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Ian Bruce

The horse bet calculator provided on this page will let you work out returns for a variety of wagers. Whether you bet on singles – win or each way – or you try your luck with doubles, trebles and accumulators, this calculator can handle almost any wager you throw at it. Try it today, and it could soon become one of the most valuable tools in your betting arsenal.

Single & Each Way
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Total Stake

Total Return

Total Profit

Why Use a Horse Racing Bet Calculator?

There are several good reasons for using a calculator to figure out your horse betting winnings. It’s not essential, of course. We know many old-timers who still do things the hard way with a pad, pencil and horse racing ready reckoner in hand. But times have changed, and these days it simply isn’t necessary to work out bets manually. Here are just a few reasons why we prefer to take the horse betting calculator approach.

Handle Varied Bet Types

Horse racing is one of the most popular sports to bet on in the UK. To cater for that widespread popularity, bookmakers offer their customers an equally wide range of bets. You can bet on singles, doubles, trebles, accumulators, Lucky 15s and a whole lot more.

While that’s great news for bettors, different types of bets need to be calculated in different ways. Do things manually, and you’ll need to remember how to work out each type. But when using our betting calculator horse racing fans can let it do both the remembering and all of the required number-crunching, too.

The types of bets that our horse bet calculator can handle are summarised in the table below:

Bet Type Definition
Win Single A bet on a single selection to win the race.
Each Way Single A bet on a single selection to win or get a place.
Double A bet on two different horses in two different races – win or each way.
Treble A bet on three different horses in three different races – win or each way.
Accumulator A bet on four or more horses in their respective races – win or each way.
Lucky 15 A bet on four horses for singles, doubles, trebles and an accumulator.

Handle Racing Rules

Different bet types make things tricky enough in horse racing. But the sport also has plenty of special rules that can further complicate matters. For example, when a horse is withdrawn from a race, it can lead to a Rule 4 deduction being imposed on all bets that have already been made on other runners. Another rule comes into place should two or more horses finish the race in a dead heat. And then there’s the possibility of a bet or race being declared void.

Again, these are all things that our horse racing bet calculator can take in its stride. So unless you really want to keep a chart of Rule 4 deductions handy and do things the old-fashioned way, using a calculator to figure things out is a lot easier.

Speed and Accuracy

With a bet calculator horse racing fans can work out their returns much faster than they would by relying on their own brainpower. We’re all for brain training, but sometimes it’s important to be able to calculate returns quickly. If you try to do things manually at speed, you’re likely to make a mistake or two. But a horse racing odds calculator can perform hundreds of calculations in a fraction of a second with perfect accuracy.

Convenience

All of that leads us to the final reason for using our horse racing betting calculator – convenience. Because it’s designed to be accessed via any web browser, you can use it wherever you have an internet connection. Whether you’re using a desktop computer, a tablet or your smartphone, the horse racing bet calculator free app is at your service at any time of the day or night.

How to Use Our Horse Bet Calculator

As we’ve said, the horse racing odds calculator on this page is incredibly flexible and can be used to work out a variety of bets. But that doesn’t make it difficult to use. On the contrary, all you have to do to calculate your payout is follow the simple steps outlined below:

  1. Select Bet Type

    Begin by selecting the type of bet that you want to calculate. You do this by tapping one of the buttons at the top of the calculator. Your options here are: Single & Each Way, Doubles, Trebles, Accumulator or Lucky 15. If you want to use the horse racing bet calculator each way then also make sure that the Each Way selector is toggled to Yes.
  2. Choose Odds Format

    You can now choose the format of the odds that you want to enter into the calculator. The horse bet calculator UK default setting is for fractional odds, as those are also the default at most UK-based bookmakers. However, if you are using online betting sites that display odds in decimal or American formats, it’s a good idea to set the calculator Odds Format to match.
  3. Select Place Term

    You will only need to do this if you are calculating an each-way bet. In that case, a Place Term field will be visible. This is where you should select the fraction that the bookmaker will apply to the place part of your bet, as detailed in the betting market. For example, if the betting market says that each way bets will be settled at 1/4 the odds, you would select 1/4 in the Place Term window.
  4. Enter Your Unit Stake

    The next step is to enter the amount that you have bet. You should enter the unit stake rather than the total outlay. For example, if you have bet £5 each way, you would enter 5, and the Total Stake window will automatically show that you have wagered £10 in total. Or, if you have bet £1 per unit on an each-way Lucky 15, the Total Stake window will show a total of £30.
  5. Enter the Odds

    You can now enter the odds that you took about each of your bets. When entering decimal or American odds, simply type the number into the Odds field. For fractional odds, enter the left side of the odds in the left field and the right side of the odds in the right field.
  6. Select the Result

    Now it’s time to select the result for each of your selections. The Result field is a simple pulldown menu that allows you to select Won, Placed, Dead Heat, Lost or Void. If a bet is subject to a Rule 4 deduction, you should also select the size of that deduction via the Rule 4 pulldown menu. The odds calculator will then be able to take that into account when working out your winnings.
  7. Calculate!

