what is a dutch bet in horse racing?

December 18, 2020

You may have heard of the term Dutch betting but not known what it means. The fact is that many people out there will have placed a Dutch bet in the past, without ever realising it.

To keep this simple, Dutch betting is when you back more than one outcome in an event to try and cover multiple options and give yourself more chance of winning. The key that makes Dutch betting become that, rather than just backing two runners, is because with Dutch betting you stake accordingly to ensure that both bets would pay the same amount if successful.

An Example of Dutch Betting

Let’s take a horse race to give an example.

We have a six runner race, and you are going to back two of the runners to edge your bets.

Horse A is priced at 5/2 and you place £2 to win on it.
Horse B is priced at 6/1 and you place £1 to win on it.

The other four runners have nothing on them, you will lose all your stakes if any of those wins.

If Horse A wins, you will get back £7, if Horse B wins you will get back £7 and if neither win you will lose £3.

The Pros of Dutch Betting

There are certainly pros to Dutch betting, with one of them being that you are more likely to win. If you are backing numerous outcomes then you are more likely to pick up a return because of that. This is especially the case if you are betting on events that have a small number of outcomes, such as football for example.

If you pick two outcomes here, you are only leaving one possible outcome not covered, so you have things stacked in your favour in terms of the number of outcomes and which ones you are covering.

Another positive of Dutch betting is that you can get the same return regardless of which one of your outcomes is a winner. Some people will place a bet and then have a saver on something else, this is backing two outcomes, but not Dutching, because the stakes don’t offer the same returns.

With Dutching, you can work out your stakes so that if you win, you know you are going to win well and not just save and get your money back.

Are There Any Disadvantages of Dutch Betting?

Dutching is not for everyone, and there is one big disadvantage that you need to keep in your mind. This is that you are placing multiple bets on one possible outcome, so you are guaranteeing yourself at least one losing bet.

If you back a team to win and also back the draw in a football game then you are automatically giving yourself a loss from the start, because only one outcome can win. The same goes for any type of bet you place when you Dutch selections together.

Yes, you have more chance to win, but you are going to create losing bets for yourself because only one possible winner can come from the bet and you are backing more than one outcome.

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