Types of Bet

Win Bet
A win bet is the most straightforward type of bet - you are betting on a horse/team/player to win something like a horse race, a football match or a tennis tournament etc.

Bookmakers will offer odds on each horse/team/player which tell you how much you win if that selection wins.

You then make a stake and if your selection wins you get your stake back plus your winnings which are based on multiplying the odds and your stake.

Each Way Bet
An Each Way (EW) bet is essentially two bets - a win a bet (like above) and a place bet

Staking
The first thing to understand about an Each Way bet is how the staking works.
A £25 EW bet is exactly as it sounds - "£25 each way" - i.e. two £25 bets. So £25 EW amounts to a £50 bet in total.

The Place Bet
The place bet is in effect a backup bet - on a horse/team/player almost winning at lower odds. What this means in practice varies from one sport to the next, but is always quoted with the list of odds as something like this

"Each Way 1/3 1,2,3"

This means that the place bet of your each way bet will pay out at odds of 1/3 of the the win odds is your selection finishes in positions 1,2, or 3. If you finish 4th or lower you lose.

Example:
£10 each way Ronin 2.30 Ascot. Ronin wins at 8/1. The e/w terms on the race are 1/5 the odds 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Return for the win part of the bet = £80, £10 x 8 + £10(stake) = £90.
Return for the place part of the bet = £16, £10 x 13 / 5 = £26.
Total Return = £116.

Laying / Lay Betting
A lay bet is betting that something won't win.
So if you lay a horse and the horse loses, then you win
If you lay a horse and the horse wins, then you lose

Lay bets are calculated according to the mirror image of the win bet - as if you are laying a bet, then someone else has the corresponding win bet.

Handicaps
Handicaps are effectively win bets but you are betting on a result that has been adjusted by a handicap.

For example, an Australia v Scotland Rugby game: Here the bookies have worked out a points handicap for Australia which they think makes the game fairly even.
Australia - 30 4/5
Scotland +32 5/6
So both teams are priced at odds of just under 1/1 (evens) and the winner is based on the final score, adjusted by some points.

Asian Handicaps
Asian Handicaps are significantly more complicated.
e.g. Liverpool +0 is not the same as a normal win bet on Liverpool Liverpool +0.25 is not the same as Liverpool +0.5 which is not the same as Liverpool +0.75 For more info see our Asian Handicap Betting guide.

Place Only
Until recently an each way bet was the only way to back something to place. Obviously this is not ideal becuase you also had to back it to win, making the bet less attractive.

Now some bookmakers such as Betfair you can place a single bet on a horse to place at some fixed odds. It pays out in just the same way as a win bet really only the odds are much lower than for a win, and your bet wins if you get any place.

Doubles, Trebles, Accumulators
A double is a two bet combination where you need to win both bets
A treble is a three bet combination were you need to win all three bets
An accumulator describes a larger combination of bets (4,5,6, etc) where they all have to win for you to win.

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