Quick answer: an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Each-way">Each Way (E/W) bet</a> consists of two bets combined into one. You’re splitting your bet for your chosen selection to “win” or to “place” (in the number of places predetermined by the bookmakers). You therefore still receive a payout if your selection hits one of the paid places but doesn't win, albeit with a lower return.

Each Way (E/W) betting has become a very popular <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">type of betting</a>&nbsp;in recent years. It's most commonly used in horse racing betting, but is also an option in other sports, such as golf and darts.

It has the advantage of managing risk; even if your selection doesn't win, it still has a change to make you some money if it hits a paid place. On the other hand, it doubles your stake, so you shouldn't simply place each-way bets on every possible selection regardless of its value.

In this article, you’ll learn how an each way bet works, how to place them and how you can use them to make a profit.

To place an each way bet you first need to choose a total stake you would like to bet on your selection. Then, you halve this number to get your 'unit stake', which is the amount you enter in your betslip when placing your bet. When you tick the 'E/W' box in your betslip, your stake will be automatically doubled.

A 2016 analysis of all 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival found that standard each-way terms varied between two, three and four paid places, depending on the race. Across those 28 races, the average was approximately 3.46 paid places under standard terms.

- <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5710b1c0e5274a14d9000067/customer-a-comments-on-ladbrokes-coral-resp-to-issues-statement.pdf">Competition and Markets Authority</a>

With each way bets, the two bet elements are calculated differently due to the fractions the bookies use on the place part. You can use an <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/each-way-bet-calculator">each way calculator</a> to work your bets out accurately.

As an example, let’s say you placed a £10 E/W bet on Liverpool to win the Premier League at odds of 8.0 (7/1) and the E/W terms are 1/3 for 2 places. If Liverpool won the league:

Win Part - This is as calculated as a normal win bet &amp; you would multiply the stake by the odds. £10 x 8 means you would get £80 returned.

Place Part - This calculation differs in that you have to deduct 1 from the original odds and then divide that by the fractions for the place part and then add one back on.

8-1 equals 7, then 7 divided by 3 equals 2.33 and then you add one back on for 3.33.

You then multiply you stake by these odds so £10 x 3.33 = £33.33.

Your total returns would be £80 + £33.33 = £113.33.

If Liverpool finished 2nd then you would only use the above Place Part element and your returns would be £33.33.

A punter decides they quite fancy the chances of Amerjeet winning or being close in the 3pm at <a href="https://www.lingfieldpark.co.uk/">Lingfield Races</a>.

Because they aren’t certain it will definitely win, they decide to back it each way at Bet365. Not wanting to go mad, they decide to back £10 each way at decimal odds of 11 (10/1 in fractional odds).

The win odds here are 10/1 but Bet365 are offering 1/5 of the win odds on the top three places.

The below image shows how the bet looks:

So the total bet is £20 (£10 to win and £10 to place in the top three)

You’ll see the possible outcomes of your bet once the race has finished.

Outcome One: The horse wins

Outcome Two: The horse finishes second or third

Outcome Three: The horse doesn’t win or place

As can be seen, placing each way bets gives customers a slightly better edge to win some money. However, the returns aren’t as great as just betting on the win only.

People usually do each way bets to provide them with a bit of protection if they back something that might have a chance of winning but is by no means guaranteed.

Ideally, you’ll back something that has at least a small chance of winning, but this is easier said than done when it comes to backing horses.

As with our previous example, it’s a better value strategy to avoid short odds bets and take each way bets with longer odds (usually 5/1 or above).

This is because you have a better chance of at least breaking even, if not making a small profit. Betting each way on shorter priced selections will offer little value unless you are value betting or using free bet credits.

The headline odds only tell you part of the story with an each-way bet. Always compare the place terms across bookmakers, because a slightly shorter price with an extra place offer or a better place fraction can offer a stronger overall return. The best option depends on the specific market, not simply the biggest odds.

What Are The Advantages Of Each Way Betting?

What Are The Disadvantages Of Each Way Betting?

Placing Each Way Bets On Different Sports

Whilst horse racing is considered to be the main market for each way betting, there are other sports that offer it as an option including Football, Golf and Cricket.

Let’s take a look at some examples of how each way bets work for different sports.

