After placing a bet at an online bookmaker, you may immediately notice the option to ‘cash out’. This is essentially a risk management tool for bettors, enabling them to secure a profit or to minimise a loss before a race, game or fight finishes.
Once the event has started, you’ll see the cash out value rise and fall depending on how well your bet is faring. This Cheltenham betting guide will break down the pros and cons of cashing out, and how best to time when you do so and everything else that may play into a bettor’s strategy.
What is ‘cash out’?
In almost any betting market in any sport that isn’t specifically “win only”, you can keep tabs on how your wager is progressing and claim a smaller ‘win’ if you sense the tide might be turning against your chosen player, competitor or team.
If, say, you were to simply bet on a football team to win, and they’re 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go, you could walk away at that point with a lesser payout. This could be, for example, 75% of the full amount if you were to try and see the game through to the final whistle. If you cash out, and your team then concedes an equaliser, you’ve still secured your profit.
The exact amount the bookie offers would, of course, fluctuate depending on a number of factors while the event is in progress and whether you picked a favourite or an underdog. If the team you backed are playing against 10 men, or your horse is a few lengths ahead, the bookie may feel that you’re more likely to win and offer more.
Equally, your horse could be clinging on or your team could be down to 10 men themselves. This may mean the algorithm perceives the outcome to be much more ‘in the balance’ and your cash out moves a lot slower.
If you’ve ever watched Deal or No Deal, you’ll be familiar with how the banker’s offers will reflect the direction the game is heading in and will be somewhere around the average value of the boxes left on the table. It’s a similar theory here but, of course, anything can happen in sport and there’s always a chance for your bet to lose at any given moment.
Whereas, in ITV’s hit game show, you’re always guaranteed the amount in your box – you just don’t know what it is! Plus, knocking out the blues early on gives the player something of a safety net – a minimum amount they’re guaranteed to walk away with.
When is cash out available?
The option to cash out during an event might not always be available. Some horse racing betting sites suspend the feature when races start, while others may keep it open unless a true game-changing scenario plays out – in which case, it will only be temporarily suspended. Make sure to find and read the t&c’s before depositing and staking funds.
Some markets, regardless of the sportsbook, are specified as “win only” – this means you’ll be waiting until the chequered flag and will win the full amount, or nothing at all.
In most cases though, cash out will be available. It’s particularly useful when placing an accumulator which, due to the high number of selections, can lurch between being fully ‘on target’ to win to being dead in the water. If you’ve put together an acca of selections across multiple races on day one of the festival, for example, you will also be able to cash out in between these races.
Even if you’re using a free bet or a returned stake for your bet as part of a bookie’s promo, you will still be able to cash out – the stake won’t be included in the amount offered, or the full payout itself, however.
Cheltenham is one of the highlights of the yearly sporting calendar in the UK and, as such, sportsbooks will be marking the event with several offers and boosts. You can find our breakdown of all the best Cheltenham free bets here which can really add to the excitement of the on-track action.
What is a partial cash out?
A more recent feature for bookies to offer is the option to go half and half – keeping some of your stake active while you take a partial cash out. The way this works may vary from bookie to bookie but can usually be found next to the cash out button in the form of a slider. Just be aware that, if your original bet still comes in and you take two separate payouts, you would have received more if you’d have kept it running.
You may also be able to set up an ‘auto cash out’ – i.e. set an amount which you know you’d be happy to walk away with. This is handy if your internet drops or you’re on the move and the signal is patchy. Doing this, however, again means that you may miss out on winning more.
These options give the player even more control but, therefore, adds more layers of strategy and potential confusion for the newer punter. Let’s have a look at an example of when cashing out would work in your favour.
When to cash out?
Let’s say it’s day one of Cheltenham and we’ve picked three horses to win in three separate races, but combined them into an accumulator for a better payout. They’re 8/11, 9/4 and 5/1 respectively and you’ve put £10 on it for a £336.82 potential return.
Knowing that these won’t be running concurrently means each ‘leg’ of the accumulator will be settled after each race – allowing us to fully or partially cash out if our first horse, or first two horses, win and if we’re satisfied with the profit margin we’ve made.
The first horse does win, but as it was odds-on to do so, we’ve only won a small profit on our stake so far. We’re also still pretty confident in our second horse, so we decide to keep it rolling. The second horse also comes through for us and we’re offered a larger amount but it’s still only a fraction of the £336.82 we might land if we keep going.
The third horse has the longest odds of the three, however, and the odds of a couple other contenders have shortened further in the hours leading up to the race. We decide to cash out here, happy with our lot. The third horse finishes towards the back of the pack – meaning we got out at the right time.
You might also like:
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- Which Cheltenham favourites to back
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- Champion Chase tips
- Stayers’ Hurdle tips
- Arkle Chase tips
- Supreme Novices’ Hurdle tips
- Gold Cup tips
- Ultima Handicap tips
- Coral Cup tips
- Grand Annual Chase tips
About the author
Liam Hoofe
Liam is an experienced iGaming and sports betting journalist based in Cardiff. He has worked in the sports betting industry since 2017 and has provided content for some of the biggest casino and betting brands in the UK. He has also covered football and other sports for both regional and national newspapers.
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