    The last step of all is to hit the Calculate button. All of the information you have provided will be processed in less than a second. The horse bet calculator payout details will then appear in the Total Return and Total Profit windows. The Total Return tells you how much money you will get back from the bookie in total, inclusive of your stake. Total Profit excludes the stake to show you how much profit the bet has made.

Place Terms Explained

An each-way horse racing bet is made up of two separate bets. One is a bet on the selection to win the race, and if it is successful, it will be settled at the published odds. The other is a bet on the selection to get a place in the race. Placing is obviously easier than winning, so the place bet will be settled at a fraction of the win odds to reflect that.

The fraction that will be applied for the place part of an each-way bet will be stated for each betting market. Here’s how the fractions normally apply in horse racing betting according to race type and the number of runners involved:

Number of Runners / Race Type Places Paid Fraction Applied
1 to 4 No Place Betting Not Applicable
5 to 7 1st and 2nd 1/4
8 or more 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1/5
12 to 15 (handicap races only) 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1/4
16 or more (handicap races only) 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th 1/4

Rule 4 in a Nutshell

The odds available about horses in a race reflect their chances against the other runners. When a horse is withdrawn from a race, it can give the remaining horses an advantage. For that reason, any bets already placed on the other runners may see returns being reduced via a Rule 4 deduction. This only happens when the withdrawn horse is priced at 14/1 or less.

Rule 4 deductions are declared as the number of pence that will be deducted from every £1 of profit made. The shorter the price of the withdrawn horse, the bigger the Rule 4 deduction will be, as illustrated in the following table:

Fractional Odds of Withdrawn Horse Rule 4 Deduction
14/1 or longer No Deduction
10/1 to 14/1 5p
6/1 to 9/1 10p
9/2 to 11/2 15p
16/5 to 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
1/1 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
3/10 to 2/7 75p
1/4 to 1/5 80p
2/11 to 2/17 85p
1/9 or shorter 90p

When a Rule 4 deduction is announced, simply select the declared deduction into the Rule 4 box of the bet calculator. That information will then be applied to your profit, which is of course determined by your stake and the horse racing odds that have also been entered.

Dead Heats and Void Races

There are two other things that our calculator takes care of, when applicable. Those are dead-heat finishes and void races. Here are the rules that apply in each case:

Dead Heats

When two or more horses cross the winning line at exactly the same moment, a dead heat will be declared. In this case, your bet on a winning horse will be divided by the number of horses involved in the dead heat before being settled at the published odds. For example, if you bet £10 on a horse at 5/1 and it finishes in a dead heat with one other runner, your stake will be divided by two. You would therefore have a £5 bet settled at 5/1.

Horse Racing 2

Void Bets

In some cases, a bet will be declared void. This can happen for a number of reasons, but in horse racing it’s usually due to your horse being withdrawn or the race being postponed or abandoned due to bad weather. When you’ve made a single bet that is declared void – either to win or each way – your stake will be refunded. If you have a void selection in a bet with multiple selections, such as an accumulator, that selection will simply be treated as a non-runner. The rest of the bet would then continue running as normal for the remaining selections.

Other Free Bet Calculator Applications

With our odds calculator horse racing fans can quickly and easily determine how much their winning bets will return. But it doesn’t stop there. Our horse bet calculator can also be used for other sports. We have instructions for anyone who wants to use an each way bet calculator, accumulator calculator, Lucky 15 calculator and more. You’ll find more information about all of that, along with a full list of the calculator pages available, on our Free Bet Calculator page.

FAQ

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Ian Bruce

Ian Bruce joined Safest Betting Sites in 2024 as Senior Sports Editor to oversee the quality and usefulness of its gambling content. He originally developed an interest in betting after landing a winning Yankee on his first attempt. He then spent years figuring out how to replicate that success. Along the way, he became one of the UK’s leading writers on the topic of betting and gaming. Ian’s career has now spanned more than three decades, and his enthusiasm for systematic and responsible betting hasn’t waned one bit. However, his preferred approach to winning these days is Dutching, for the simple reason that “It’s a lot easier than landing Yankees.”