The best online betting sites for each-way betting in 2024: which bookmakers are paying the most extra places this year?

Do you like to bet each-way or win only?

There is no correct answer to that question. It is just a matter of personal preference.

My Racing Post colleague Tom Segal, of Pricewise fame, is very much a win-only punter and tipster.

He will very rarely resort to an each-way tip, and only then when asked to find alternatives to red-hot favourites.

I'm much more of an each-way fan, and will routinely bet and tip with the place part in mind, and will very often do so with more than one selection in a race.

Yet while there is no correct answer to the merits of win-only or each-way betting, there is certainly a right time to bet each-way and a wrong time to do so.

It's all to do with the number of runners, the number of places available and the terms at which those places are being paid out.

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Paul Kealy joined the Racing Post while it was in its infancy and worked his way from being a copy-taker to a sports tipster before serving as the paper's betting editor between 2001 and 2019. A two-time winner of the Racing Post naps competition, Paul remains one of British racing's most respected tipsters and a vocal champion for bettors.

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Sky Bet

By virtue of the fact Sky Bet offer more extra place races – and more places – than their rivals, they lead the way.

The best online bookmakers for each-way betting on horse racing in 2024

bet365

bet365 offer their fair share of extra places, including three places in seven-runner races, and their price-match guarantee for ITV races is well worth checking out.

They offer to match the best prices of their major competitors on the terrestrial channel from 10am every morning until 15 minutes before the off, and that means you're likely to be getting big value for the place part of your bet.

Best odds guaranteed (BOG) also applies provided you don't go for even more places on the each-way extra link. Just be advised that, as with most bookmakers, if you're successful you will eventually find such concessions have been taken away from you.

Main pros:

• Plenty of extra place races
• Best odds guaranteed (BOG)
• ITV Racing price-match guarantee

Betfair

Offer their share of extra place races on their sportsbook, but there is no BOG.

The Betfair Exchange is worth looking at, though. Although each-way terms on there are as per industry standard, they do not change in the case of non-runners. So, for example, if you bet each-way in an eight-runner race and a non-runner takes the field from down to seven, you will still get three places rather than two as the new field size demands.

The prices will reflect this concession. However, in the right circumstances there is value to be had and the exchange is an unexpected player when it comes to old-fashioned each-way betting.

Main pros:

• Plenty of extra place races on the Betfair Sportsbook
• Exchange odds are favourable in certain circumstances

Betfred

A firm better known for the bonuses on multiples and they do not offer quite as many extra place races as some of their rivals, but they do offer more than enough, and as long as you are betting after 8am on the day of the race the best odds guaranteed concession will be in play.

Main pros:

• Best odds guaranteed (BOG) after 8am
• Fair share of extra place race offers
• Great bonuses on multiples

Coral

Tend to pick and choose more carefully which races they select for extra places, and they are sometimes different to their sister company Ladbrokes, but they do offer best odds guaranteed.

Main pros:

• Best odds guaranteed (BOG)
• Extra place race offers

Ladbrokes

As with Coral, they tend to pick and choose the number of races they offer a little more carefully, and they do not always mirror their sister company, but BOG still stands, so it is always well worth looking at the races they offer. They also offer price boosts up to a maximum of £50, and BOG stands even with those.

Main pros:

• Best odds guaranteed (BOG)
• Extra place race offers
• Price boosts

Paddy Power

Offer plenty of extra place races from declaration time, although they will mostly be at SP until the races are priced up nearer the time. To get best odds guaranteed you have to opt in on their website, and there is a maximum of £1,000 per customer per day.

Main pros:

• Plenty of extra place races
• Best odds guaranteed (BOG) if opted in

Sky Bet

There is little doubt that Sky Bet offer more extra place races – and more places – than any of their rivals and they should be applauded for doing so.

There are drawbacks, though, and they are worth considering before you get involved.

For a start, BOG does not exist for the extra place races. Also, when it comes to offering more places than their rivals – they quite often offer five when others are offering four, and six when others are offering five – they tend to ignore the on-course market and offer their own prices, which tend to be a little more defensive.

There used to be a way around this by simply betting with them at SP closer to the race, but I have found in recent times that the amount I'm allowed to have on at SP has become limited to the point of pointlessness.

That's understandable when you consider their place book must be under-round even at their own prices. Punters need to be aware of this trade-off before being drawn into Sky Bet's typically attractive terms.

Main pros:

• Industry-leading extra place race offers
• Best odds guaranteed (BOG) available

Unibet

Certainly offer plenty of extra place races but without BOG. Their Unibet price boost tokens apply only to the win part of an each-way bet as well.

Main pros:

• Extra place race offers

William Hill

Hills are one of the firms to have removed BOG from their suite of offerings for all bets, which is a bit of a drawback.

Against that, in my experience they are more confident in laying a decent bet at the extra place terms than many of their competitors. They also offer plenty of races with extra places and do offer a top price guarantee on certain races.

Main pros:

• Extra place race offers
• Price-match guarantee

Another leading bookmaker worth betting with

Boylesports

Plenty of races to choose from and BOG applies to singles and multiples placed from 8am on the day of the race. Limit on extra winnings is £1,000 per customer per day.

