Tutorial: Each Way Catcher

What is an Each Way bet?

Each Way betting is a term you may of heard of when it comes to betting, especially with horses, but what is it? An Each Way bet is essentially 2 bets:

  1. The first bet is a bet on the horse to win.
  2. The second a bet on the horse to ‘place’. Place means the horse will finish in one of the top places. For example, if we had 10 horses in a race, the place bet would win if the horse finished in one of the top 3 places.

 

What is the Each Way Catcher?

The Each Way Catcher is a tool which finds close matches between Each Way bets. As we have previously read in the guide ‘What is an Each Way Horse Bet’ we are essentially placing two bets when we place an Each Way bet and as such, these can be layed off at the exchange.

There are many occasions when we can find ‘Each Way arbs’. This means we can make money on the bet no matter the outcome. These can sometimes be as much as a guaranteed profit of £20 from a £100 on occasions.

Now, you may have read in articles around the internet that “arbing is bad and your account will be gubbed”. Here at Trickybet we agree with these views but it is possible to ‘fly below the radar’  at times with the Each Way Catcher. On many occasions the win section of the bet is not an arb and on occasions, we have seen the back odds at the bookmaker much lower than the exchange. The value comes from the ‘place’ part of the bet.

If we look at the following race, we can see that the horse, Aislabie, is available to back at odds of 7.50 and the place terms are ⅕ of the odds. This means that the odds for the horse to place are 2.3 (using the formula described in ‘what is an Each Way bet’).

The lay odds at the exchange are 8.2 for the win and 1.7 for the place. We can see that a £50 Each Way bet will get us a guaranteed profit of £9.94 no matter what the outcome.

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How is the profit calculated?

This is really important to understand. There are basically three different outcomes:

  1. The horse wins, so is also placed.
  2. The horse does not win, but is placed
  3. The horse does not win and is not placed.

All 3 outcomes will give us around the same profit £9.94. Here is how the profit is generated for each of the outcomes:

1) The horse wins, so is also paid

Win part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ Profit of £325. Return of £375 (£50 stake x 7.5) - £50 win stake.
Exchange ~ loss of £331.27
Loss of -£6.27

Place part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ Profit of £65. Return of £115 (£50 stake x 7.5) - £50 win stake.
Exchange ~ loss of £48.79
Profit of +£16.21

Overall profit = £16.21 - £6.27 = £9.94 profit
 

2) The horse does not win, but is placed

Win part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ -£50 stake
Exchange ~ +43.71 (£46.01 lay stake - 5% Betfair commission)
Loss of -£6.29

Place part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ Profit of £65. Return of £115 (£50 stake x 7.5) - £50 win stake.
Exchange ~ loss of £48.79
Profit of +£16.21

Overall profit = £16.21 - £6.29 = £9.92 profit

3) The horse does not win and is not placed.

Win part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ -£50 stake
Exchange ~ +43.71 (£46.01 lay stake - 5% Betfair commission)
Loss of -£6.29

Place part of the bet

Bookmaker ~ -£50 stake
Exchange ~ +66.22
Profit of +£16.22

Overall profit = £16.22 - £6.29 = £9.93 profit

The Each Way Catcher will find the closest matches and rank them in order of their rating percentage. If the rating is over 100%, we can place the bet and guarantee ourselves a profit. In the picture below, I can see that I can guarantee myself a profit on the top 2 horses.

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What Does The Rating Mean

The rating is basically a rating on how much we would return from our bet stake. So from a £100 bet (£50 Each Way) on Speredek, we would return £113.24, giving us a £13.24 profit.

Return = Total Stake x (rating / 100)

What Information Is Shown On The Each Way Catcher

  • Date/Time - shows us the expected race start time
  • Event - displays where the race is taking place
  • Bookmaker - The bookmaker which is offering the price
  • Horse - Which horse in the event we are betting on
  • Runners - The number of horses in the race. The first number shows the number of horses currently in the race. The second shows how many were due to run without any withdrawals. So for example, 11/13 would mean there are 11 horses in the race and there have been 2 withdrawals.
  • Back Odds - What the back odds of the horse are.
  • Lay The Win - The lay odds for the win part of the bet. The amount in brackets shows the available amount to lay at the named exchange.
  • Lay The Place - The lay odds for the place part of the bet.

