A win bet is a bet on something to win.

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

Example

• You bet £50 on a team to win at 1-4 odds.
• If you win you get your £50 bet back + win £50 x 1-4 = £200. So your account gets credited with £250 in total and you've made £200 profit.

An each way (EW) bet is basically two bets:

1. A win a bet (see above)
2. A place bet (a backup bet on a player/team/horse to almost win i.e. come second place)

A £25 each way bet is actually a £50 bet in total (£25 goes to the win bet and the other £25 goes to the place bet).

Example

• You bet on a horse with 5-1 odds.
• The each way terms are 1/4 1,2,3 (means the place bet will pay out at odds of 1/4 of the win odds if your horse finishes in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place).
• You place a £25 each way bet (£50 total).

There are three different outcomes for this bet:

1. Complete loss - If the horse finishes 4th or worse then you lose your entire £50 bet.
   
   
2. Place win - If the horse finishes 2nd or 3rd it is placed.
   • Firstly the £25 bet on the win bet is lost.
   • However the £25 place bet is won - winnings are caluclated on the odds 5-1 and the place fraction 1/4, meaning in this case the place odds are 5-4. So that bet wins £25 x 1.25 = £31.25 + your inital bet giving you a total return of £56.25. Since the bet was £50 the overall profit is £6.25.
     
     
3. Win - The horse comes first hence both bets win.
   • The win bet pays at 5 x £25 = £125 + your £25 win bet back.
   • The place bet pays out as above being £6.25 + your £25 place bet back.
   • In total you win £181.25 of which 131.25 is profit.

A lay bet is a bet for something to lose. So if you lay a horse and the horse loses, you win whereas if you lay a horse and the horse wins, you lose.

Since the rise of betting exchanges this type of bet has grown significantly in popularity over the last few years. In a betting exchange for someone to bet for something to win, someone else must bet for the same thing to lose.

Example

• You lay a horse at 4-1.
• You set a bet of £100 (the amount you would lose if the horse wins)
• As you are giving odds of 4-1, and you have set your max loss at £100, this means you can take bets up to £25, because if the horse wins you'd need to pay winning of 4x£25=£100.
• If the horse loses - you dont have to pay out, so you win the bets of £25 and get back your £100 bet. £25 profit.
• If the horse wins - you have to pay out 4 x £25 = £100 so you lose £100.

Handicaps are essentially win bets but you are betting on a result after it has been adjusted by a handicap. For example in a game where one side is HUGELY outclassed by the other side. The bookies would offer very short odds, say:

Team A 1-25 | Team B 16-1

However to make it more interesting the bookies work out a points handicap which makes the game fairly even.

Team A - 6 4-5 | Team B +5 5-6

So both teams are priced at odds of just under 1-1 and the winner is based on the final score, adjusted by some points.

In this example if you bet on Team A -6 then if Team A win by 7 or more then you win.  If Team A win by 5 or less, then you lose.  If Team A win by exactly 6 then it would be a "Handicap Tie".  If the bookmaker had offered the handicap tie as an option, then your bet would lose, however if they had not then you would get your money back.

As the name suggests a multiple bet is when you combine several bets so that they all have to win for you to win. The consequence is that its much harder to win, but as the odds multiply up, the returns can be huge.

• Doubles - A combination of two bets where both need to win for you to win
  
  
• Trebles - A combination of three bets were all three need to win for you to win
  
  
• Accumulators - Combinations of 4+ bets where they all have to win for you to win.

A Patent is a mixture of multiple and single bets based on three selections. Basically it is seven equal bets divided as shown below:

• 3x single (normal win) bets - one on each selection
  
  
• 3x doubles - each combination of two from the three selections
  
  
• 1x treble on one of the three selections

With this bet only one selection has to win for you to receive a return.

A trixie is a 3 selections bet like a Patent but without the 3 single bets.  Hence there are 4 bets in a Trixie

• 3x doubles - each combination of two from the three selections
  
  
• 1x treble on one of the three selections

A minimum of two selections have to win for you to receive a return.

A Yankee is similar to a Patent only with 4 selections and no single bets, there are 11 bets in total:

• 6x doubles
  
  
• 4x trebles
  
  
• 1x accumulator of all 4

A minimum of two selections have to win for you to receive a return.

A Lucky 15 bet is a 4 selection bet like a Yankee but it also includes bets on the 4 singles.  As the name suggests There are 15 bets in total:

• 4x singles
  
  
• 6x doubles
  
  
• 4x trebles
  
  
• 1x accumulator of all 4

Only one selection has to win for you to receive a return.