What Is Dutching? A Beginner’s Guide With Examples

Our guide contains a detailed Dutching betting explanation that can help you fully understand this type of betting. Scroll down and discover how to use the Dutching bet calculator and what are the main advantages of this type of wager compared to some other popular bets.

What Is Dutching Betting?

The rumour has it that the term “Dutching” was first invented by Al Capone’s accountant, who came to the idea of spreading the risk across different selections instead of relying just on one. That’s precisely how we can define Dutching betting too.

In the world of betting, the term indicates a strategy involving multiple selections in the same event. The stake is split, so regardless of the selection that wins, you get the same return. In case there’s no win, all stakes are lost.

Keep in mind that this betting strategy doesn’t guarantee a profit, but it’s considered a possibility of minimising the risk. There are three different types of dutch bets: simple, set amount, and set profit.

Just like the name suggests, a simple Dutching bet is the simplest form. The stake either is the same for all your selections or it’s reduced. It’s something that depends on the odds, and it exists to ensure that you can get an equal return from each selection.

Dutching is similar to matched betting, although dutching doesn’t require you to place any lay bets, whereas matched betting does. You can use fractional odds or decimal odds, as it doesn’t have an impact on the potential profits that you could make from this type of bet.

Examples Of Dutching

As we’ve previously discussed, there are three different types of dutch bets, and we’ll take you through three examples that use each type below.

Simple Dutch Betting

Simple Dutch betting is where the stake on each selection stays the same or is slightly reduced to ensure a profit is made from the betting selections. Below is an example of equal stake and reduced stake Dutching in horse racing.

Equal stake Dutch Bet

• Stake £10 on a horse with odds of 4/1
• Stake £10 on another horse with odds of 4/1
• Total stake = £20 (£10 + £10)
• If either horse wins = £30 profit (£50 return – £20 stake)

Reduced stake Dutch Bet

• Stake £5.50 on a horse ‘A’ with odds of 8/1
• Stake £9.50 on a horse ‘B’ with odds of 5/1
• Total stake = £15 (£5.50 + £9.50)
• If horse ‘A’ wins = £34.50 profit (£49.50 return – £15 stake)
• If horse ‘B’ wins = £42 profit (£57 return – £15 stake)

As a real-life example, we placed a dutching bet. Remember, it all needs to be on the same race and we chose a race at Wolverhampton.

If any of the above selections come in then we’ll have made a winning. Of course, this may not happen and we lose, but that’s the risk we take.

Set-Profit Dutch Betting

Set-profit dutch betting is where a punter is targeting a profit from one race or sporting event, regardless of how many selections are involved in the bet. You’ll need to have more than one selection included in a set-profit dutch bet as well. For the example we’ll provide below, we’ll have a target profit of £30, and we’ll take you through how it would typically work with two or three selections in total.

Two-selection set-profit Dutch bet

• Target profit = £30
• Stake £10 on horse ‘A’ with odds of 4/1
• Stake £10 on horse ‘B’ with odds of 4/1
• Total stake = £20 (£10 + £10)
• If either horse wins = £30 profit (£50 return – £20 stake)

Three-selection set-profit Dutch bet

• Target profit = £30
• Stake £15 on horse ‘A’ with odds of 4/1
• Stake £15 on horse ‘B’ with odds of 4/1
• Stake £15 on horse ‘C’ with odds of 4/1
• Total stake = £45 (£15 + £15 + £15)
• If any horse wins = £30 profit (£75 return – £45 stake)

It’s worth noting that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find many horse racing events where there will be three horses that each start at odds of 4/1, but we’ve done this in our example to make it easy as possible for you to understand dutch betting.

Set-Amount Dutch Betting

This type of dutching involves the punter limiting your overall stake, as opposed to targeting a set profit, which we’ve spoken about above.

• Total stake = £20
• Stake £14.50 on horse ‘A’ at odds of 5/1
• Stake £5.50 on horse ‘B’ at odds of 10/1
• Total stake = £20 (£14.50 + £5.50)
• If horse ‘A’ wins = £72.50 profit (£87 return – £14.50 stake)
• If horse ‘B’ wins = £55 profit (£60.50 return – £5.50 stake)

How to Calculate Dutching Bet Winnings

Work out your winnings with our Dutching Bet Calculator. The dutching calculator can do all the hard work for you, as bettors can find out the potential outcomes of their dutching bets by filling out the odds and stakes of their bets.

Is Dutch Betting Profitable?

Duch betting is profitable, but it’s hugely important to look into the correct stake of each bet, as otherwise, you can potentially lose out on a potential profit from this type of bet. With plenty of types of bets, there is always an element of luck, and dutch betting is no different, as the risk can be higher than the reward at times.

