Each-way betting is surprisingly complex - but here's how to do it better

When it comes to split personalities in racing, few can compete with the humble each-way bet. By day, it is the choice of novices and the otherwise risk-averse who bet only on the Grand National; by night, it can terrorise traders and is so intricate in its incentives that economists have to ask behavioural psychologists for a hand.

Nowadays, the most prominent question in terms of each-way betting is how to plot one's course through increasingly non-standardised place terms. Here the advice has not moved on much from when the subject was discussed in the Racing Post Betting Guide a couple of years ago.

In short, it is most efficient to offer guidelines rather than rules. Adding an extra place while increasing the denominator on the place odds by one (e.g. a fifth the odds with five places on offer rather than a quarter with four) is in most cases a better approach mathematically assuming the odds are the same.