Each way calculator (returns and matched betting lay stakes, UK, October 2026)

Notice that if it only places you get back £14.00 on £10 staked: a loss of −£4.00. Each way betting punishes you when the horse places but doesn't win, which is exactly the gap matched bettors use.

Place terms explained

Place terms are the fraction of the win odds the place part pays, plus how many places pay. The bookie shows both on the bet slip, and they change with the race type and number of runners. At win odds of 10.0 (9/1) the fraction changes the place odds like this:

Always set the calculator to the terms on your bet slip, not the ones you remember. And make sure the number of places in the exchange's place market is the same as the bookie's normal terms.

Rule 4, dead heats and non-runners

Rule 4 is a deduction bookmakers take from winnings when a horse is withdrawn before the off, because the field got smaller and your horse got more likely to win. It can reach 90p in the £ for a short-priced favourite pulled late. It affects the back bet but not your exchange lay, so a big Rule 4 can break a matched each way bet. The calculator doesn't model it. If a non-runner is announced after you've bet, re-work the numbers or check the bookmaker's rules before you settle. The same goes for dead heats, where the bet pays on a share of the stake.

How to match bet an each way bet

With a normal matched bet you lay the one thing that can beat you. With an each way bet there are two things that can beat you: the horse winning, and the horse placing. So you lay twice, at the exchange:

1. Find a horse where the bookie and exchange prices are close. Use the exchange's win market and its To Be Placed market. Example: back at 10.0 (9/1) at the bookie, win lay at 10.5, place lay at 2.9.
2. Enter the numbers. Stake per part £5 (that is £10 in total), place terms 1/5, win lay 10.5, place lay 2.9, commission 2%.
3. Lay both parts at the exchange. Lay £4.77 at 10.5 in the win market (liability £45.32) and £4.86 at 2.9 in the place market (liability £9.24). You need £54.56 in the exchange.
4. Place the each way bet at the bookie. Place £5 each way at 10.0 with 1/5 place terms. Total stake £10.
5. Read the result. Win, place or unplaced, a qualifying bet costs £0.56. A free each way bet locks in £7.27. If it is an extra place offer, a horse finishing only in the extra place pays +£13.44.

The two formulas behind the calculator:

Win lay = stake × win odds ÷ (win lay odds − commission)
Place lay = stake × place odds ÷ (place lay odds − commission)

Here's the full result for the example, with a qualifying bet (your own £10) and a free each way bet (£10 of free bets, stake not returned):

Same result three ways, which is the point. The free bet keeps £7.27 of its £10 face value (72.71%), in line with the free bet numbers on the free bet calculator. The liability is the thing to watch: the lays need £54.56 sitting in the exchange before you place them.

Extra place offers: where the windfall comes from

Sometimes a bookmaker advertises extra places on a race: five places paid instead of four, say. The exchange's place market still pays on its normal number of places. So there's a finishing position where the bookie's place part pays but your place lay also wins, because the exchange doesn't count that position as a place.

In the example, a horse finishing only in the extra place pays +£13.44, against the −£0.56 you'd get if it won, placed normally or missed completely. That's the £14.00 place return on top of the balanced result.

Be clear about what that is. You've paid about £0.56 for a ticket that pays £13.44 if the horse finishes in exactly that position, and nothing extra otherwise. It's a bet with positive expected value if the offer is good and your lay prices are close, but it is not a locked-in profit, and results swing. This is the "+EV" side of the site: matched betting first, then these, using a float you can afford to see dip.

For the stake-by-stake version of the basics, read What is matched betting? first.

Each way value betting: why the place part can be +EV

Everything above is matched betting: you lay both parts and the result is known. The other use of the same maths is each way value betting, where you back the bet and don't lay it, because the bookie's place price is bigger than the exchange's. It has swings, so it's a +EV bet and not a locked-in one.

Why can it be value? The bookie pays the place part as a fixed fraction of the win odds: 1 + (win odds − 1) × 1/4 or 1/5, for 2 to 4 places. The exchange's To Be Placed market prices the real chance of placing. When a red-hot favourite is in the race, every other horse's win odds are pushed out and the bookie's fraction stretches with them. But the places still have to be filled by somebody, so the real place chances of the rest of the field stay high. The gap between the bookie's formula and the exchange is where the value is.

Illustrative numbers (made up to show the method, not a tip): a 10/1 shot (11.0) at 1/4 odds pays 3.5 for a place. If the exchange's place price is 3.2, that place part is worth +9.4% (3.5 ÷ 3.2 − 1). If the exchange's win price is 11.5 the win part is −4.3%, and the whole each way bet averages +2.5%. Try your own prices:

A small edge on a single bet is where a Lucky 15 comes in: the same way an acca compounds the bookie's margin against you, a Lucky 15 of +EV each ways compounds the edge, and the swings with it. The full explanation and worked numbers are on the Lucky 15 page.

Lewis's take

Each-way value betting was the second half of my story. After sign-up offers and reloads, I used OddsMonkey's tools (and another service's, Bookie Bashing) for each-way betting on horse racing, Lucky 15s included. The idea is that a red-hot favourite pushes the other horses' odds out while bookies still apply fractional place terms, so the exchange's place market can show value, because a horse still has to come 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on. I once won £4k in a single day on one of them, and that bookmaker closed the account. It's why I tell people to treat it as +EV and volatile, not as a salary.