As mentioned, Horse Racing is undoubtedly the biggest market for each way betting.

Placing the each way bet is quite straight forward. Click on the odds next to the horse of your choice, enter your chosen each way stake (remember, the total stake will be double the amount that you enter), tick the E/W option and then place your bet.

The below example is a horse called Tideways Hero that is running in the 4.28 at Wexford. The win odds are 21 (20/1) and the place odds are 1/5 of the total odds. Therefore, you’re placing £10 at 21 (20/1) for the win and £10 at 5 (4/1) for it to place.

Should Tideways Hero win, you would get £260 returned (£10 x 20/1 = £200 for the win part) &amp; (£10 x 4/1 = £40). Once you remove the original stake, your profit is £240.

Paul Trevor

How Does An Each Way Bet Work?

Quick answer: in darts, an each way bet is usually placed on an entire tournament. Although darts uses a knock-out format, there will always be two players in a final, meaning that it's possible to have two paid places for an each way bet on the outright winner market.

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Each-way">Each way betting</a> is extremely popular in many sports as it gives <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports bettors</a> multiple chances to win and reduces the risk of losing.

However, darts is not a sport that is particularly well known for each way betting.

When you place an each way bet you are effectively placing two bets, one on the ‘win’ and one on the ‘place’. It, therefore, works well in sporting events that offer a lot of places such as horse racing or golf.

In this guide we’ll show you how each way <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/darts-betting-guide">betting works in darts</a>, how to place a darts each way bet and what considerations to look out for when betting on darts.

For those who need a refresher, each way betting is basically a bet that covers both if your selection wins or if it just narrowly misses out.

Bookmakers offer specific ‘place’ spots on certain events, and if your chosen player/horse/team doesn’t win, but lands in one of the designated paid places, then you’ll still get a financial return.

It is seen mostly in horse racing, where every race has a set number of places. In races with only a few horses, it’s usually just first and second place. However, for races that have a much bigger field, it can pay out on anything from three to six places. That means if you make an each way bet and your horse comes in sixth, you can still get a return.

Darts is a highly popular sport to bet on with a unique scoring system. It is one of the most bet on sports in the UK, especially during the big televised tournaments.

You can place a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-bets">full range of bets </a>on darts, including <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-single-bet">single bets</a>, <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-bet-builder">bet builders</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-an-accumulator-bet">accumulators</a>. It is also a great sport for <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/in-play-betting-explained-in-depth">in-play betting</a> too.

As well as the obvious match winner bet, you can also bet on Legs, Sets, 180’s, Check Outs, Nine Dart Finishes, <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-match-treble-in-darts">Match Treble bets</a>&nbsp;and Three Dart Averages.

However, the format of the sport, which pits two opponents against each other, means there aren’t any place spots available in a regular match, there’s just a winner and a loser.

But this is where tournament betting comes in.

According to YouGov’s research into British sports betting habits, 6% of regular UK gamblers reported betting on darts during the preceding 12 months. This demonstrates that although darts isn't the most popular sport in the UK, it has an established place within the UK sports betting market.

- <a href="https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/47134-a-look-at-sports-gambling-habits-in-britain">YouGov</a>

Each way bets in darts comes in the form of tournament betting.

For all major darts tournaments, there is an outright winner market. This is a bet on which player will win the overall tournament, not just one specific match.

Because most darts tournaments have a knock-out format, that means that you are always left with two finalists. Most bookmakers, therefore, offer each way darts betting markets on two places - whether a player will finish in first or second place.

Let’s take a look at an example:

For a PDC World Championship, bookmakers are offering a 1/2 Odds 2 Places each way market on the outright winner.

At the time of writing the odds for Michael van Gerwen to win outright are 13.

If you place a £5 each way bet on MVG to win then your total bet is £10 and it would be split as follows:

This means that no matter whether Michael Van Gerwen finishes first or second, you will still receive a payout.

'In a tournament with a large field, reaching the final is a significant achievement, even for the favourites. Each-way betting can make an outsider more appealing, but the bettor shouldn't allow the place element of an each way bet to result in an over-estimation of that outsider's chances of producing a return.'

If we continue with the above example, the results will be as follows, depending on the outcome of the event:

Placing each way bets in darts is exactly the same as placing them on other sports. You must first navigate to the Darts section, then the Outrights section. Here you’ll be given a list of upcoming tournaments available to bet on.

