Horse Bet Calculator - Figure Out Returns From Horse Racing Bets

Q: What happens if there’s a Dead Heat?

If there’s a Dead Heat, then all bets pay out at half of your stake to the full Starting Price (SP). This is a well-established Rule that applies to horse racing betting.

Q: Why are horse racing bets offered as fractions?

It’s traditional. Dating back to way before predecimalization, bets placed on course were based on a unit currency of half crowns. Fractions were an obvious method of working out stakes to profits in that era.

Q: How do I calculate Rule 4 deductions?

There’s a table containing the various Rule 4 deductions relative to the price of a withdrawn horse on this page. Alternatively, you can get our horse bet calculator to do all the maths for you by inputting the right information into the tool after selecting Rule 4 as an option.

Q: What are the rules governing each way bets in horse racing?

Rule 3 of Tattersalls Rules on betting takes care of each way wagers on horse racing events. These specify what industry standard place terms should be offered as a minimum by bookmakers and the fractions of outright odds available.

Jamie Clark

Equine expert

Updated: 21 August 2023

Horse racing has some of the most complex bets to figure out payments on of any sport that people gamble on. We can help you there with our free to use horse bet calculator that takes all the hard work away and automatically shows you what you can win from your wagers.

Single & Each Way

Stake:

Odds Format:

Each Way:

Yes No

Odds:

Rule 4:

Result:

Total Stake

Total Return

Total Profit

What is a Horse Bet Calculator?

Yes, it’s true. The above horse racing bet calculator is free to use, so you can get any punts you’ve taken all worked out for you. No other sport offered by online betting sites and bookmakers has quite such an inextricable link to gambling as this one. Horse racing has helped the industry develop down the decades before being superseded by football in recent times.

An automatic horse bet calculator payout is generated by our handy tool once you’ve entered all the relevant information it needs. This sure beats working everything out in your head. Given that so many different types of wager were innovations in response to gambling demand for horse racing betting, we’ve put loads of options and functions into the calculator.

Understanding what you could win overall, including total returns and profits relative to a certain stake, is a key part in the decision making progress. It influences not only how you bet, but how much you put on. Just try our horse racing bet calculator free of charge and see for yourself.

Using Our Horse Bet Calculator Online

When developing this great tool, we made sure it was simple to use. We’re sure you’ll agree once you’ve had a go with our calculator for horse racing bets. If you do need guidance on how it works, then just follow these steps:

Choose the horse racing bet type for the range of options listed on the calculator’s top
Pick the odds format. When it comes to horse racing in the UK, fractional prices are traditional.
Put your desired stake into the relevant box. You can adjust this up or down at any time.
Enter the betting odds of your wager. With fractions, get the numerator and denominator in the right boxes.
If you’ve gone each way with your horse racing bet, there’s a Yes / No option and you should select the former.
Hopefully you’ll avoid a Rule 4 deduction, but we’ve included this function in our horse bet calculator if it applies.
Input the outcome of the wager into the Results box. It’s either Won, Placed, Dead Heat, Lost or Void.
All that’s left now is to click on calculate. You can view total returns and profit in separate boxes.

How the Each Way Horse Bet Calculator Works

You can combine win and place wagers in an each way bet on horse racing, if you wish. The concept here is that a fraction of outright odds pays for a place. Certain factors and Rules we’ll discuss later govern the terms offered. We’ve built all this into our calculation tool for you.

Whether your fancy wins or just runs into a place, our horse racing bet calculator each way function covers all bases. Just click Yes, rather than No, in the relevant box. You can see the scenario in terms of a payout if your chosen runner finishes second, or what you get as a total return when backing a winner each way.

You will need to enter the right fractions in the Place Terms box too. We’ll have more on this in a moment, but when using our horse bet calculator each way you will typically enter either a quarter or a fifth here. Those are the fractions of outright win prices that apply to wagers on the sport of kings.

