Each Way Betting. What is Each Way Value?

What really makes a good each way bet?

Firstly lets just re-iterate exactly what an each way bet is. It’s
a bet traditionally offered by UK bookmakers consisting of two separate
bets: a win bet and a place bet. For the win bet to give a return the
selection must win, for the place bet to win the selection must either
win or finish in one of the predetermined places, i.e. 2^nd
or 3^rd. Your stake for an each way bet will be the same on
both parts, so if you bet “£5 each way”, you are betting £5 win
and £5 to place – a total of £10.

Ok so that’s the simple stuff out of the way.

Now let’s talk value.

Betting at value is essentially placing a bet at bigger odds than what
the true chances dictate the odds should be. Of course finding out what
the true chances of something happening are and therefore the relevant
odds isn’t an exact science. Therefore it simply comes down to a matter
of finding “perceived value”.

So with an each way bet we need to evaluate both the win odds AND the
place odds to get an idea of how the prices stack up against our ideas
of a value price.

Opportunities arise with each way betting because the place price offered
against a horse is a fixed fraction (normally 1/5 or ¼) of its win
price, and so may bear little or no relation to its actual chance of
being placed.

There are general misconceptions that
say that betting each way at odds under 5/1 represents a poor bet. And
often horses quoted around 25/1 are touted as great each way bets, on
the basis that the place pays around 5/1.

I’m going to suggest to you that ANY price can represent each way value.

Whether its 10/1 or 10/11.

The calculation that most people do before placing an each way bet is
to work out their returns should the horse only place. So a horse placing
at 4/1 (1/5 place odds) would give a return of £9 from a £5 each way
bet – a loss of £1 overall.

To look at this potential loss in isolation is to look at each way betting
from a narrow and blinkered angle.
This is an entirely wrong perspective in my opinion.

You see lets assume that the horse in question is actually a true 4/1
shot, and therefore it’d win one in every 5 runnings of the same race
on average.

Buts lets also assume that there is very little else other than the
first three in the betting with any real form. And therefore that it
would place on average 80% of the time.

Finding 10 bets like this could easily give the following results from
£5 each way bets:

4/1 unplaced -£10

4/1 3^rd -£1

4/1 2^nd -£1

4/1 Won +£24

4/1 2^nd -£1

4/1 2^nd -£1

4/1 unplaced -£10

4/1 3^rd -£1

4/1 2^nd -£1

4/1 Won +£24

Total P/L +£22

Remember this is a true 4/1 shot, so it would only ever be a break even
situation betting win only. But because of the favourable place terms,
we’ve turned a break even series of bets, into a winning one.

Of course finding horses that have about 80% chance of placing yet can
be backed at 4/1 each way do not come up everyday, but they do come
up more often than you might think.

Two obvious places you might find instances where the place odds make
each way betting favourable are 8 or 9 runner races with an odds-on favourite and 16 runner handicaps.

The principle is the same whatever the race though. It is comparing
the each way place price against the actual chances that will reveal the true value of an each way bet.

Paul Ruffy –

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Paul Ruffy is a respected horse racing advisor
specialising in each way betting on uk horse racing.

Visit his site for more info

Click Here ==> Visit Paul’s Site

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