The Calculator

Clicking the calculator will open up all of the calculations you need.
 

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All of the information from the table is transferred into the calculator. There are editable boxes for you to use if you need to change anything (for example if the odds change slightly or your commission is lower than 5%).

The default stake is £10 (£5 Each Way) but this can easily be changed to any stake you need, just be sure to keep an eye on the amount of liability you will need to cover the bet.

All of the bet instructions show us our bet stakes and lay stakes at the exchange. You can click the bookmaker and betting exchange names to be taken direct to the event.

Filtering The Each Way Catcher

You may wish to filter to show only specific bookmakers or exchanges. The ‘Filter’ section allows us to do this.

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Typing in the boxes will autofill the exchanges and bookmaker selections. You can also filter start time, rating percentage and back odds. If you want to see a specific race, you can enter that into the search text.

The fraction of the win odds to calculate the place price and also the number of horses that will be paid is directly related to how many horses are running and if the race is a handicap or non-handicap race.

How many places will be paid?

2-4 runners 1st only (Non-handicap and handicap races)
5-7 runners 1st, 2nd (Non-handicap and handicap races)
8+ runners 1st, 2nd, 3rd (Non-handicap and handicap races)
16+ runner 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (handicap races only)
What is the place terms?


Handicap races

2-4 runners 1st only 
5-7 runners 1st, 2nd (¼ of the odds)
8-11 runners 1st, 2nd, 3rd (⅕ of the odds)
11-15 runners 1st, 2nd, 3rd (¼ of the odds)
16+ runner 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (¼ of the odds)

Non-handicap races

2-4 runners 1st only 
5-7 runners 1st, 2nd (¼ of the odds)
8+ runners 1st, 2nd, 3rd (⅕ of the odds)
 

The Each Way Catcher is a must have tool when it comes to extra place races. These are races where the bookmaker is offering to pay more places than the industry standard. For example, if a race has 20 runners, we would expect there to be 4 places paid. However, some bookmakers may offer an ‘extra place’ and pay 5 places.

This can be highly beneficial as we can do our Each Way bet and lay it off as we would with a normal Each Way bet. However, as the bookmaker is paying an extra place, if the horse finishes in the extra place we will have a nice extra pay out.

It may be the case that skybet are offering 5 places. We can use the Each Way Catcher to filter the results and find the closest matches and back and lay as usual. After the race, if my horse finishes fifth, I will have a big pay day as I will be paid out on the place part of the bet winning AND also our place lay would win at the exchange.

Extra Place Top Tips

  • Filter the race by entering the race time in the search text. You will now only be shown selections for that race.
  • Filter to only show bookmakers who are offering the extra place
  • Back and lay as many horses as possible in the race, this will increase your chances of hitting the extra place.
  • Decide what qualifying loss is acceptable in the pursuit of hitting the extra place.
  • Combined liabilities mean you will benefit from being able to back more horses without the need to deposit more cash.
     

When a horse withdraws from a race, it could lead to less places being paid than we first expected. For example, if a race has 16 runners, we would expect 4 places to be paid. However if 1 horse withdraws, we would now only expect the bookmaker to pay 3 places. This means that if the horse now finishes 4th, we would not be paid at the bookmaker BUT we would lose our liability at the exchange place (as the terms there don’t change).

Tip To Reduce The Risk

  • Only do races where 1 horse will reduce the place terms just before the race starts.

What To Do If A Horse Withdraws

If a horse withdrawal causes a change in place terms, you have 2 options:

  1. Cancel your exchange lay bet at the exchange. Hopefully a new place market will form and you can place a new lay here.
  2. Do nothing. You run the risk of losing your liability at the exchange though, so only do this if you are comfortable with the risks.