Click on the relevant tournament and you will be offered a list of players to bet on. If the each way market is available it will be stated at the top of the page. If the each way market is not available it will usually state ‘Win Only’ on the page.

It is then just a case of selecting your chosen player, and when the betting slip opens, tick the E/W box. You will then enter your stake, remembering that this will be doubled for the each way element, and then confirm your bet.

Which Darts Events Have Each Way Markets?

Each way markets may not be available for all darts tournaments, however they will be on offer for the big ones that attract the most attention. These include:

The 2025/26 PDC World Darts Championship expanded to a&nbsp;record-breaking 128-player field, according to the Professional Darts Players Association. With so many competitors entering a knockout tournament, reaching the final requires several consecutive victories, making outright betting a challenging proposition.

- <a href="https://pdpa.co.uk/news/paddy-power-world-championship-update/">Professional Darts Players Association</a>

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Each Way Betting In Darts

There are both pros and cons to placing each way bets in darts as opposed to straight bets.

The obvious advantage is that it gives you some protection on your bet. It gives you a second chance to earn some winnings if your player loses the final.

The main disadvantage is that even if both parts of the each way bet win (the win and the place) it still won’t give as good a return as if you’d just placed a straight £10 bet on Michael Van Gerwen to win. (£10 x 12/1 = £130 payout with £120 profit).

Each way darts betting also doesn’t give you much slack by only offering 2 places. Your player still needs to reach the final in order to win anything, which is a tough ask.

If you're keen to turn a profit from your betting, there are definitely better options out there, including <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a> and <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">Value Betting</a>.&nbsp;

When placing any type of darts bet, including each way bets, it's beneficial to take these top tips into consideration.

Every bettor wants the best odds for their bets, it’s just human nature. To make sure that you’re getting the best, you could use an odds comparison site such as <a href="https://www.oddschecker.com/">Oddschecker</a>.

They scour the bookies for their odds and put them all in a convenient table so that you can see where the best odds are for each market at a glance.

Oddschecker will also show you the each way terms of bets when they are available.

Check them out before you place your darts each way bets to make sure you’re getting the most value.

Knowledge is power when it comes to betting. You can never guarantee wins but you can certainly make more informed decisions when you have some intel to go off.

Study the recent form of darts players, see who is performing well going into a tournament, look at recent stats and then put that information to use when placing your bets.

'Darts form can be deceptive when you’re assessing outright markets. A player might have impressive averages but struggle against opponents who finish efficiently under pressure. Look beyond scoring statistics and consider checkout percentage, recent performances against strong opposition, and how well a player handles decisive legs.'

Bookies are always offering a range of bonus offers for various sports. However, when it comes to darts, many bookies actually sponsor the tournaments.

It is therefore worthwhile looking out for bookmaker darts promotions around the big events. Both Bet365 and Paddy Power sponsor major darts tournaments, and will usually offer a range of promotions such as free bets and bet boosts leading up to and during the tournaments.

Keep your eye out for bonus offers to get even more value from your darts bets.

Each way betting on darts can have its advantages, but it is still a pretty niche market. You might find the odd offer to capitalise on through Matched Betting, but we'd definitely recommend that you don't make it the only kind of offer you look for.

And if you're interested in learning more about Matched Betting, take a look at the <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Outplayed Beginner's Guide to Matched Betting</a> for all the information you need to get started.&nbsp;

Or if you'd like to get started right away, sign up for our free trial to get immediate access to 40+ sign up offers, worth over £850 in potential profit.

1. Is darts each way betting good for Matched Betting?

Typically, no. While bookies do feature darts offers, especially around major tournaments, it's very unusual for them to specify each way markets - you don't see extra place offers with darts, in the way you do with horse racing.

2. Is darts each way betting beginner-friendly?

Reasonably, in that it isn't at all difficult to place an each way bet. If you're new to sports betting, though, we wouldn't recommend starting here - it's tricky to assess the true value of this kind of bet, and there's a good chance of simply losing your money.

3. Can I guarantee a profit from a darts each way bet?

No, not unless you happen to come across an appropriate Matched Betting offer, which is pretty unlikely. You do slightly improve your chances of a return if you place an each way bet on darts, but it's far from a guarantee.