Dutch betting can reduce the chances of losing bets, as you’re typically covering yourself on a certain amount of outcomes. However, if none of the outcomes you’ve wagered funds on occurs in the selected event, then the potential loss could be sizeable, especially when you often cover yourself on many different outcomes on dutch bets such as set-profit dutch betting.

Dutching For Football

Despite dutch betting being typically for punters looking to wager funds on horse racing, you’ll be pleased to hear that there are angles you can explore on most football betting sites.

One of the most popular ways of placing a dutch bet in football is to place it on correct score bets in one match. If you cover a few scores on your chosen game, you could end up with a potential profit. Outright markets, as well as many other betting angles such as over a certain amount of goals in a football match, are some of the other options you can explore with bookmakers.

Dutching For Horse Racing

Horse racing is one of the most popular sports for bettors to place dutching bets on, and it’s fairly obvious as to why. For a start, there are many different horse racing events taking place across the globe regularly, which gives punters the ideal opportunity to make a potential profit from different races.

With some races not having the biggest of runners in a race, it can enhance a punters’ chances of profiting from that specific race, and so it’s well worth looking into if you haven’t done so already. Look through the examples we’ve provided you on dutch betting as well, as they’re relevant to horse racing, as it’ll hopefully give you a clearer idea on the potential profits you could make from dutching on horse racing.

Dutching For Tennis

Dutch betting on tennis is similar in some ways to football, as you can wager your money online on markets such as how many games there might be during a tennis match, or for a player to win a tournament in an outright betting market.

As long as your stakes are adjusted accordingly to reflect the odds of each selection you make, you could potentially make a profit frequently if your selection wins. There are many different angles you can use for dutching on tennis, especially if your chosen bookmaker has a good range of betting markets to choose from.

How To Place A Dutching Bet

There are many different ways in which you can place a dutching bet, as multiple bookmakers have different layouts when it comes to their sites. We’ll provide you with an example from Betfair, which is one of the best bookmakers around to use, especially when they have a solid sign-up offer that includes free bets, as well as having a betting exchange, which is something that many of Betfair’s competitors don’t offer. The example we’ll provide you with will be on football.

• Click here to be directed to Betfair’s site.
• Log into your account with the username and password you signed up with.
• Select the ‘Football’ option.

• For this example, we’re going to use the Germany vs England match in the Nations League.
• We’ve chosen three different outcomes for England to win. We’ve predicted them to win 1-0, 2-0, and 3-0, as we don’t think they’ll concede against Germany.

• We’d then stake accordingly according to the odds, and if England are to win 1-0, 2-0, or 3-0, then we’ll be in profit.

It’s important to remember that your total stake on each bet shouldn’t be the same amount all the time, otherwise, you could risk losing a potential profit, and it’s vital to note that you should gamble responsibly.

Odds shown above are correct as of 4:57 pm, Tuesday 7th June, 2022. Odds are subject to change.

Best Dutching Strategies

The best dutching strategies are to stake accordingly and within your limits as a first point. However, you should consider using a dutch bet calculator, as you’ll find it much easier, as that will be able to tell you whether your total stake increases or decreases from what you originally had it as.

Many bookmakers offer odds that are in and around each other, so there shouldn’t be too much difference on that front. If you use a dutching bet calculator, then you’ll find it much easier to potentially make a profit in your chosen event, as otherwise, you run the risk of miscalculation, which can cause punters to lose a considerable amount of funds if the bet they’ve wagered funds on doesn’t settle as a winner.

It’s hugely important to keep track of the funds you’re wagering on dutch betting, as otherwise, you could find yourself losing money that you can’t afford to lose relatively quickly, which is what no gambler will want occurring. The National gambling helpline is always available if you feel as though you’re not gambling responsibly, or within the budget that you can afford to lose.

Advantages & Risks Of Placing A Dutching Bet?

As we have already highlighted, the probability of losing is reduced by backing more selections. Of course, there is no such thing as a guaranteed profit when it comes to betting in general, with ditching being no different. A higher probability is not the same thing as certainty.

Another advantage of this betting strategy is that you can bet on two or more outcomes that would be hard to separate. You may want to back two different horses that you think both stand an equal chance to win a race.  With any other type of betting, in this case, you’d have to choose just one outcome.

There’s only one major downside. The more selections that are covered with a bet, the lower the odds. That’s why when you ask yourself how to Dutching bet, make sure to find bets with a positive value. The last thing you want to see is a big dilution of the profit.

All in all, instead of racking your brain over the potential profit and possible outcomes, find an appropriate Dutching bet calculator and let it quickly work out your winnings.

FAQs About Dutching Betting

At the end of our Dutching betting explanation, we’d like to go through some of the frequently asked questions about how to Dutching bet.