How To Calculate Horse Betting Payouts: Odds Explained

Going to the races and placing bets on horses can be an exciting day with numerous opportunities for you to land that big win.

We all want to win but in truth, the majority of casual horse racing bettors don’t always understand the odds and what they might get back from their bets.  To be fair, the amount of figures and terminology in horse racing is enough to scare anybody off.

From novice to experienced bettors, knowing what odds you’re using and how that determines what you might win is important and can influence what you choose to bet on.

Have you ever just placed a bet blindly, not noticed the odds and kept your fingers crossed? That’s not a problem, we won’t judge you.

This article will help you to understand the odds and how they relate to any potential winnings.  You’ll also see examples of how returns are calculated and be given some tools to help you along your betting journey.

Understanding Odds In Horse Racing

Given that odds are the key to what winning returns are paid out, let’s take a look at those before we get into the calculation side of things.

As you may be aware, betting odds are in place to give an indication of what the betting markets think is likely to win a race.  The lower the odds, it’s predicted that the horse has a higher chance of winning the race. 

You should always bear in mind that not only do bookies make mistakes, but they also include a house edge in their odds offerings. This can sometimes lead to the odds on offer not actually being a true representation of a horse's chances of winning. 

Horse racing odds (in fact, any odds) tend to show in three different formats:

1. Fractions (UK)
2. Decimal (Europe)
3. Moneyline (America)

Fractional Odds

Fractional odds are mainly used in UK and Irish betting markets. As you might have guessed, they will come in formats such as 6/1.  At 6/1, for every £1 you bet, you can win £6.  If there are strong favourites, the odds change from against to odds on and will look like 1/2. This time, for each £2 you bet, you can win £1.

• Numerator - The first number provides the profit you can make on a bet.

• Denominator - The second number provides the amount of stake required.

For example, if we used our example of 6/1 with a £10 stake:

• £10 x 6 = £60 profit

• Total Returns = £60 + £10 (stake) = £70

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are mainly used in European betting markets. Using decimal odds is easier to calculate returns than fractions, especially with bigger bets.  In simple terms, you’re adding 1 on to the fractional odds so 6/1 is 7.0 in decimal odds. This is a basic explanation and the actual equation to convert fractional to decimal = Numerator / Denominator + 1.

Using our fractional odds example of a horse at 6/1, the calculation would look like this:

• 6 / 1 = 6 + 1 = 7.0 in decimal odds

• A £10 stake would return £10 x 7.0 = £70 (less £10 stake = £60 profit)

Moneyline Odds

Thankfully, American odds aren’t really used in the UK which is good as they are a little more complex than fractional or decimal odds.

Moneyline odds are displayed as a + or - and are based on a $100 stake. + odds are the equivalent of odds against in fractions and - odds are the equivalent of odds on.  

For example:

• A horse with +300 odds = $100 stake +300 = $400 returns

• A Horse with -300 odds = $300 stake +100 = $400 returns

Calculating Horse Racing Payouts

Okay, now we get to the nitty gritty of the subject……….calculating horse racing bet payouts.

During this section we’ll cover off the different types of horse racing bets and how to calculate them.  Because there’s so many different types of bets, the difficulty ranges from easy to hard.

Don’t panic though, we will also provide the details of online tools that do all the hard work for you. For those mathematicians amongst you that just love calculations, you’ll also get details of how to manually calculate the horse bet payouts.

Calculating Single Bets

With single bets or win bets as they are also known, you’re betting purely on one outcome, the horse winning the race. 

The returns are based on the odds being multiplied by the stake.  These are by far the easiest of all bets to calculate the payouts on.

Example: Your horse wins at odds of 7.0 (6/1) with a stake of £10:

• £10 x 7.0 = £70 returns

• £70 returns less your £10 stake = £60 profit

Place Bets

Another form of single bet is a place bet.  The bookies have a place market and the amount of places available for bets will depend on the amount of runners.

Here’s an example of the places market on Bet365:

As this is still a single bet, the mechanics of payouts remains the same as a single bet.  It’s just a case of multiplying the odds by your stake.

Calculating Double Bets

Similar to a single bet, but this time you’re picking a horse from two races to create a double bet.  

The returns are calculated differently for a double bet.  This time, the odds of each horse are multiplied to provide total odds.  The total odds are then multiplied by the stake. 

Here’s a real life example for two horses running in two races at Huntingdon Races. We have chosen Sangiovese at odds of 5.0 (4/1) and Cloudy Wednesday at odds of 6.5 (11/2) with a total stake of £10.

