Each Way Calculator: Work Out What an Each Way Bet Returns

The example is £5 each way at 8/1 with 1/5 odds a place, on a horse that finished placed. The £5 win part loses. The place part is settled at 8/5, so it returns £13.00 from the £10 staked.

Mark the horse as won instead and the return is £58.00. Mark it unplaced and it is nothing. Those three outcomes are the whole of an each way single, and the calculator shows them one click apart so you can see what you are buying before you buy it.

How the each way calculator settles a bet

An each way bet is two bets of the same size placed together. The win half is an ordinary win single at the price you took. The place half is a bet that the horse finishes in the paying places, settled at a fraction of that price. The slip counts them as two bets and adds the stakes, which is why “£5 each way” shows a total stake of £10.

For a winner, both halves pay. The win half at 8/1 returns £5 × 9.0 = £45. The place half at 8/5 returns £5 × 2.6 = £13. That is £58, a profit of £48 on the £10 staked.

For a placed horse, only the place half pays: £13. The profit is £3. For an unplaced horse, both halves lose.

Everything else on the slip is there for when the race doesn’t go to plan. Rule 4 cuts the price after a late withdrawal. A dead heat divides the stake. A non-runner hands both halves back. Each of these has its own section below.

Place prices at 1/4 and 1/5 odds

Most UK each way bets are settled at a quarter or a fifth of the odds. The table gives the place price for common prices under both, which is the number you need when you are checking a return in your head.

The difference between the two columns grows with the price. On a 3/1 shot, 1/4 against 1/5 is worth 15p per £1 of place stake. On a 20/1 shot it is £1. The bigger the price, the more the terms are worth, so they deserve a look before you settle on where to bet.

When a placed horse still loses you money

A placed horse is not always a profit. The place half has to win back the stake you lost on the win half, and it only does that if the place price is evens or bigger.

At 1/5 terms that means a win price of 5/1. At 1/4 terms it is 4/1, and at 1/3 terms 3/1. Below those prices, a placed horse returns less than the total stake. £5 each way on a 3/1 shot at 1/5 terms that finishes second returns £8 from £10.

This is the part of each way that is easiest to get wrong. Backing a short-priced favourite each way in an eight-runner race buys place cover that pays less than it costs, unless the horse wins. If you fancy a 2/1 shot to place, the each way bet is mostly a win bet with an expensive extra attached. At the other end, a placed 20/1 shot at 1/4 terms returns £30 from £10 on its own, and a winner returns £135.

The calculator shows the profit next to the return for exactly this reason. Put in the price and terms and look at the placed result before you decide.

Terms, places and the race in front of you

The terms belong to the race, not the horse. They depend on how many runners there are and, for bigger fields, whether the race is a handicap. In small fields only two places pay, and with four runners or fewer there is no each way betting at all. Big-field handicaps pay four places at 1/4, which is the most generous standard term. The full table is in the each way guide.

Many firms offer extra places on major races, paying five, six or more places on something like the Grand National. Those offers vary from firm to firm, so enter the terms your slip actually shows. The calculator lets you pick any fraction from 1/1 to 1/8. The number of places doesn’t matter to the maths: you tell it the horse placed, and it applies the fraction.

One timing point is worth knowing before you enter the terms. They are fixed by the horses that actually line up, not by the field when you placed the bet. If an eight-runner race loses a horse at the start and goes off with seven, it pays two places at 1/4 rather than three at 1/5, and a horse that finished third is no longer placed. Some firms promise to keep the terms that were showing when you struck the bet, often on big races. If yours did, enter those terms. If not, enter the terms that applied once the field was known, and mark a third-placed horse in a seven-runner race as unplaced.

The same applies to a bet left to SP. The price comes from the market at the off, and the terms come from the runners at the off, so both are only certain once the race has started.

Each way doubles and accumulators

An each way multiple is two multiples: a win double (or treble, or accumulator) and a place one. The place multiple pays if every horse in it places, and a winner counts as placed.

Take £5 each way on a double: a 6/1 winner in a race paying 1/5, and a 3/1 horse that placed in a race paying 1/4. The win double loses, because the second horse didn’t win. The place double pays £5 × 2.2 × 1.75 = £19.25. The whole bet cost £10, so a double with only one winner still returned almost twice the stake. If both had won, the win double would add £5 × 7 × 4 = £140, for £159.25 in total.

To work out an each way double on this page, change the bet type to Accumulator and set two selections, or use the main bet calculator, which has every multiple and full-cover bet. For four horses, the Lucky 15 calculator is set up each way already.

Non-runners, Rule 4 and dead heats on each way bets

A non-runner makes both halves void, and the full £10 comes back on a £5 each way single. In a multiple, the non-runner’s leg drops out of both the win and the place bet.

Rule 4 applies to both halves. The deduction comes off the winnings on the price first, and the place price is then worked out from what is left. £5 each way at 12/1 with 1/4 terms and a 15p deduction: the winnings on 12/1 are cut by 15%, leaving 10.2 to 1 (11.2 in decimals), the place price is a quarter of that, and a placed horse returns £17.75. If it won, the win half would add £56 for £73.75 in total. Set the deduction on your horse’s row, not on the horse that came out.

Dead heats for the last paying place are the awkward case. The place stake is divided by the number of horses sharing the places left. Two horses dead heating for third in a race paying three places share one place, so half the £5 place stake is paid: £2.50 at 10/4 on a 10/1 shot returns £8.75. Pick “Dead heat for a place” on the slip and set how many were tied and how many places were left for them. A dead heat for first is different. The horse has placed either way, so the place half is paid in full and only the win half is divided.

Checking an each way return by hand

You can check any each way single with two lines of arithmetic, which is handy when the slip in front of you is a paper one. Take £2.50 each way at 11/2 with 1/4 terms on a horse that finished third.

First the place price: 11/2 divided by 4 is 11/8. In decimals that is 2.375. Then the return: £2.50 × 2.375 = £5.9375, which the calculator shows as £5.94. The win half lost, so that is the whole return from a £5 stake. If the horse had won, the win half would add £2.50 × 6.5 = £16.25.

The trap in this sum is dividing the wrong thing. The fraction applies to the odds, not to the return and not to the stake. A quarter of 11/2 is 11/8, but a quarter of the £16.25 win return would be about £4.06, which is wrong. If your figure for the place part looks low, check whether you divided the winnings or the whole return.

Stakes also catch people out. “£2.50 each way” is £5 in total. When a shop settles an each way bet it shows the two parts separately, and the calculator’s line-by-line list shows them the same way, so you can hold them side by side.

Each way, win only or place only?

Each way is a bet on two outcomes, and it is the right bet only when both are worth backing at the price. For most horses at 5/1 or shorter, the place half costs more than it returns, and a win bet is the cleaner choice. For bigger prices in big fields with good terms, the place half pays for itself and protects the stake.

Some firms and the betting exchanges also offer place-only markets. Those price the place chance on its own, which can come out better or worse than a fraction of the win price. This calculator settles fixed-odds each way bets, so it won’t price a place-only bet for you, but you can check a place-only bet as a single at the price you were offered.