4. How much money can I make from darts each way betting?

If you're simply betting without any smart strategy to inform your decisions, the chances are that you'll lose more than you make. However, if you choose a strategy like Matched Betting or Value Betting,&nbsp;

5. How do I find darts each way bets?

How Does Each Way Betting Work in Darts?

Quick answer: it’s possible to use <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-dutching">dutching</a> techniques on extra place races to improve your position, and in theory to lock in a profit. However, this is difficult to do and can involve significant risk, so many bettors may find a more traditional <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/extra-place-offers">Extra Place Matched Betting</a> or <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">Value Betting</a> strategy to suit them better.

Horse racing is a popular sport for <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>, as well as for recreational betting. It goes on all year round, is unpredictable enough to be exciting, and also, crucially, is very popular for bookie offers.

The Gambling Commission found that 4% of adults in Great Britain had participated in horse-race betting in the four weeks covered by its July–October 2025 survey, demonstrating the perennial popularity of betting on horse racing.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/statistics-on-gambling-participation-wave-3-july-to-october-2025-official">Gambling Commission</a>

Extra place races are an extremely common offer, but the most simple ‘Bet £10 Get £10’ Matched Betting technique is useless for taking advantage of them. There are other strategies you can use, however, and dutching on extra place races is one of them.

In this article, we’ll explore how <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutching">dutching techniques</a> can be used to make the most of extra place races, as well as looking at other strategies that can help you get the most out of this kind of offer.

In horse racing, each race will have a number of places that will pay out if you place a bet on them. The larger the number of runners, the larger the number of paid places.

Most commonly, a race will feature three paid places (1st, 2nd and 3rd), but races with a particularly large field may offer four paid places, and narrower fields may only have two places, or even one in rare cases.

A place is paid out at a certain fraction of the win odds. E.g. it might be paid at ¼ or ⅕ odds - this fraction will be shown on the racecard in question, as well as the number of paid places.

Most people will place an each-way bet in order to take advantage of the paid places. This is a bet in two parts; half on your horse to win, and the other half to hit one of the paid places.

For example, if you enter a £5 stake on your chosen runner and tick the ‘E/W’ box, your stake will be automatically doubled to £10 to account for both halves of your each-way bet.

In extra place races, a bookie will increase the number of paid places, usually just by one, but occasionally two or even three for extremely high profile races, without changing the payment terms. Many bookies offer multiple extra place races each day to draw in extra customers and keep them betting.

The Gambling Commission’s research found that 76% of respondents who had received a gambling promotion went on to use it. For free bets specifically, 58% of respondents who had seen the offer took it up, highlighting the appeal of promotional betting offers to consumers.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/report/exploring-consumer-journeys-using-gambling-promotional-offers-and-incentives/consumer-understanding-and-engagement-exploring-consumer-journeys-using">Gambling Commission</a>

There are several ways you can use sports betting strategies and techniques to take advantage of extra place races; read on to explore each of them.

First, though, we’ll quickly explain the principles of dutching, to help you understand how this technique can be applied to extra place races.

Dutching is a fairly simple concept - it involves betting on more than one selection in a single market, across multiple bookmakers. This improves your chances of winning a bet and, if you’re able to cover every possible outcome in a market, can even lock in a profit.

When dutching on horse racing, you’re very unlikely to be able to cover all outcomes due to the sheer size of the field in most races. This means that, in most cases, dutching will allow you to improve your chances of a win, but not to remove all risk or lock in a profit.

The most common choice bettors make when dutching on horse racing is to cover a handful of the favourites in a race in order to improve their chances of one of their bets winning.

Let’s imagine we want to dutch the race shown below (in reality, we’d be using different bookmakers, but we’ll use the odds shown here for ease).

We might decide to dutch our bets across the three favourites, Jojo Rabbit, Hi Lord and Pedros Dream.

Entering these details into a dutching calculator, with a £10 stake for each selection, produces the following results:

As you can see, we’ll end up making a profit if any of our runners goes on to win, but we’ll make the greatest profit if Pedros Dream, at the highest odds, is the winner. Of course, if another runner wins - not unlikely, given the size of the field - we’ll lose our entire £30 stake.

