place finish?! Unheard of here.
Well, I don’t know what “show” means? Surely it doesn’t mean betting on the horse running at all or does it? If a horse doesn’t run at all, you just get your money back. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
To bet a fiver each way, will cost you a tenner, so double. If I understand what Ponster explained “win” is not “place” as well, only second or third (possibly fourth) count as place. So of course you get more money if your horse wins(as your odds will be better), but if it comes first it doesn’t also come second, third etc, so you don’t get extra for that. Am I reading you right, Ponster?
You can bet “across the board”, that’s a bet to win, place or show. If the horse wins, you collect on all 3 bets, if the horse finished second, you collect on 2 bets, if the horse comes in third, you collect on one bet.
You can figure out fairly close how much the win bet will pay by the horse’s odds. If the horse has odds of 5/1, a $2 bet to win pays $12 (5 times your $2, plus your original $2 bet). But it usually doesn’t pay out exactly even, a 5/1 win ticket might pay $12.20 for example.
The place and show (2nd and 3rd place) bets are harder to figure, it depends on the pool (how much was bet to place and show on ALL horses). There are rare times when a horse wins and a place bet pays more than a win bet on that horse. This can happen when there are too many bets on that horse to win, and the win pool is not large enough to pay more than the minimum prize ($2.10 for a $2 bet). So if you see a horse with win odds of say 1/5 or 2/5, there’s a good chance he will pay out more on a place ticket than a win ticket (provided he wins the race or course).
Sorry, a “show” is a 3rd place finish. “Placing” here means only a 2nd place finish, which is what threw me off. So an each way bet is half on a win, and half on 2nd, 3rd and possibly 4th place finish.
So, the other half of the bet there is really a hedge against a win, and here there are fixed odds for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place finish. Interesting. Does my example make more sense now? Win on across the board means (4+3+2)$5 = $45, place means (3+2)$5 = $25 and show means 2*$5 = $10.
Do you have multi-horse bets? Here, you can bet Exacta (horse 1 and 2 in order), Quinella (1, 2 and 3 in any order), Trifecta (1, 2 and 3 in order), and Superfecta (1, 2, 3 and 4 in order). Superfecta is the only bet that ever takes the 4th place horse into account. There’s also a “daily double” (pick winner in 2 specified races) and a “pick 3” (pick winner in 3 specified races).
See, my problem is that I know how to bet, I just don’t know how to pick the right horses.
Verboten, I’m sure we’ve got the multi-horse thing over here, but like I said, I’m one of these people that bets twice a year on the big famous races and picks the horse by the nice colours of the jockey’s costume.
So it would seem that the difference between “each way” and “across the board” is that “each way” is like three separate bets only paying on “first” OR a “second” OR a “third” but not all at the same time, whereas “across the board” seems to go from the highest win and pays out anything below it on top of that. This is going by what Ponster had to say on “each way”. Funnily enough my friend did think we’d get something for second place as well if the horse came first, so that it would be more like your “across the board”. But she is quite the optimist and might have been dreaming. It might also be different here in Ireland than where **Ponster ** is. Bookies websites are very unclear on the matter.
By the way, I don’t know if “place” means second and third here. I was inferring. I have never heard any of these terms used here, but like I explained, my knowledge doesn’t mean much.
I’m quite good at picking the winners by the pretty colours and the way they walk, but as I don’t gamble, it does me no good whatsoever.
Do you have Tote in the USA? Does anyone actually know how they work it out? I know that if you win you get a % of the kitty, so that in effect it’s like playing the lottery and your number comes up if the horse wins. Can anyone explain it to me better than that?
Just asked one of the lads in the office (girlie pride be damned) and it turns out we do indeed get more money if a horse is backed each way and it comes first than if we had just backed the horse to win. I’m certain of it, as the guy in question had a substantial win in just such a situation just last week. So it is roughly equivalent to Verboten’s “across the board” bet.
Just found a site that explains it (a little difficult to follow though) that says that when your horse wins the race and it was an ‘each-way’ bet you win more than you would normally have won if you just backed to win.
Animal Kingdom payed $43.80 on a $2 bet to win so you would get $2190 for that bet.
Looking it up, I see that Animal Kingdom payed $19.60 on a $2 bet to place and $13.00 on a $2 bet to show. So for the place bet you would receive $980. For the show bet you would receive $650.
So all total you would receive $3820 giving you a profit of $3520.
The win, place, and show are each a separate pool so it is possible for show to pay more than place or place to pay more than win. There is even a betting system that looks for times that the place bets on a horse are not as large a fraction of the total place pool as the win bets are of the win pool and then bets on those horses who are theoretically paying more to place than they should be.
There are also times when the track loses money on show bets. It’s called a minus pool, and it usually happens in a race with a small field with a heavy favorite. Plenty of people will bet the favorite to show, and it will take up most of the show pool. The track is required to pay a minimum of $2.10 for $2 bet and the numbers can work out so that there’s not enough in the pool to cover that.
I don’t think this accurately answers the question.
An each way bet is 2 separate bets combined.
A bet that your horse will come first
A bet that your horse will be in the first three (or four).
If your horse comes first, then you win **both **bets.
You win your first bet at 12/1, and you also win your second bet at 3/1.
If your horse comes second, then you lose your stake on the first bet, but win the second bet at 3/1.
so, to answer the OP’s question,
Yes and no. A £5 each way bet will cost you £10. You will get *more *money for a win than if you had only bet £5 to win. But you get *less *money than if you had bet the entire £10 to win.
I know this is a years-old thread, and the OP might not even post here anymore, but I hope it helps.
