When it comes to football betting there are numerous options available and one of the many that you can choose from is an each-way bet. Sometimes referenced in the industry as ‘ew betting’, it offers two possible outcomes for punters to back.
Which means for those who have asked the question, what is an each-way bet in football? You should now begin to get a better idea of its meaning. However, we are not going to simply leave the article there. Instead, we are going to dive much deeper into how it works.
LOOK EACH WAY
While a good starting point as any is the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the Golden Boot market. For those who are unaware of this particular award, it is handed out to the player who scores the most individual goals in the tournament.
The Golden Boot Is Awarded To The Player Who Scores The Most Goals
To bring this each way bet definition to further life, we can now take a look at the current odds:
Here are the top 12 players in the market. Admittedly this is not the full list of candidates, but a realistic list of runners and riders. As you can see it is France’s Kylian Mbappe who currently finds himself as favourite.
While if you were to place £10 of your hard-earned money on the star and he eventually scooped the Golden Boot award, his efforts in front of goal would convert that stake into £40 worth of winnings.
However, this bet is nothing less than win or bust. If the 23-year-old finishes second in the standings, that £10 stake is going straight to the bookmaker with no return. While the same could be said for backing either Richarlison or Lionel Messi below.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi Previously Starred At Barcelona
Although the South American pair find themselves at longer odds and could offer more in the way of value, that value will not be found if second or third turns out to be their respective finishing positions.
Then again, all is lost either and this is where an each-way bet comes in to practice. Let’s take the example of Kylian Mbappe and the Golden Boot market. A standard bet would require him to win the award for you to subsequently win, an each-way bet would allow a top-four finish instead.
Although this top-four finish does come with some cost attached to it and for two different reasons. First, when betting each-way bet you have to place two different stakes. Secondly, the second part of the bet does not return the full odds.
If we consider an each-way bet as another form of insurance, this policy like any other will come at a cost and if we take the £10 stake that we mentioned above, we now have to split this in two different directions.
GOLD OR SILVER
This time we are betting £5 on Mbappe to win the Golden Boot, we are then betting the other £5 on Mbappe to place (in this case it is a top-four finish, but ultimately the place is set by the bookmaker before the market opens and, in some instances, can be as little as a top-two or three).
Should the player in question get over the line, we would win twice.
£5 at odds of 4.00 (3/1) for the win = £20.00
£5 at odds of 0.75 (Quarter odds of 3/1) for the place = £8.75
Total winnings = £8.75
Of course, Mbappe may only finish second in the Golden Boot race, here the place bet would be a winner and instead of losing everything, you would still make £8.75 for your efforts – a loss of £1.25 but still alive to fight another day.
We can also do the same maths with Richarlison’s odds, if he was to win the Golden Boot, the bets would look as follows:
£5 at odds of 7.5 (13/2) for the win = £37.50
£5 at odds of 1.63 (Quarter odds of 13/2) for the place = £13.13
Total winnings = £50.63
While Richarlison arguably looks better placed to finish second in the Golden Boot market. Once again, the place bet would still be a winner. This would return £13.13 in total and even without the outright win an overall profit of £3.13 would be delivered.
This is a good use of an each-way bet, while a better choice may be Ferran Torres who is currently priced at 15.00 to win the Golden Boot. His chances of an outright win are far slimmer than that of Mbappe or Richarlison ahead of him. However, he does sit neatly in the top-four.
LOOK FURTHER DOWN
If we use the same stakes above, Torres’ potential winners would look as follows:
If You Are Unsure On How The Bet Works, Use An Each-Way Calculator
£5 at odds of 15 (14/1) for the win = £75.00
£5 at odds of 3.50 (Quarter odds of 14/1) for the place = £22.50
Total winnings = £97.50
If we assume that a late flurry of tournament goals from Torres are not recorded but he still chips in for Spain, a top-four finish would be secured. One that still returns an overall profit of £12.50 once both stakes are accounted for.
Which is a far greater use of the each-way bet. Here, a punter has theoretically identified greater value in the market and even though a personal accolade has not been handed out to the Barcelona forward, his performance was still good enough to be converted into financial gain elsewhere.
In terms of the best tactics in the each-way market, betting on the favourite is not the way to go. If you are that confident in their ability, you should always back them to win in a standalone bet. You do not have to split your original stake; you may get bigger winnings if your faith is repaid.
However, if you like the look of a member of the chasing pack and do not want to put all your eggs in an outright basket, backing them in the each-way market is exactly the thing to do. It is not win or bust and even a fourth-place finish is likely to return a profit.