As mentioned, the odds are multiplied in a double bet.  So if both were to win their races, what would the returns look like:

• Sangiovese: 5.0 (odds) x Cloudy Wednesday: 6.5 (odds) = totals odds of 32.50

• £10 (stake) x 32.50 (total odds) = £325 returns

• £325 returns less your £10 stake = £315 profit

Whilst calculating payouts from doubles bets is relatively easier, you can still use the Double Bet Calculator for convenience.

PLEASE NOTE - Treble bets work in exactly the same way as double bets.  You multiply the odds of each by each other to get the total odds.

Calculating Each Way Bets

Each way bets are effectively two bets rolled into one.  Your stake is split in two with one half betting on the win and the other half betting on the horse to place. 

Just to contradict what we said earlier, it’s actually easier to use the fractional odds when calculating each way bets.  This is because there’s fractions involved in the place element of the bet and the numerator is used.

Firstly, let’s provide an example that can be worked through for the calculation:

So, you can see from this example that Bet365 are offering each way terms of 3 places at 1/5 of the odds.

Once you place this bet, there’s three possible outcomes:

Corra Bheinn Wins

• Win part: £10 (stake) x 10/1 (11.0) (odds) = £110 returns

• Place part: £10 x 2 (1/5 of 10/1) = £30 returns

• Total returns: £110 + £30 = £140 less £20 stake = £120 profit

Corra Bheinn finishes second or third

• Win part: -£10

• Place part: £10 x 2 (1/5 of 10/1) = £30 returns

• Total returns: £30 less the original stake of £20 = £10 profit

Corra Bheinn doesn’t win or place

• You lose the bet and your £20 stake

Calculating Multiple Bets

There’s a crazy amount of horse racing bets for punters these days with some more complicated than others.  As we move on to multiple types of bets, we’re stepping up another level.

Here’s a list of most of the multiple bets that are available on horse racing:Round Robin

In addition to these bets, most of them can be done each way so effectively doubling the bet variations.

Multiple bets contain anything from 2 combinations all the way up to 247 combinations. The more combinations there are, the more difficult they become to calculate. 

In order not to bore you or scramble your brain, we won’t go through every single one.  In essence, the majority of them are calculated using the same maths sequences.

Let’s go through some examples that range from smaller bet combinations to massive bets such as the Super Heinz Bet.

Calculating A Patent Bet

This is one of the smaller multiple bets that requires you to pick 3 horses which will create a bet containing 7 combinations as follows:

• 3 Single bets

• 3 Double bets

• 1 treble bet

Let’s use a real example to walk through the calculate the returns from a Patent bet:

So, for this example, we’ve selected 3 horses from 3 races at Southwell races. Lady Wingalong at odds of 4.5, Francis Drake at odds of 7.5 and I Can’t Believe at odds of 4.0.

Remember, with a Patent bet we have 3 singles, 3 doubles and 1 three-fold.  Let’s look at the calculations for each of these elements:

Singles Returns

• Lady Wingalong: £1 x 4.50 (odds) = £4.50 returns

• Francis Drake: £1 x 7.50 (odds) = £7.50 returns

• I Can’t Believe: £1 x 4.0 (odds) = £4 returns

Doubles Returns

Double 1:

• Stake x (Lady Wingalong odds) x (Francis Drake odds) = Returns

• £1 x 4.50 x 7.5 = £33.75

• Singles returns of £4.50 + £7.50 + double returns of £33.75 = £45.75 (This would be the payout if just this double won).

Double 2:

• Stake x (Lady Wingalong odds) x (I Can’t Believe odds) = Returns

• £1 x 4.5 x 4.0 = £18.00

• Singles returns of £4.50 + £4 + double returns of £18 = £26.50 (This would be the payout if just this double won).

Double 3:

• Stake x (Francis Drake odds) x (I Can’t Believe odds) = Returns

• £1 x 7.5 x 4.0 = £30.00

• Singles returns of £7.50 + £4.00 + double returns of £30.00 = £41.50 (This would be the payout if just this double won).

Treble Returns

• Stake x (Lady Wingalong odds) x (Francis Drake odds) x (I Can’t Believe odds) = Returns

• £1 x 4.5 x 7.5 x 4.0 = £135

Total Winnings (For 3 winners)

• Singles 1, 2 & 3 + Double 1 + Double 2 + Double 3 + Treble = Returns

• £4.50 + £7.50 + £4 + £33.75 + £18 + £30 + £135 = £232.75 Returns

REMEMBER - Your stake multiplies 7 times so should you get any returns, you’ll need to deduct your total stake from your returns.