How Can You Use A Dutching Strategy On Extra Place Races?

Before we get started, it’s important to note that dutching an extra place race isn’t a beginner-friendly strategy: it’s relatively high-risk, requires a significant degree of experience, and involves quite a bit of time and maths.

In essence, this strategy involves placing each-way bets on the entire field in a race - or, at least, as much of that field as possible. You’ll aim to work out what the <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/true-odds-for-horse-racing">true odds</a> would be for all runners (i.e. the odds that would represent an accurate probability of the horse winning), and to place bets at <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/positive-expected-value-betting-guide">positive expected value</a> wherever you can (i.e. at odds that are higher than the true odds).

Your stakes will need to be varied in order to balance your profits as far as possible - generally speaking, that means staking more money on runners at lower odds, and less money on runners at higher odds.

Having backed as many runners as possible - which may be the whole field, or just most of the field - you should assess your position. Work out your best possible position, your worst possible position, and the average, in order to decide whether you should adjust your stakes in order to balance things out more, or to avoid excessively high worst case scenario losses.

If you’re competent with spreadsheets (which is a definite advantage when using this kind of strategy), you may find it easiest to create a spreadsheet that allows you to enter your odds and stakes on each runner, and which will then automatically calculate your position depending on the outcome of the race, making it much easier to make adjustments to your staking and recalculate your results.

‘The biggest danger with dutching a large-field race is confusing broad coverage with genuine risk control. Even if you back most of the runners, a cluster of losing outcomes can leave you significantly out of pocket. Model the result for every finishing position before staking, and pay particular attention to how much you could lose if none of your selections makes the frame.’

If this sounds like a complicated or intimidating strategy, that’s because it is! There’s no getting around the fact that dutching an extra place race is an advanced strategy. It involves a significant degree of risk, especially if you don’t manage to cover all runners, and extremely high stakes.

For experienced <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports bettors</a> who are comfortable with the risk and have a substantial bankroll, this strategy could well be a useful one, but we wouldn’t recommend that newer sports bettors take on a complex strategy like this.

If you’re newer to sports betting, or simply prefer to limit your risk, read on to find out about other strategies you can use on extra place races to optimise your results.

Other Strategies To Take Advantage Of Extra Place Races

Dutching an extra place race can be a highly profitable strategy, but it can also be complicated and time-consuming. For anyone who isn’t already a competent statistician and an experienced bettor, it’s likely that a somewhat more beginner-friendly strategy will be easier for them to execute successfully.

Fortunately, there are other ways you can take advantage of extra place races, with varying degrees of risk, depending on your preferences. Check out our dedicated <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/extra-place-offers">guide to extra place races</a> for a full breakdown of how you can take advantage of them - for now, we’ll take you through the basics of each option.

‘An extra place is only valuable when the additional payout potential justifies the price you're paying for it. Compare the place terms with the available odds and your own estimate of the horse's chances of finishing in the expanded places. A bigger place offer can look attractive on paper while still representing poor value if the odds have shortened accordingly.’

This is the lowest risk option, and involves fully backing and laying your bets with traditional Matched Betting techniques.

With this strategy, you place an <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-does-an-each-way-bet-work">each-way bet</a> on an extra place race with a bookie, and then lay both the win and the place (to the standard number of places) with a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-betting-exchange">betting exchange</a>.

If your runner wins, hits one of the standard places, or fails to place, you’ll typically make a small qualifying loss. However, if your horse hits the extra place, both the place part of your back bet and both parts of your lay bet will win, making you a sizeable profit.

It isn’t very likely for a horse to hit the extra place specifically, of course, so more often than not you’ll make a qualifying loss. However, the profits you make when you do hit that extra place are more than large enough to compensate, making this a great, low-risk strategy with potential to make you excellent profits in the long run.

Outplayed’s <a href="https://outplayed.com/products/extra-place-master">Extra Place Master</a> makes it incredibly easy to find good selections for this strategy, and guides you through exactly how to place your bets, as well as telling you the profits you can expect to make depending on the outcome of your bet.

By laying only part of your bet, you can increase the potential value - although you also increase your risk, so this strategy is better suited to advanced bettors with a large bankroll.

