Dutching For Beginners

Did you know?

The betting term ‘Dutching’ derives from Jewish-American mobster Arthur Flegenheimer – also known as Dutch Schultz – who ran various rackets at US racetracks in the 1920s and 1930s.

How many times have you studied a race such as a large, competitive handicap and been torn between backing two, three or four runners? It’s not rare for several runners to each have a decent shout, particularly in high quality races, so it’s a quandary bettors commonly find themselves in.

But there is no rule or betting commandment that says you must pinpoint and back one horse and one horse only. By backing two or more runners instead, you spread the risk and increase your chances of landing the winner.

“I’ve never been squeamish about betting more than one horse in a race. It’s a really good option when, for example, you don’t fancy the favourite and can rule out a few no hopers but can’t rule out two, three or four other runners.

The solution is to spread your bets. This technique is known in betting circles as ‘Dutching’ or to ‘Dutch’ and can deliver great returns at far lower risks. And it really comes to life on a betting exchange, as we will explain later in the article.

What is Dutching?

With Dutching, stakes are adjusted so that you win the same amount if either of your chosen horses cross the line in front. For example, let’s say after poring over the form you fancy three horses to be in contention come the business end of a 18-runner sprint handicap. Let’s call them Horse A, Horse B and Horse C.

The current back odds for all three are 4.0, 7.0 and 17.0. If you wanted to invest a total of £50 on the race then you would need to adjust the stakes so all three bets combined add up to as near to £50 in total as possible. The shorter the odds, the bigger the stakes – and vice versa.

It’s a fairly complicated process, although the maths are pretty simple, but luckily there are lots of free dutching calculators that will do the hard work for you. You can find one here, here or here. Just put in your selections, the odds, and it will tell you how much to bet. And the results look like this.

The combined odds for all three horses are 2.21 (calculated as 1/(4.0+7.0+17.0), which means if any of your selections wins then you’ll collect £110.70 including your £50 stake, leaving you with a clear profit of £60.70 (minus a small commission on Betfair). Not bad eh?