Last Updated on May 10, 2023 by The Betting Dad Team

Bookmaker’s extra place offers allow you to use a Matched Betting strategy that will significantly increase your monthly profits.

The extra place strategy can seem complicated at first but it shouldn’t be too difficult to grasp if you already understand the basics of Matched Betting.

Using this strategy has some great benefits:

– You can use your gubbed accounts

– It’s low risk

– You can make high returns

These benefits make it one of our personal favourite Matched Betting strategies.

You can use this strategy for both horse racing and golf tournaments.

In this guide, we’ll mainly refer to horse racing.

When using this strategy, you’ll find yourself in the strange position of cheering a horse to finish in a specific position, not 1st, but usually 4th or 5th! 

We’ll explain all and go through an example.

But first, let’s look at what exactly extra place offers are.

What Are Extra Place Offers?

To clearly understand extra place offers, you first need to know what an each-way bet is.

We’ll explain specifically for a horse racing each way bet:

An each-way (sometimes written as EW or E/W) bet is two separate bets:

– The first for a horse to win

– The second for the same horse to place in any of the place positions offered in that race.

This means you will receive a return on your bet if your selection wins, but also if it just places.

Typically, in an 18 horse race, there would be 4 places to be paid from an each-way bet.

However, each day there are usually several bookmakers offering extra places for certain races.

Here, bookmaker Will Hill is offering to pay 5 places instead of 4 for the place part of an each-way bet:

Bookmakers offer extra places to compete with each other to try and tempt more punters to bet with them.

You can use a Matched Betting strategy to take advantage of this competition between bookies.

How To Take Advantage Of Extra Place Offers

As we explain the extra place strategy, we’re going to assume you understand back and lay bets and how betting exchanges work.

If you don’t yet, don’t worry, you can learn all the basics here in our Matched Betting guide.

You can take advantage of the extra place offers because the number of paid places by the bookmaker is greater than the betting exchange place market.

For example:

Smarket’s ‘To Place’ market will payout on the top 4 horses for this race.

For the same race, Will Hill is offering to pay 5 places instead of 4.

This is the difference you can use to our advantage.

When the odds are close between a bookmaker and a betting exchange, you can take advantage of extra place offers by placing the following bets:

– An each-way back bet at the bookmaker

– One lay bet on a betting exchange ‘To Win’ market

– One lay bet on a betting exchange ‘To Place’ market

By doing this, you create a very low-risk chance of a high return.

If the horse you bet on finishes in the extra place (5th in the above example), you make a healthy profit.

If the horse finishes in any other position, you make a small loss.

It’s a simple process but can be difficult to understand.

We’ll go through an example to look at exactly how the maths works.

We’ll explain why it results in either a small loss or a nice profit.

Extra Place Strategy Example

We found a horse at odds of 21 at a bookmaker offering to pay out on 5 places instead of 4 places.

Using OUTPLAYED‘s Each Way Calculator, we entered the bookmaker and Smarkets odds.

With these odds, by placing a £20 each-way bet and the suggested lay bets, we would stand to make £99.09 profit if our horse finishes 5th.

Or lose £0.91 if our horse finishes in any other position. 

(The bookmaker total stake is £40. Made up from 2x£20 bets for the each-way bet).

After placing all the bets required, there are 4 possible scenarios which will determine if we make a small loss or a profit.

The horse will either finish:

– 1^st

– 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th

– 5^th

– 6^th or any other place not mentioned

To help show you exactly where the small qualifying loss and potential profit come from, we made this graphic:

You can see how each of the four possible scenarios results in either a small loss or a profit.

Using this strategy when the odds are close between the bookmakers and exchanges means you can take a lot of value.

If you take our potential profit on the example above (£99.09) and divide it by the amount at risk (£0.91) you can work out the implied odds for this bet.

99.09/0.91 = 109 (approx)

So, essentially you are getting odds of around 108/1 for a bet on a horse to finish 5th.

Considering the odds for the horse to come 1st in the race were 20/1, that is exceptional value.

By placing these value bets you will be ensuring you profit over the long run.

Where To Find Extra Place Races

You can use OUTPLAYED‘s Extra Place Catcher to find value opportunities.

The Extra Place Catcher has a dropdown box which lists all events with extra place offers available each day.

 

 

You can simply select a horse race (or golf tournament) from the options available.

The Extra Place Matcher will then bring up the best odds matches between the bookmakers offering extra places and the betting exchanges.

 

There is no need to use a calculator when using the OUTPLAYED Extra Place Catcher.

You start by entering the each-way stake you want to place at a bookmaker.

The Extra Place Catcher will then automatically update to show you what lay stakes you need to place for your ‘Win Lay’ and ‘Place Lay’.

 

 

It will also display your implied odds (IMP ODDS), your worst-case potential profit or loss (QUAL LOSS) and your potential profit should your selection finish in the extra place (EXTRA PLACE PROFIT).

After you have placed all the bets needed, you can save the bet.

This is really handy for reference when checking results later on.

Backing Multiple Runners: How To Maximise Extra Place Offers Earnings

You might be thinking it’s highly unlikely for your horse to finish in one exact place.

Well, you can increase your chance of hitting that lucrative extra place by backing more than one selection.

Using horse racing again as an example:

If the odds are close enough on more than one horse in a race.

You should be looking to place as many bets using the extra place strategy as possible (as far as your bankroll allows).

We would recommend avoiding placing anymore than two bets per race per bookmaker if the account is not gubbed already.

Remember, your ‘Win Lay’ liability will only cost you the highest liability you’ve already placed.

So, if for example, you have layed a horse using £400 to cover the liability in the ‘To Win’ market.

If the next horse you want to lay in the ‘Win Market’ requires a liability of anything less than £400, you won’t need any additional funds to place that lay bet.

The same applies to the ‘To Place’ market.

Although you’ll first need to lay at least the number of horses due to be paid in that market.

What’s The Catch With This Offer?

There is no real catch with this offer.

However, to earn the significant amounts you might have read others making, you’ll need a big bankroll and patience.

You can in theory place as large a stake as the bookmakers will allow.

Provided you have the funds in your betting exchange to cover the each-way bet, you’ll stand to win hundreds or thousands if your horse finishes in the extra place.

With that said, there is nothing wrong with using whatever bankroll you have.

Regardless of stake size, you will still be taking fantastic value.

It’s also important to be patient, you might use this strategy numerous times and not hit an extra place.

By being patient and persistent you will eventually hit one and it will all start to feel worth it.

The other word of caution is to make sure you are very comfortable placing these bets, especially when upping your stakes.

If you placed a lay bet on the wrong horse, for example, you would potentially be looking at a large loss.

By double and triple-checking your bets, these mistakes can be avoided.

Extra Place Offers Final Thoughts

We hope this guide has helped you understand how the extra place Matched Betting strategy works.

More importantly, we hope you feel confident enough to give it a go yourself.

It’s not always possible to find close odds matches between bookmakers and betting exchanges.

But it’s well worth checking OUTPLAYED‘s Extra Place Catcher occasionally for value.

The best day for opportunities is typically Saturdays or whenever there is a big horse racing festival taking place.

When you do hit an extra place it will give your Matched Betting profits a major boost.