Win Betting

When it comes to betting on horse racing, there generally tends to be two types of people: the risk averse and those that like to go all-in on their bet. The risk averse will also be inclined to opt for an Each-Way bet, hoping that by giving themselves a few more places they’ll be able to ensure that they see at least some form of return on their wager. Those that like to take the attitude of ‘go big or go home’, however, will often look towards the Win bet as it feels like a single shot at success, resulting in either victory or nothing. It’s the latter bet that we’re talking about here and the one that is the most risk-reward based when you’re betting on the Grand National.

A Win bet is exactly how it sounds: it is a bet on your horse winning the race and if your selection or selections fail to do just that then your win will be a loser. There are advantages and disadvantages to this type of bet, as you might imagine. For starters, by opting out of the Each-Way option you don’t need to pay twice the stake amount, thereby allowing you to go bigger on your bet and therefore win more if it’s successful. The downside is that you don’t get the protection of the Each-Way bet, meaning that if your horse finishes in a place then you just have the agony of knowing you came so close but ultimately failed.

What Is A Win Bet

Very simply put, a Win bet is one placed on a horse to win the race. That’s it. No ifs, buts or maybes, you know exactly where you stand with a Win bet. Whilst an Each-Way bet throws up all sorts of questions about how many places are paid out on, how much you’ll get with different bookmakers and so on, a Win bet has a simple formula: if you win you’ll be paid your stake times the odds you took.

How to Place A Win Bet

Everything about a Win wager is relatively simple to understand, including how to place the bet in the first place. Unlike with the Each-Way bet, wherein you need to actively go out of your way to select the additional Each-Way part of the bet, a Win bet is the default type of bet you can place with most bookmakers.

In other words, if you login to your account, find the horse that you want to bet on and select it, entering your stake amount, the bet will be a Win one unless you do something specific to make it a different kind of wager. Let’s say that you’ve logged into your bookie of choice and seen ThisHorseMightWin as one of the horses taking place in the Grand National, with odds of 35/1.

You’ve selected the horse and staked £50 on it to Win. It runs the race and one of the following two things happens:

• It finished 2nd
• It wins

In option 1 you get no money back whatsoever. Your bet was a losing one so your stake disappears into the coffers of your chosen bookmaker and there’s nothing you can do about it.

In option 2, however, your bet is a solid gold winner. Your £50 is converted into 50 x 35, which is £1,750, with the £50 stake also being returned to you for a total of £1,800 entering your account.

You’d have won money with Option 1 if you’d gone with an Each-Way bet, of course, but the nature of the stake being doubled means that you’d either have had to spend £100 in the first place or else bet £25 on the Win and £25 on the Place, such is the nature of Each-Way betting.

You can see, then, why a Win bet is a real risk-reward offering, especially in a race as competitive as the Grand National.

Is It The Right Bet Type For The Grand National?

Only you can know what bet type is right for you, but the thing to think about when it comes to Win bets and the Grand National is that the world’s greatest steeplechase is also one of the most difficult to predict a winner on. The favourite for the race rarely wins, with most punters often having several smaller bets rather than one big one in order to cover their bases.

Of course, the flip side of that is that you’re putting yourself in a situation where if you win the winnings you’ll collect will be much more impressive than if you’d opted for an Each-Way wager for the same total stake. Looking at the example above, your winnings would have been as follows if you’d only wanted to stake a maximum of £50:

Win Bet: £50 x 35 = £1,750 + £50 stake = £1,800

Each-Way Bet: £25 on Win is £25 x 35 = £875 + £25 stake = £900, £25 on Place with payout of 1/4 of odds is £25 x 8.75 = £218.75 + £25 stake = £243.75. £900 + £243.75 = £1,143.75

It’s a difference of more than £650 in winnings for the same result. Obviously a win is better in terms of payout, then, but how disappointed would you be if you’d bet on the Win and seen your horse come in second, meaning you get no money instead of the £243.75 you’d have got back if you’d opted for the Each-Way wager?

Things To Think About

As well as the amount of money you might or might not see returned to you if you’d placed a winning bet, the other key thing to bear in mind is that the only thing that matters is the odds being offered on the horse.

If you’ve read the Each-Way article on this site then you’ll know that it’s important to think about how many places a bookie is willing to pay out on for the Grand National as well as the odds they’ll pay out at for the place.

When the National rolls around, the biggest bookies in the country try to outdo each each by offering larger Place payments, sometimes up to as many as 6, as well as paying out at 1/4 instead of 1/5.

With the Win bet, you simply don’t need to worry yourself with any of that, concentrating exclusively on the best possible odds you can find. Shop around and see which bookie is promising the best odds on the horse that you’re looking to bet on as there will be a discrepancy between them, especially if some bookmakers are offering Best Odds Guarantees an others aren’t.

The other thing to think about is how much you’re going to be betting. If you’re the sort of person who tends to opt for £1 or £2 bets then is it really worth opting for an Each-Way bet? Let’s say that you’ve decided to bet £2 in total on ThisHorseMightWin with a bookie offering to pay 1/4 of the odds for the top 6 places. Here’s how the numbers look:

Win Bet: £2 x 35 = £70 + £2 stake = £72

Each-Way Bet: £1 on Win x 35 = £35 + £1 stake = £36. £1 on Place at 1/4 odds is £1 x 8.75 = £8.75 + £1 stake = £9.75. Total is £36 + £9.75 = £45.75

Obviously if your horse finishes in the places then £9.75 is better than nothing, but when you’re betting such small amounts it makes sense to simply bet on the win rather than lose as much as £26 by opting for the Each-Way offering.

If you can afford to double your bet to £4 then it might be worth it, but even so it’s still a small amount that maybe doesn’t need the Each-Way part of the bet.