Different Types of Bets

There are four basic bet types that we use for gambling today. These are WIN, PLACE/EACHWAY and more recently, LAY.

The Win Bet

The win bet is perhaps the most popular and well known type of bet where you stake your money in the hope that a horse/team/dog/anything really to win a race or a match or any other type of contest. Bookmakers will offer you odds that reflect their opinion of how your selection will fare and also let you know how much you stand to win. Example of the win bet – You stake €10, either in a high street bookmakers or with an online account on a horse that’s 7-1. This simply means that for every single unit you stake on the horse you will get 7 back. So if the horse wins you will win €70 and your initial stake will be returned to you. Odds can come in all shapes and sizes and can also be in decimal form. If a selection is odds on, for example, 2/5 it means that for every 5 units you stake, you get 2 back. Because you will need to stake a higher amount to get a decent return, these bets can be quite risky. Each Way Betting For this we’ll take the example of a horse running in the 5:00 at Tramore, a handicap race with 17 runners. You want to back the horse called Remi Moses each way at odds of 25-1. You stake €50 each way!!!(Total Cost €100) There are a number of possible outcomes to this bet:

• The horse doesn’t finish in the first 4. In this case you will lose your entire stake. Hard luck!
• The horse finishes 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. In this case the win part of your bet is lost but you can claim on the other 50 of your stake. With a handicap of 16 horses or more the each way odds are calculated at ¼ of the initial odds (I will explain more about this along the way). So, that’s 5-1 you now have on your placed selection. That’s 50 multiplied by 5-1, well done you’ve just won €250 and your 50 stake back. So on your €50 EW bet (a bet of €100) you ended up getting €300 back in total = a profit of €200, being the net €250 profit on the place bet and €50 loss on the win bet.
• If the horse wins you may take the day off work because you just struck it gold! First thing to remember is that the horse won and also placed, so both parts of your bet are winners. The win bet pays at 25 x €50 = €1250 + your €50 win stake back and the place bet pays exactly as we said above being €250 profit + your €50 place stake back. Happy days!

Rules of the Each Way Bet:
 • 2-4 runners; no place betting allowed
 • 5-7 runners; 1st and 2nd one quarter the odds
• 8+ runners; 1st, 2nd and 3rd one-fifth odds
• Handicaps 12-15 runners; 1st, 2nd and 3rd one-quarter odds
• Handicaps 16+ runners; 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th one-quarter odds

Some times, with races like the Grand National where fields can run as high as twenties and thirties, the bookies might be generous and offer you the first 5 places. This is also usually the case in Golf betting.

Laying

This is simply a bet that something won’t win, and in effect makes you the bookmaker. So if you lay a horse and the horse loses - you win but if you lay a horse and the horse wins - you lose. This type of bet has grown significantly in popularity over the last few years with the growth of betting exchanges such as Betfair. The basic way returns on lay bets are calculated is the mirror image of the win bet - as if you are laying a bet, then someone else has the corresponding win bet. Example of laying Remi Moses is back but this time he’s 3-1 favourite. You think he’s pushed his luck and you don’t think he’ll win. So, you lay Remi Moses in the first race at Thurles. You set a stake of €420 being the amount you could lose if the horse wins, this is your liability. As you are giving odds of 3-1, and you have set your max loss at €420, this means you can take bets of €140, because if the horse wins you'd need to pay winning of 3x€140=€420. This type of betting is very similar to betting on odds on horses. If Remi Moses loses like he’s supposed to then you get to keep the stakes which amounted to €140. However, if Remi Moses does the unthinkable and wins again, not only do you feel bad for deserting your horse, you also lose your liability which was the €140 x3=€420.

 Multiple Bets

There are a number of different types of multiple bets that you can try, in order to “click” a big one. This involves combining a number of smaller bets together in the hope that they all win and as the odds multiply the return becomes very sexy indeed.

A Double

The one we’re probably all familiar with. This involves just two selections and both must win. E.G. a double featuring a 3-1 shot and a 4-1 shot for a ten euro stake would return 200 big ones. If you successfully get a double up you must tell your friends that you have “clicked” a double.

A Treble

The double plus one!

The Accumulator

We will all try these at some stage and maybe once or twice in our lifetime will we get it up. The accumulator, or The accum for the lazy, is a combination of more that 3 selections (can be as many as you want and combine many sports) where all have to win before you get a return. These can be to small stakes but they’re a popular bet with the bookies because they are very hard to get a return from. All the stories you read in the paper about pensioners from Carlow winning a hundred grand usually come as a result of a 10 horse accum that they did for a pound. Someone like us will never be so lucky.

The Patent

The Patent is a mixture of multiple and single bets based on 3 selections. It amounts to 7 selections in all: 3 win bets, 3 doubles and one treble. If none of you selections win you get nothing in return. If one wins, you have one winning single and 6 losing bets. If two of the selections win then you have 2 winning singles and one winning double. If all three selections win then all 7 bets are up and can call in sick tomorrow morning.

The Trixie

The Trixie is almost the same as a patent except there are no single bets involved. Thus there are only 4 bets (A 5 trixie will cost you 20)

The Yankee

The yankee is the 4 bet equivalent of the patent. So, there are 11 bets in all: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 accum of them all. Nice if it comes in for ya.

The Lucky 15

The Trixie of the glamorous 4 bet world. The same as a yankee except it includes 4 singles. There are a host of other accumulators you can do, such as Heinz, Super Heinz…Goliaths etc. Here’s a chart to keep you in the know: