Dutching As a Form of Lay Betting in Horse Racing Handicapping

Lay betting is very popular for a very good reason. While it is often difficult or impossible to pick a winner in almost any race you can spot a few horses who are almost certain losers. For this reason, lay betting has become very popular.

Unfortunately, lay betting isn’t available in the United States, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t do a form of lay betting using dutching. The whole idea behind lay betting is that you are betting that some other horse will win because the horse you lay the bet on is going to lose. When you successfully lay bet your return is even money.

In order to achieve even money you can bet on three horses to win and if each is at least at 5-1 then you will double your money, the same payout as an even money score, if any of the three wins. But taking it one step farther, if you use dutching then you can distribute your bets in such a way as to make adjustments for horses going off at less than 5-1 and still show a good profit.

The problem is, and this is a really big one in horse racing, nothing is cast in stone and that horse you thought couldn’t possibly win, sometimes does. That is why lay betting exists and can survive. The people who lay a bet on a horse to lose are sometimes wrong and when they are, they have to pay back what the horse pays to win.

So if you place a lay bet on a 20-1 horse whom you think can possibly win, but it does, then you have to pay back $2 for every $2 you bet against the winner. You are risking $42 to win $2. That is why dutching and betting against false favorites is probably still a better deal in the long run as long as you know how to spot a false favorite.