Horse racing extra place offers

Horse racing extra place offers are a great matched betting opportunity. Learn how to profit from extra places.

Bookmakers offer incentives to keep customer loyalty. Extra place on horse racing each way bets is a good example.  Matched bettors can profit from the extra place concession.

Take a 20-runner horse race, which typically pays out on 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places each-way. An extra place offer would payout on the 5th place too.

Each way betting

Our beginner horse racing guide. explains each way betting. An each way bet consists of one bet stake split into two halves:

1. One half of your stake is to to win the race
2. The other half to finish in the top X places

The place part of your each way bet gets paid at a fraction of the win odds. Bookmakers offer 1/4 or 1/5 the odds a place depending on the number of runners and the type of race.

For example, a bookie offers 1/4 the odds each way. Your horse is 33/1 (34.0). A £10 each way bet is £20 total stake:

• £10 to win at 33/1 (34.0) and
• £10 to place at 8.25/1 (9.25).

Extra place offers explained

The bookmaker is paying an extra place – they pay 5 places instead of 4. The betting exchange is still paying 4 places.

• a). Place an each way bet on a horse at the bookmaker.
• b). Place two lay bets on your horse at the exchange:

1. Lay to win in the “Winner” market.
2. Secondly, lay the place part in the “To Place” market.

If your horse finishes 5th, you lose the win bet at the bookmaker, but win your place bet at the bookmaker. However, both of your “to win” and “to place” lay bets win at the exchange.

If your horse does not finish 5th there will be a small qualifying loss.

Clearly, this back, lay and hope strategy has big profit potential.

Example

Or, it may be possible to use the arb on the win part to offset the qualifying loss on the place part.

For a £10 each way bet:

• Your horse is 33/1 (34.0) to back at the bookmaker.
• and 32.00 lay odds at the exchange. So, lay £10.63 (at 2% commission) for £0.42 guaranteed profit on the win part.

The place part is 9.25/9.4. A £9.78 lay (2% commission) gives minus £0.42 if your horse fails to place or plus £0.35 if your horse finishes in the places.

If your horse does finish in the extra place, you win at the bookmaker and the exchange.

Calculate place odds

When laying an each way bet at the exchange, you need to place two separate lay bets.

The first lay bet is on the horse to win, with a second lay bet on the horse to place.

To work out the lay odds for the place market:

1. Take the decimal odds and subtract 1.
2. Divide this figure by 4 (if the each-way terms state 1/4 odds, or divide by 5 if 1/5 odds terms)
3. Add 1

If your horse is 20/1 (21.0 decimal odds):

• a). 21.0 minus 1 equals 20.0
• b). 20.0 divided by 4 equals 5.0
• c). Finally add 1, which equals place odds of 6.0.

Then lay the place part at odds of 6.0.

Profit potential

Your horse needs to finish in the extra place to make a profit on extra place offers. This means that you may wait a while to trigger an extra place.

So, we’ve learnt that horse racing extra place offers have good potential for profit.

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