How to Place an Each Way Bet

One of the most popular ways to place a bet on a horse is the ‘Each-Way’ bet, often written as e/w and the straight forward guide below should help you navigate this fairly simple process so that you get the most from your money!

So when do you bet each-way on a horse? Ideally, it’s when you believe that the horse you fancy will finish the race in either 2nd or 3rd place.

Sometimes this extends to 4th place if the race has 16+ horses running. The number of places paid out by the bookmaker will be stipulated on the odds page for each race.

So why 2nd or 3rd place? Often there is a race favourite who is almost guaranteed to be a shoo-in. In that case, backing your horse to win isn’t the most logical thing to do.

However, on the off chance that your horse does win, the each-way bet covers 1st place as well.

Each Way Bet Broken Down

The Each-Way can be broken down as follows:

If you bet £1 each-way, it’ll cost you £2 and that is because the first £1 covers your horse for winning the race and the second part of the bet covers your horse if it fails to win but manages to finish in 2nd, 3rd or 4th place.

You can’t bet on a horse each way if the race has less than 5 runners. Plus a race with 5 ~ 7 runners will only payout on 1st and 2nd place.

Check The Odds First

Make sure that you check the odds on your chosen horse because each-way bets only pay out either 1/4 or 1/5 of the quoted odds.

As an example, if you back a horse each way at odds of 10/1 and the horse wins you get £10 for every one pound that you bet.

But if the horse comes second and the bookmaker pays out 1/4 odds on 2nd or 3rd place, you will only get back £2.50 for every pound that you bet.

That drops to £2 for every pound that you bet if the bookmaker is paying out 1/5 odds.

Basically, you shouldn’t back a horse each way unless its odds are over 6/1, because you could never win enough to cover your original stake.

How To Place An Each Way Bet Online

The image above, of the Gold Cup 2022 odds, gives a very good example of how to place an each-way bet online.

• Go to your preferred bookmaker and login to your account
• Select ‘horse racing’ on the menu on the side of the page
• Pick the race you would like to bet on
• Click the ‘odds’ beside the horse you would like to back
• The betting slip opens on your screen
• Type in the amount of money you would like to stake
• Click the ‘each way’ box
• Confirm your bet

That really is all there is to it. It’s quick and easy but you must already have an online account to place the bet.

For big race meetings such as Cheltenham, it is recommended that you open an account before the festival starts. That is for two reasons.

It can take a little bit of time to set everything up when you register. And there are also some great betting offers on the run-up to the big races so you don’t want to miss out on those.