Hopefully, this now gives you an idea of how the payouts are calculated. Bear in mind that this is one of the simpler multiple bets to calculate so it can get very time consuming manually calculating bets.

This is where online calculators can save the day.  The Patent Bet Calculator does all the work for you:

As you can see, the Patent Bet Calculator gives us the same returns but literally took 20 seconds to enter the information. You can also play around and look at the payout if only 1 or 2 of your horses win.

Calculating Lucky 15 Bets

We thought it would be rude not to include the Lucky 15 bet as it’s one of most, if not the most popular bet in horse racing.

This time you’re picking 4 horses from different races to create 15 individual combinations within one bet.  

The structure of the the Lucky 15 bet is:

• Four Single Bets

• Six Double Bets

• Four Treble Bets

• One Four-fold Bet

Again, we’ll look at a real example from Kempton Races to walk through the potential payouts.

So, for this example, we’ve selected 4 horses from 4 races at Kempton races:

1. Plantaroma at odds of 4.0 (3/1) 
2. Indemnity at odds of 5.5 (9/2)
3. Jus De Citron at odds of 7.5 (13/2)
4.  Roger Pol at odds of 9.0 (8/1)

Calculating Single Bets

Multiply each horses’ odds by the unit stake.

Calculating Double Bets

Multiply the odds of each horse and then multiply it by the unit stake. Repeat for each Double.

Calculating Treble Bets

Multiply the odds of each horse and then multiply it by the unit stake. Repeat for each Treble.

Calculating The Four-fold Bet

Multiply the odds of each horse and then multiply it by the unit stake.

To make life a little easier, the 15 bets have been broken down into four groups. Once you add the total from each of the four groups, you will know your returns if all four horses win their races.  The calculation is as follows:

• £26.00 (Singles) + £290.25 (Doubles) + £1320.75 (Trebles) + £2227.50 (Four-fold) = £3866.50 returns. Deduct your original stake of £15 from this and your profit in this case is £43851.50.

So, that’s how to calculate your Lucky 15 bets. Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s a bit of a pain to sit and go through all of these calculations.

It’s way, way easier to fire the odds into the Lucky 15 Calculator and let it do its magic for you.

No joke, we’ve just input the figures from our example and it took 5 seconds to produce all of the calculations that we’ve just been through manually.

Another useful feature of the Lucky 15 Calculator is the ability to alter the outcome section as you can look at potential returns if they don’t all win.

Calculating Heinz Bets

The Heinz Bet is another favourite with horse racing punters.  This is mainly because the potential returns can be huge.

This is a full cover bet that requires you to pick 6 horses from different races.  Your 6 choices then create a combination of 57 individual bets.  

The structure of the the Heinz bet is:

• 15 Double Bets

• 20 Treble Bets

• 15 Four-fold Bets

• 6 five-fold bets

• 1 six-fold bet

As there’s no single bets in the Heinz, you need at least 2 winners to get any returns.

By now, you’ve probably realised the amount of work involved in manually calculating 57 different parts of the bet.  We don’t want to bore you with every single calculation and life’s too short.

With bet combinations of this size, we would always recommend using an online betting calculator to look at the potential bet payouts.  

The Heinz Bet Calculator is very easy to use too. Just enter the odds of your 6 horses and your stake amount and get ready for your eyes to pop out when you see the potential payout.

Doing this manually would be quite painstaking.  However, it is possible to do. 

Basically, you’d need to calculate all 57 bets individually using the same process as we did with the Lucky 15 bet above.

Useful Resources

It’s fine to quickly work out your returns on single bets and each way bets as they are straight-forward and quick to do.  However, as soon as you start looking at more complex bets it can take some time and can lead to human error.

Why put yourself through the pain when you don’t need to?  We have a full range of FREE ONLINE BETTING CALCULATORS to speed things up when looking at your horse betting payouts.

Summary

Understanding horse betting payouts and how they work is a very useful tool to have in your box and can also help you make strategic and informed betting decisions. 

Equally, understanding the odds is vital irrespective of whether you prefer decimal, fractional or moneyline (American) odds.  The odds can indicate how likely your horse is to win a race. It can also equip you to spot when the bookies make mistakes and offer value bets.

It’s also  paramount that you fully understand the types of bets you’re placing and how they work as this can influence your chances of success.  Get further information in our Types of Bets article.

Now that you have gained additional knowledge about horse betting payouts and odds, go smash the bookies and have fun.