When using the part lay strategy, you lay only the win part of your bet, leaving the place part open. This means that you stand to profit if your horse hits any paid place (including 1st), not just the extra place.

If your horse finishes outside the paid places, however, your qualifying loss will be much higher than with the full lay method, so this is a significantly higher risk strategy.

An example of the possible results you might see when placing a part lay bet with the help of Outplayed’s Extra Place Master are as follows:

This is the highest risk of the three options, but holds the greatest potential value. We recommend that you only embark on this method if you’re an experienced sports bettor with a good bankroll, as you could experience significant downswings that you’ll need to be able to ride out.

As you might have guessed, the no lay option involves placing no lay bets at all; your strategy is based on placing each-way bets on horses that hold positive expected value, especially in the place part of your bet.

The Extra Place Master highlights runners whose odds make them a worthwhile choice. Statistically speaking, consistently betting on these over-valued horses is likely to result in your making profits in the long run, even though any individual bet may win or lose.

An example of a potential Each Way No Lay (often shortened to EWNL) bet is shown below:

As you aren’t laying your bets, you lose your full stake if your horse fails to place, which is why this is a much higher risk strategy than the previous two described. However, many experienced Outplayed members have had a lot of success with this strategy, so if you’re ready to take on advanced extra place strategies, it’s certainly worth considering.

Dutching can be a profitable strategy for extra place races, but it’s best left to advanced bettors who really know what they’re doing.

If you’re newer to sports betting, or if you’re just more risk-averse, then there are much safer ways to take advantage of extra place races. With Outplayed’s Extra Place Master, you can choose the degree of risk that suits you, from the very low-risk full lay mode, to the higher-risk and higher-value no lay mode.

Get access to the Extra Place Master, plus other Value Betting tools, casino offers, and our full range of Matched Betting tools, with an <a href="https://outplayed.com/pro">Outplayed Pro membership</a>.

Alternatively, if you’re not sure which <a href="https://outplayed.com/pricing">membership level </a>is right for you, you can always take out our free trial to gain access to 40+ sign up offers worth over £800 in profit, so you can see for yourself what Outplayed membership can do for you.

1. Can I use dutching to lock in a profit on any extra place race?

Probably not - it’s actually pretty rare to be able to lock in a profit by dutching on horse racing. However, you can give yourself a great chance of turning a profit with dutching techniques, or use lower-risk strategies to make a potentially smaller profit.

2. Is dutching extra place races beginner-friendly?

No, this is definitely an advanced strategy that isn’t suitable for beginners. If you’re new to sports betting, <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a> is a much better place to start.

Yes, dutching is completely legal, but bookmakers don’t appreciate dutch bettors. You should therefore take care to blend in with regular punters by sticking to popular events and using rounded stakes.

4. Can dutching get my account restricted?

It’s possible, yes. If your betting behaviour makes it obvious that you’re dutching your bets, a bookie may respond by limiting your ability to take part in offers, limiting your stakes, or even banning you altogether.

5. Can I dutch my bets on sports other than horse racing?

You can indeed! You can in theory dutch a bet on any sport, but football and tennis are particularly popular choices for dutching.

Stephanie Sorrell

A Guide to Extra Place Race Dutching

Quick answer: Dutching can be a useful strategy for betting on horse racing, but it’s important to be aware that it’s much harder to cover all outcomes, and so you’re likely to retain an element of risk. Matched Betting is a safer strategy if you’re a risk-averse bettor.

Betting on horse racing has a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/horse-racing-history">long history</a>, and it remains hugely popular, with bookies taking £766.7m in gross gambling yield in the 2024-2025 financial year, according to the <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/industry-statistics-annual-report-financial-year-april-2024-to-march-2025">Gambling Commission</a>.

Yet actually making money from horse racing bets is really quite rare, and bettors turn to all sorts of strategies to improve their fortunes.

One of those strategies is <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-dutching">dutching</a>, which can be used to potentially improve your chances of winning a bet, or in some cases to lock in a profit.

But how exactly does it work when applied to horse racing, and is it the best option out there for most sports bettors? In this article, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about horse racing dutching strategies, and the risks and pitfalls to be aware of.

