Each Way No Lay Betting Guide

This guide will explain the Each Way No Lay (EWNL) betting method!

EWNL can be highly profitable, but it is a high variance technique. You could see long periods of losing money.

You should only consider EWNL if you are an advanced matched bettor with good bankroll management.

What Is An EW Bet?

An Each Way bet is where your bet splits into two; one bet on the horse to win the race, and one bet on it to place. To place means to be a runner up in the race.

Most races pay 2-4 places, so if your horse finishes in one of these positions, the place bet would win. If the horse wins the race, then both the win and place bets would win.

Each way bets have an equal stake placed on the win and place bets. So if you bet £5 each way, this would mean betting a total of £10, £5 on the horse to win, and £5 on it to place.

When placing a bet with a bookie, you will see one set of odds, being the odds for the horse to win the race.

There will also be place terms, which is the number of places the bookie is paying (usually 2-4). There will be a fraction associated with this (usually ¼ or ⅕). If the horse finishes in a place, the bookie will pay out the place bet at the set fraction of the win odds.

If a horse has win odds of 8.0 and the extra place terms are ¼ then we can calculate the place odds as follows:

  • Subtract 1 from the win odds: 8.0 - 1 = 7.0

  • Multiply this number by the place fraction: 7 x 1/4 = 1.75

  • Add one: 1.75 + 1 = 2.75

  • So if we were to place a £5 each way bet, and the horse finished in a place, the payout would be £5 x 2.75 = £13.75

What Is Each Way No Lay?

EWNL is where you place each way bets on horses, without placing any lay bets.

This is very different to how you approach most matched betting offers. It means that if we have a run of losing bets, we could lose a large amount of money.

But, by applying the method discussed below, we do expect to make a profit in the long run.

At the bookmaker, the place odds are linked to the win odds. This suggests that the chance of a horse finishing in a place are always an exact fraction of the chance of that horse winning the race. In reality, this is not the case.

Take a race with 10 runners, and the bookmaker is paying 3 places. There is a very strong favourite, with win odds of 1.4.

All other horses will have high win odds, which also increases their place odds at the bookies. But, two horses have to finish in 2nd and 3rd. The chance of a horse finishing in one of these places could be much better than the price at the bookies suggests. This creates an opportunity for us to profit.

Picking Horses To Bet On

Not all each way bets have value.

In fact the vast majority do not, and we would be losing money by betting on them.

We need to understand how to choose which horses to bet on.

To do this, oddsmatching software (such as Outplayed Each Way Matcher) can often be the best approach.

But, we can manually search too by looking for either back odds arbs, or arbs within the place market.

How Many Bets Can We Place A Day?

Depending on the amount of racing on that day, we could potentially place 10-40 bets a day.

How Much Should I Bet?

Each way no lay betting is effectively gambling, with a small edge.  There is a risk of making a large loss, so only attempt EWNL with money you could afford to lose.  

We suggest setting aside a dedicated EWNL bankroll, and then determining how much to bet based upon this.  

We suggest placing no more than 0.5%-1% of your bankroll on a single bet. For example, if you started with a bankroll of £500, you would do bets of £2.50-£5 (£1.25-£2.50 each way stakes).  

How Long Can The Downswing Last?

Team Profit has looked at the results of individuals who have tried EWNL.

Whilst the long term trend appears to be gradually rising profits, there have been very significant downswings. It is certainly not constant profits.

Some users have reported downswings of as much as £1000, and losing as much as 100x their bet size in a downswing.

Potential Expected Hourly Earnings

Our time is valuable. Plus, there are other profitable matched betting techniques out there.

So, we must consider whether this method achieves an average hourly rate that we are happy with.

Let’s assume it takes around 3 minutes from receiving an alert about a match, to placing our bet and then tracking it in our spreadsheet. We average around 105% rated bets, and we are doing £5 stakes (£2.50EW) - requiring around £1000 bankroll.

The 5% value we extract from our £5 bet suggests an expected value of about 25p, for 3 minutes of our time, giving an hourly rate of about £5.

Obviously these figures are speculation. But, it shows that this isn't a way to get rich quick, but potentially to make some profit over the long run.

Using Clean Accounts

EW no lay can be a good way to extract some value out of your gubbed accounts.

It's unclear whether EWNL may increase your chances of being gubbed.

To be safe, avoid using any non-gubbed accounts that have a lot of value, such as Bet365 and William Hill. Instead stick to gubbed accounts and accounts that you would not mind losing.

What Bookies Shall I Use?

Each way betting is available with most bookies. Using multiple sites will give you more chances to find good opportunities.

But, when first starting EWNL, consider choosing around 3-5 bookies to use. Then gradually increase it as you get more experienced with the method.

Tracking Results

You should track of all the bets that you place, and the results. We recommend setting up a spreadsheet for this. Team Profit has set up a basic google sheet, which you can access here.   

If you would like to use this, open the link, then select file -> make a copy. Then Google Sheets will create your own copy that you can edit.  

Expectations

The vast majority of your bets will lose. This will create periods of losses. Over the long run, you should profit. But, it is important to remember that the value edge that we have will become clearer over a long period of time. After hundreds, even thousands of bets.

Is There A Better Way?

Extra Places

Team Profit believes a better method may be betting on Extra Places. This can be very profitable, and because we lay our bets, any downswings should be much less dramatic. Please see our guide on Extra Places here

Conclusion

Fans of the EWNL method have reported some fantastic long term profits.

But, they have also reported very significant downswings at times.

This method is gambling, with a small mathematical edge. You need to be in a position to follow this method over a very large number of bets, to ride out the variance.

Without significant matched betting experience, you should not consider this method.

If you decide to try it, you should have a set amount of money that you commit to trying it. An amount that you could afford to lose.

Limit your bet sizing to a max of 1% of your bankroll, and do not break this rule.

If you have yet to complete all the sign up offers, or still have most of your accounts ungubbed, there are easier, more consistent ways to make money. And we would recommend trying the extra places method before considering EWNL.