Main pros:

• Extra place race offers
• Best odds guaranteed (BOG) on singles and multiples from 8am

What do we mean by each-way betting and how does it work?

To make things easy to understand, we're going to provide some examples using a betting market in which the bookmakers would have no profit margin – the famed 100 per cent book.

What this means is that if a bookmaker took an even spread of money on every runner they would pay out exactly what they took in. They wouldn't win and they wouldn't lose.

For example, if all the runners in a seven-runner race had equal chances, in this scenario they would all be priced at 6-1.

And if you had £10 to win on all of them, you would be laying out £70 and your return would be £70.

Calculating the place part

Let's now have a look at what happens to each-way bets in this scenario.

The place terms in seven-runner races are a quarter the odds the first two, which means you would get 6-4 for a place.

A £10 each-way bet would cost you £140, yet while you would still get £70 back for the win part, your return for the place part is just £50 (2x £10 at 6-4) – a loss of £20.

So in this instance the place part of your bet is quite considerably worse value than the win part.

As the number of runners increase, so do the number of places you can get, but we're still a fair way from finding some value.

These days a quarter the odds for four places has become a rarity, with bookies swapping it for an extra placeCredit: Edward Whitaker

In an eight-runner race you get three places, but at a fifth of the odds.

All runners in this instance would be 7-1 for a 100 per cent book (to work out the percentage of any runner you simply add one to the price – thus seven becomes eight – and divide into 100, which gives you 100/8 = 12.5 per cent for a 7-1 shot.

Again the £10 win part would return you the £80 you laid out, but the £10 place part would return £78 (3x £10 at 8-5).

At standard terms, four places at a quarter the odds kicks in with 16 runners, and this is where it becomes interesting.

In a 16-runner race every horse would be 15-1 with an equal chance in a 100 per cent book, and every horse would be 15/4 or 3.75-1 for a place.

We're starting to get value

On this occasion, while returning the same as you laid out for a win (£160), the place part would return you £190 (4x £10 at 3.75-1), thus netting you a profit of £30.

The place book is now under-round and that means you're getting better value for the place part of your bet than the win part.

Incidentally, as long as the win book is 100 per cent, the place book at a quarter the odds remains under-round irrespective of how many runners there are.

It sounds hard to believe, but if there were 1,001 runners each at 1,000-1, you would get £10,010 back for your win part, but £10,040 for the place (4x £10 at 250-1).

This is all well and good, but these days a quarter the odds for four places has become a rarity, with bookies swapping it for an extra place, and sometimes more.

This has had occasion to frustrate and confuse punters, and I've dealt with more than one complaint from people longing for the 'good old days' of a quarter the four without actually realising they're getting better value when offered a fifth the first five.

Bookmakers nowadays offer six and seven places regularly, and sometimes as many as eight on big racesCredit: Patrick McCann

Using the same 15-1 example for 16 runners, you would this time get only 3-1 for your place, but you'd get it five times, returning you £200 against a £160 place stake and a profit of £40 compared to £30 for at a quarter the four.

Is it not unusual these days to see some bookmakers offering as many four places (at a fifth the odds) in races with only ten runners and five in a 12-runner fields.

At a fifth the odds, the value available does decrease as the number of runners goes up, but then again the number of places can also go up. Nowadays, you will often see some firms offering six and seven places regularly, while on occasion in big handicaps or popular betting races like the Grand National as many as eight.

In a 100 per cent book for a race like a 31-runner Cesarewitch for instance, those betting seven places would be offering 6-1 a place and paying out seven times, returning a guaranteed £490 for a place layout of £310.

A real-life each-way example

Of course, 100 per cent books belong in fantasyland as you're never going to see them because bookmakers are businesses entitled to make a profit, but they do provide ample example of how value betting works when it comes to the places.

One firm, Paddy Power, did offer seven places in the 2023 Cesarewitch, but their win percentage was a sizeable enough 161.6 per cent on the morning of the race.

However, the place book on the same race (add up total of all the percentages of each runner and then divide by the number of places) came in at an under-round 90 per cent. So it isn't all myth and theory. This is a real-life example.

We've had a look at the best times to bet each-way, so you must carefully consider how each bookmaker comes out with their offers.

Conclusion

If there is only one golden rule of betting it's always that you should shop around for the best value, but things have become slightly trickier now there are so many different place terms to choose from.

Imagine getting offered 7-1 about your selection with place terms of a fifth the first four, or 6-1 the same selection with place terms of a fifth the first six.

The win part of the bet is clearly better value at 7-1, but the place part is considerably better value at the shorter odds.

Personally I use Sky Bet a lot, largely because they offer more places than their rivals on a number of races that already have enhanced place odds, and I am always likely to accept reduced win odds.

You cannot overstate the value of BOG, though, so it is sometimes difficult to make a choice. As has been stressed from the start, an element of picking the best bookmaker for each-way betting will always come down to personal choice.

RP Recommends: read the full series

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• Best odds guaranteed in 2024: which firms offer the concession and from what time? 
• The best online golf betting sites for each-way betting in 2024: Steve Palmer's expert guide 
• Racing Post betting guide 2024: expert punting advice and bookmaker considerations 

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