Horse race betting participation was 7% in the Gambling Commission’s April–July 2025 survey, up significantly from 4% in January–April. The Commission attributed the increase to the period coinciding with several major horse-racing events.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/statistics-on-gambling-participation-wave-2-april-to-july-2025-official">Gambling Commission</a>

At its heart, dutching is nothing more complicated than placing more than one bet within a single market across different bookmakers. If you cover only some of the possible outcomes, you simply improve your chances of winning at least one bet, but if you’re able to cover all outcomes you may be able to lock in a profit, if the odds are good enough.

When dutching on horse racing, you’re very unlikely to be able to cover all outcomes due to the sheer size of the field in most races. This means that, in most cases, dutching will involve improving your chances of a win, but not removing all risk or locking in a profit.

To illustrate how dutching typically works in horse racing, we’ll imagine that we’re betting on a race and dutching our bets across several runners.

We decide we want to dutch a bet on the following horse race - the screenshot below shows the odds available with Bet365 for the most likely horses to win. In reality, we’d need to place our bets across multiple bookies, but we’ll use the odds shown here for ease.

Based on the odds shown, we decide to dutch our bets across the three horses that appear to be most likely to win:

We enter these details into a dutching calculator, with stakes of £10 per bet, which produces the following results:

As you can see, so long as one of your picks ends up winning, you’ll end up making a decent profit of at least £25. Of course, it is still quite possible that another horse will end up winning, in which case you’d lose your full £30 stake.

What’s The Best Way To Dutch Bet On Horse Racing?

Although horse racing offers somewhat more limited possibilities for dutching than other sports, there are a few different horse racing dutching systems you can use for your dutching strategy.

This is the method we employed in our example above, and it’s likely to be the method of choice for most dutch bettors.

By covering a handful of the horses considered most likely to win a race, you improve your chances of winning one of your bets without reducing your profits too heavily.

Of course, horse racing is a volatile sport, and it’s not uncommon for a long shot to end up winning a race, so the risk involved in this method isn’t insignificant.

Still, for a recreational sports bettor, this option isn’t horrendously risky, and doesn’t require too much time or effort from the bettor.

‘The shortest-priced runners aren’t necessarily the best horses to include in a dutch. What matters is whether the odds give you enough return for the probability you’re assigning to that runner. A wider shortlist can sometimes be more sensible if the additional selections are genuinely mispriced.’

This is a much more difficult method to execute successfully, and requires a significant degree of time and effort. That said, for experienced racing bettors, it may be possible to dutch your bet across an entire race and still come out in profit.

This strategy relies on the bettor being able to identify positive <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-expected-value">expected value</a>, to have an excellent bankroll, and to act swiftly and decisively.

The bettor will usually place their bets in the couple of hours before a race begins, taking advantage of the rapidly changing odds. Whenever they judge a runner to be available at positive expected value - i.e. disproportionately high odds - they will jump in and place a stake on it.

The aim is to end up with the entire field covered, but with odds and stakes that allow the bettor to come out in profit no matter which runner ends up winning. However, this is much easier said than done, and it’s possible that they might be forced to leave one or more runners uncovered if the odds never shift enough in their favour.

This strategy is very much best left to the experts, as it involves significant risk. Your total stake can end up being very high, and there’s a reasonable chance that you might either make it impossible to come out in profit, or have to leave a runner uncovered and risk losing all your bets.

In 2025, 60.3% of UK horse races had eight or more runners, while 15.1% had fewer than six. The relatively large proportion of races with eight-plus runners helps explain why covering an entire horse-racing field can require considerably more stakes than dutching smaller markets.

- <a href="https://www.britishhorseracing.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2025_Annual-Data-Pack-1.pdf">British Horse Racing</a>

A lower risk option is to dutch on the place market. This has the advantage of increasing the chances of at least one of your bets winning - and the possibility of more than one winning, if two or more of your runners manage to place.

The downside of this method is that your returns will be comparatively smaller, and, assuming you aren’t covering the entire field, there is still a chance of losing all your bets.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/extra-place-offers">Extra place races</a> can be a good choice for this method of dutching, as the likelihood of a horse placing is increased without the odds decreasing.

‘With place betting, the headline number of places isn’t the only thing to check. Place terms, deductions, non-runners and dead-heat rules can all affect the eventual return, so a seemingly attractive extra-place opportunity can be less valuable once the full settlement conditions are taken into account.’

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