Place Terms

Tattersalls Rule 3 sets out the minimum terms that bookies both on and off course are allowed to offer for each way bets. It should be stressed these are industry standards and, if they say so wish, bookmakers can and do provide extra places on races:

Number of Runners	Places Offered	Fraction of Outright Win Odds
1-4	None offered	None
5-7	2	1/4
8 or more in conditions races	3	1/5
12-15 in handicap races	3	1/4
16 or more in handicap races	4	1/4

When using our tool, just make sure that you include the right Place Terms that were offered to you by the bookies. It’s worth remembering that these can be revised down in the event of non-runners. While that’s unfortunate, you can rest assured that this calculator is flexible enough to deal with that. There’s nothing about horse races that it can’t do, which brings us on to..

Rule 4

A Rule 4 deduction is a function of our horse bet calculator UK punters won’t want to have to use, but the reality is these do apply to any wagers apart from ante post betting done in advance, so we’ve included it. When there are non-runners after final declarations and withdrawn horses have a price of 14/1 or shorter, then this comes into effect.

Some bookies will waive a Rule 4 deduction at 14/1, but the shorter the odds of the absent runner, then the bigger the deduction. As the below table shows, these increase in increments of five pence (5p) in the Pound sterling (£) as follows:

Price of Runner	Size of Deduction
Over 14/1	None
10/1 – 14/1	5p for every £1 bet
6/1 – 9/1	10p
9/2 – 11/2	15p
16/5 – 4/1	20p
12/5 to 3/1	25p
9/5 to 9/4	30p
8/5 to 7/4	35p
5/4 to 6/4	40p
Evs to 6/5	45p
20/21 to 5/6	50p
4/5 to 4/6	55p
8/13 to 4/7	60p
8/15 to 4/9	65p
2/5 to 1/3	70p
30/100 to 2/7	75p
1/4 to 1/5	80p
2/11 to 2/17	85p
1/9 or shorter	90p

Source: Tattersalls Committee Rules on Betting

If you include a Rule 4 when calculating your bet, just enter the correct information about the size of the deduction. That’s all you have to do. The tool takes care of the rest.

Dead Heats

When two (or more) horses can’t be separated in a Photo finish, a Dead Heat is called. That means there is no outright winner of the race. Special rules apply to any bets placed on such events. Instead of wagers being settled at the odds you took, half of your stake to the full Starting Price (SP).

This is another function packed in to our horse bet calculator to help you see what happens in that eventuality. Just select Dead Heat from the list of options for the Results box and enter the SP of the horse you bet on. Our tool then calculates everything for you, so you aren’t scratching your head trying to figure out what the returns and profit should be in this scenario.

Other Popular Wagers on Our Horse Racing Bet Calculator

Of course, our calculator isn’t exclusive to just horse racing and you can use it to figure out any sports bets that you’ve had. Here are some of the other common wagers that punters place that you can work out right now for free:

Single Bet Calculator – see the potential profits from win singles today
Double Bet Calculator – check out what doubles pay if you pull them off
Bet Accumulator Calculator – discover how much an acca is worth
Lucky 15 Bet Calculator – figure out returns on a Lucky 15 of your choice
Each Way Bet Calculator – win and place scenarios on each way bets revealed

FAQs

What happens if there’s a Dead Heat?

Why are horse racing bets offered as fractions?

How do I calculate Rule 4 deductions?

What are the rules governing each way bets in horse racing?

Jamie Clark

Equine expert

Horse racing expert Jamie Clark joined the SafeBettingSites team in 2021 after a decade working in related industries. Hailing from a strong gambling background, he is now the master behind our Academy, breaking down and explaining betting jargon and key terms. Jamie can aid you in better understanding what they all mean. He uses his vast knowledge of horse racing and other popular betting sports to pull the curtain back on popular wagers by providing advice and strategy on how to make these work best for punters. After honing his skills as the sports editor of major betting brand Coral, Jamie forged a successful freelance career working with bookmakers to provide informative content just like that in the Betting Academy.

View all posts by Jamie Clark

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