There are a lot of different types of sports bets, and in this blog post, we will explain a lot of the most commonly used bets.
Types Of Single Bets
Single bets are when you are backing just one outcome, for example, if backing in a horse race then you are backing just one runner, or in the case of a football match, you are backing one team to win.
Single Bets are the most common type that successful sports gamblers use to make a slow and steady profit over time.
Win Bet
What is a win bet? A win bet means you are backing a runner to win the race, a team to win a match, a player to complete a certain task, or even an outcome of a long-term contest.
Make a correct prediction and the single bet is a winner, an incorrect prediction means you lose!
For example, if you back Conflated to win the Gold Cup, you have £10 on at 5/1 to win. If Conflated wins the race, you will receive back a total of £60 which is a £50 profit plus your £10 stake back.
If Conflated does not win the race, you receive nothing back and lose your £10 stake.
Place Bet
What is a Place bet? Used mostly in horse racing, often in Golf betting, and sometimes greyhound racing.
Making a place bet means that selection has to finish within the declared number of available places in the finishing order for your bet to be successful.
The number of placings will be specified by the bookmaker at the time of placing the bet.
Horse Racing Place Rules
- First 2: 5 – 7 Runners
- First 3: 8-15 Runners
- First 3: 16+ Runners (Non-Handicap)
- First 4: 16+ Runners (Handicap)
For example, if you back Tiger Roll to Place in the Grand National, you have £10 on at 2/1 to Place and there are 3 places being paid.
If Tiger Roll finishes anywhere in the first three, you will be paid out £30 (£20 profit).
It doesn’t matter in which position of the first three it finishes, the payout will always be the same, and if he does not place then you lose your stake.
Each Way Bet
What is an each-way bet? Often misunderstood, an each-way bet is actually 2 separate bets undertaken in a single transaction.
The two bets involved are a ‘win bet’ and a ‘place bet’.
A selection has only to finish within the determined places for the bet to provide a return.
Below is a list of the place terms in horse races.
- Handicaps of more than 16 runners – 1/4 odds for 4 places
- Handicaps of 12-15 runners – 1/4 odds for 3 places
- All other races of more than 8 runners – 1/5 odds for 3 places
- All races of 5-7 runners – 1/4 odds for 2 places
- All races of less than 5 runners – Win-only bets
For example, let’s imagine you had an each-way tip you wanted to bet.
Tiger Roll in the Grand National at 5/1. You stake a total of £10, which means that £5 will go on the horse to win at 5/1 returning £30 (£25 profit) if the horse wins the race if the horse doesn’t win then you lose your win stake.
The other half of your stake will go on to the place terms, the Grand National usually features 40 runners and is a handicap meaning you would get ¼ odds for the place term and four places paid, ¼ odds of 5/1 would be 5/4 ( 5 / 4 = 1.25 ) so if the runner finished in the first 4 you would receive back £11.25 (£6.25 profit) from the place part of your bet.
Of course, if your runner does not win but finishes 2nd or 3rd based on the above example then you will still see a return from the place part of the bet but will lose your win stake.
- Runner Wins: £30 Win + £11.25 Place (£31.25 Profit)
- Runner 2nd, 3rd or 4th: £11.25 Place (£1.25 Profit)
- Runner Loses: £0 Returned (£10 Loss)
This is a great way of covering your win bets, if the odds are higher than the each-way terms, for example, if there are ¼ odds for the place terms then a runner of 4/1 or bigger, or for ⅕ odds, a runner of 5/1 or bigger getting into the placings will result in no loss of your stake as long as there is no Rule 4 or dead-heat on the race.
Multiples
What is a Multiple Bet in Sports Betting? – A multiple bet is a series of individual outcome selections combined as a single bet where the fortune of one selection can either positively or adversely affect the fate of the entire bet.
Often you can pick winners in a multiple bet but lose overall.
Doubles
What is a Double Bet? – A double is a bet which consists of two selections, these can be either win or each-way bets with the winning return from the first bet being used as the stake for the second bet.
This means both bets must be successful for a return, if the first part of the bet is a loser then the whole bet is a loser.
This type is bet is aimed at those who are expecting both bets to win and looking for a better return than backing them both in singles.
Two selections combined make a double.
A successful double will result in the odds of the 2 winning picks being multiplied by each other.
You can combine 2 short prices to make a better price, but both will have to be winners.
For example, if there are two horses priced up at 3/1 & 2/1 and you are looking to stake £10 on these, then backing them as singles with £5 on each would return a profit of £25 if both are successful.
If you back them as a £10 double then if the first bet wins at 3/1, your return in total would be £40, all of which will go on to the second bet at 2/1, and if that also wins then your return would be £120 which is a profit of £110.
Trebles
What is a Treble Bet? – A treble bet consists of three selections, all three selections must be winners with each return being rolled over to the next leg of the bet.
Like above, the return from the first part of the bet goes on to the second part but then in a treble, the second part is advanced to the third part of the bet also.
So using the double example, you place £10 on a 3/1, 2/1 & 2/1 treble, your return, if all three were successful, the returns would be for each part, £40 > £120 > £360 meaning a £350 profit.
Using decimal odds is a much easier way of working out your potential returns when it comes to multiple bets because you can just multiply the odds together to get the result, in this example, it would be 4.00 * 3.00 * 3.00 = 36.00 * £10 stake = £360.
It can be a great help if you are able to convert decimal and fictional odds without thinking.
Accumulators
What is an Accumulator Bet? – An accumulator is a bet where you can add four or more selections into a single bet where winnings are carried over between bets and if successful can be rewarding for small stakes.
When looking to add four or more selections into a single bet, these are most commonly called ‘Accumulators’, they can also be known as four-folds, five-folds, etc too.
Selections have to come from different sporting events, this is also the case for both doubles and trebles too, you cannot have multiple selections from the same event but you can have selections from multiple sports.
For example, you could back Red Rum in a horse race, also Westmead Hawk in a greyhound race, and then add Spurs, Arsenal, and Leicester to win also to create a five-fold accumulator.
For a return, all five selections must be successful, a simple way of working out your potential return is to use decimal odds and simply multiple all the odds together.
- Doncaster 5/1 (6.00)
- Bolton Hawk 6/4 (2.50)
- Spurs 4/5 (1.80)
- Arsenal Evs (2.00)
- Leicester 5/4 (2.25)
To calculate your potential returns, it would be 6.00 * 2.50 * 1.80 * 2.00 * 2.25 which would work out as 121.50 meaning a £1 stake would return £121.50 if the bet was successful.
Some bookies will offer you ‘Acca Insurance’ on certain accumulators in the way of stake back as a free bet if your accumulator is let down by a single selection.