What Are Extra Places In Matched Betting?
Extra places are one of the most highly lucrative offers in matched betting. With that being said extra places arent always easy to get your head around when you first load up OddsMonkeys extra place matcher, however, just like everything in life, the more effort you put in (learning and understanding the process in this case) the more you will get out.
Over the last 18 months I have made some significant profits from horse racing extra places and in this guide, I will provide you with information that will help kickstart your journey into smashing the bookies and the e/w places that they payout on.
The extra place offer in matched betting works by placing 3 different bets, 1 back bet with the bookmaker and 2 separate lay bets with the betting exchange of your choice.
The back bet with the bookmaker isn’t your standard back bet, instead, it covers the horse to win the horse race and it also covers the e/w runner up places that the bookmaker has specified beforehand.
Video Tutorial
How To Do Extra Places?
Once you place the back bet you are then required to first place your “win” lay bet on the betting exchange, this first lay bet will cover the win part of your back bet.
The second lay bet should be placed on the e/w placing of the horse on the betting exchange. It’s important to note that the e/w place lay bet that you place will generally cover at least one place less than what the bookmaker is paying out in e/w places on their website.
So, for example, if the bookmaker has decided they will pay out on four places e/w on a certain race then you should place your lay bet on at least the three-place market or less.
This means that the second lay bet that you place on the exchange covers one place less than what the bookmaker is paying out in extra places and it is this “extra place” that is covered by the bookie but not covered by Betfair or Smarkets which will trigger our profit should the horse land within that position after the race concludes.
If there is more than one extra place difference (for example, if the bookie was paying out on five places and the exchange place lay covered three) this situation is more advantageous for you the matched bettor as you have more chance of getting a larger profit as you have more places for your horse to land in and trigger the profit.
The goal of extra places is to take as small a qualifying loss as you possibly can whilst taking as big a profit as you possibly can should the horse that you are getting on land in an extra place position.
What is an Each Way Bet?
In terms of regular recreational gambling, each way betting is a promotion that bookmakers run which works by allowing you to split up your bet on a horse into two separate bets, the first being your bet on the horse to win the race and the second part betting on the horse to finish in a runner up position.
The runner up positions that your second part of the bet covers when placing an each-way bet with a bookmaker is dependent on the bookmaker, this information will always be displayed on the bookmaker’s website, all bookmakers class the first position and therefore the winner of the race as an each-way positon. (places paid on a race at Catterick highlighted in the image below).
How To Place an Each Way Bet With a Bookmaker?
To place an each-way bet you simply need to select a small check box on your bet slip with the bookmaker that you are looking to place your bet with.
Once you have dont this the back stake that you intend to use will be doubled, for example, using a £10 back stake and selecting “each way” will double down the stake and therefore become a £20 back stake overall, half on the horse to win and the other half on the horse to land within a runner up position.
If the horse wins the race, your return from the bookmaker will be the entire £20 back stake times by the odds that you placed the bet on.
The whole £20 back stake is returned by the bookmakers as they each class the number 1 position in the race and therefore the winner as an each-way/extra place.
If the horse lands in any of the subsequent positions specified as extra places by the bookmaker your return will be the £10 portion of the back bet times by the each-way place odds offered by the bookmaker.
To work out the way bookmakers calculate their each-way place odds you would simply take the initial back odds let’s say 4.5 and minus 1 which equals 3.5.
You would then take that number and divide it by the fractional payout being offered by the bookmaker (this is always specified on the bookmaker’s website and is either ¼ or ⅕ odds).
For example, if the bookie paid out on ⅕ odds like in the above image you would simply do 3.5 / ⅕.
Once you have that result which is 0.7 in my case you would simply add 1 to give you the extra place odds that the bookmaker was offering you for your each-way portion of the bet, for me this would be 1.7.
The Process Of Getting On Horse Racing Extra Places
So I will now walk you through the process of placing all three of these bets. First up we need to load up the extra place matcher on OddsMonkey, this tool is an amazing piece of software that contains lots of value when looking to get on the best EP’s.
Click here to score yourself a free trial of OddsMonkey.
After loading up the extra place matcher the first step is to select the e/w back stake you would like to use with the bookmaker, the stake that you use is multiplied by two as a portion is placed on the horse to win the race and the other portion is placed on the horse to land in one of the runner up positions. After specifying the e/w back stake you are looking to use place the back bet with the bookmaker.
Next, we direct our eyes to the win lay section on the EP matcher and copy the lay stake that the matcher has provided us with. After this, you should jump over the betting exchange and use the stake that was copied from the extra place matcher on OddsMonkey to place a lay bet on the horse to win using the specified odds on the extra place matcher.
We then repeat the same process again in the place lay section of the extra place matcher. We copy the place lay stake displayed on the matcher and then jump to the betting exchange and place the place lay bet.
How To Profit From Extra Places
Finally, after placing all three of our bets and aiming to take as small a qualifying loss and possible by scoring a high match rating on the extra place matcher we can sit back relax and hope to see that the horse we got on lands within an extra place covered by the bookmaker but not covered on the place lay bet on the betting exchange.
A few of my own Extra Places I got on at Royal Ascot in 2021
It is important to note that although highly lucrative and many matched bettors make thousands of pounds each year from extra places, the offer is an advanced offer that may not be suited to everybody, It’s recommended to start slow using small stakes and gradually scale up once you become more confident with the process which can often be fast-moving.
This offer also comes with variance meaning small losing streaks are possible similar to the bet365 2up offer, a good understanding of the maths and your own psychology will be very beneficial to the success you have with this offer.
