Bookies want you to help yourself to their free bet offers! But what are the types of bets on offer and when should we place certain bets over others? Get this right and you’re well on your way to becoming a betting pro.
Singles Only
Punters have never had it so good! These days, there are a plethora of online bookmakers waiting to take your bets and willing to pay you to join their service - Let’s start with singles, the first choice of every discerning punter. Bookies hate singles; I should know, I used to be one!
Think about it; you’re betting on the performance of one horse and, if the horse wins, you get paid out, end of story. That may be stating the obvious, but it needs pointing out that single bets are more successful than any other type of bet. Consequently, bookies would much rather you placed a multiple bet (bets involving more than one race), more of these later. Let’s face it, finding one winner is hard enough, but two? The message is simple; don’t be greedy, stick to single bets and you’ll be a winner in the long run.
Each Way A Pleasure
Of course, you can improve your chances of winning by placing your single bet each way. Here, you are effectively placing two bets on the same horse; half your stake on the win, half on the place. So, a £10 each way bet will cost you £20 (2x£10) and, if the horse wins at 10/1, you will show a profit of £100 (10x£10) for the win part, and either £20 or £25 for the place part of the bet, depending on the place terms - and the place terms can make the difference between winning and losing!
The majority of races have place terms of one fifth the odds. So, in the above example, the place part of the bet pays out at 2/1 (1/5 of 10/1). More preferential place terms of one quarter the odds are available on races with less than eight runners*, and handicaps of 12 or more runners. Obviously, having an each way bet gives you a better chance of a return as your selection can finish second, third (races of eight or more runners) or even fourth (handicaps with 16 or more runners), and you will get paid out. But does that mean we should bet each way all the time?
That depends on how much ‘risk’ you want to take but, generally, the bigger the price the stronger the case for betting each way. Personally, I will not consider an each way bet unless the place part of the bet pays even money or better, i.e., a 5/1 shot at 1/5 odds (or 4/1 at 1/4 odds). Anything below that, and my money is ‘on the nose’ (win only) every time. Many bookmakers offer enhanced place terms on certain races, so look out for them!
*in races of four runners or less, each way betting is not available.
Speculate To Accumulate
Of course, single bets are never going to provide you with lottery-style returns, and that’s why many punters (generally losing ones) like to place multiple bets, which is effectively a bet on more than one selection. There’s nothing like the buzz you get when the last leg of your accumulator bet crosses the line in first place (if my memory serves me well!). Therefore, if you simply can’t resist a speculative punt once in a while (good luck!), here’s some of the more popular ones:
Double - essentially, a bet on two selections in two different races - win or each way (2 bets). To improve your chances of winning, try ’perming’ the bet, i.e.,’ have more than one selection in each race. Two selections in each race would be 4 (2x2) bets instead of one.
Treble - three races, three winners required. Nice if they all win (times your stake by the odds) but, as with all accumulator bets, can be heartbreaking. Again, try ’perming’ the bet. Two selections in each race would be 8 (2x2x2) bets instead of one.
Yankee - four selections in six doubles, four trebles and an accumulator. You need two winners to get a return.
Lucky 15 - a yankee plus four singles, but with a ‘consolation’ if you only find one winner (normally double the odds, sometimes treble - shop around!).
Super Yankee - five selections in 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and an accumulator. A ‘Lucky 31’ (cunningly named by the bookies!) is a super yankee with singles.
Heinz - six selections, fully covered, doubles, trebles etc - 57 bets.
Forecast Warning
Most of us would be pleased to back the winner, never mind trying to forecast the first and second in a race! No wonder bookies will happily take forecast and tricast (first, second and third) bets off us all day. Of course, forecasts can be ‘reversed’ and tricasts ‘combined (any order) to increase our chances of winning, and there are certain races when a forecast bet seems the only logical bet (favourite is a short price to win) the exception not the rule. A word of advice; the Tote* have their own version of the forecast bet, called an Exacta, and this generally returns a better dividend than the bookies’ version. Most bookies will place Tote bets on your behalf, and this is yet another weapon in the betting war against the bookie!
*bets with the Tote are placed into a pool and a winning dividend is calculated by dividing the pool by the number of winning units, less deductions.
Back The Future
Finally, ante post bets carry the greatest risk of all, but can be very rewarding. Here, you are betting on a named selection at least 24 hours before a race is run. For example, bets placed in January for the Derby (run in June).The danger is that your selection will not even run and (in most cases) you will lose your money – bookies’ rules! The potential reward is that you will ‘get a price’ on your selection which then goes off much shorter on the day of the race. I’ve had some spectacular successes betting ante post, so I wouldn’t put anyone off, but do look out for bookmakers who offer a ‘non-runner-no-bet’ concession (money back if your horse doesn‘t run), as this takes a lot of the heartache out of ante post betting.
Of course, there are other ways of backing horses that we haven’t even touched on here. The Tote offers win, win and place (each way) and place only betting on every race, as well as their massively popular Placepot and Scoop6 bets. Not forgetting the exchanges and the spread betting firms!