It’s more than a little bit common for bookmakers to offer a best odds guarantee nowadays. In fact, it’s harder to find a reputable bookie that doesn’t offer it than one that does. That’s great as it’s a nice little bonus, ensuring that you get the best odds even if you place your bet early in the day.
It means that you can look at the prices in the morning, place your bet and know that if the price drifts on the horse you’ve had a flutter on then you’ll be paid out at whichever odds are higher – the odds you took or the starting price. Yet if almost every bookmaker is offering it then it’s not a very good incentive to win your business, is it?
That’s where the best odds guarantee plus comes in. Rather than merely pay you out at the better price, Ladbrokes promise to actually boost your odds, resulting in even more money making its way into your account if you win. Here I’ll tell you about why it’s an offer you might want to take advantage of and I’ll also explain some of the terms and conditions a little bit more clearly for you.
What’s the Difference Between the Guarantees?
I’ve already explained this a little in my intro, but here I’ll spell it out as it can be a little bit confusing. After all, both offers are ‘guarantees’ and both promise you the ‘best odds’.
Best Odds Guaranteed
With the standard best odds guaranteed offer you can place a bet, normally after ten in the morning, and if your selected horse wins but the starting price was larger than the price you took earlier in the day then you’ll be paid out at the SP. Here’s an example:
- You place £10 bet in the morning on a horse with odds of 5/1
- The horse has a starting price of 7/1
- The horse wins the race
- If you bet through a bookie without best odds guarantee you’d win £50
- Bet through a bookie with best odds guarantee you win £70
It’s that simple. You don’t even need to do anything particular as the computer does all of the work for you.
Best Odds Guaranteed Plus
This offer, meanwhile, acts almost like an apology for the starting price being better than the price you took in the morning. Instead of simply paying you out at the better of the two odds, Ladbrokes add a boost to your winnings to mean that you get an increased payout. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
- You place £10 in the morning on a horse with odds of 6/1
- The horse has a starting price of 8/1
- The horse wins the race
- If you bet through a bookie without normal best odds guarantee you’d win £60
- If you bet through a bookie with normal best odds guarantee you’d win £80
- If you bet through Ladbrokes’s Best Odds Guarantee Plus your price is boosted to 9/1 and you win£90
Again, you don’t need to do anything other than place your bet through Ladbrokes on a race covered by BOG plus, which will be advertised on the website.
How Are Odds Boosted?
It’s all well and good me telling you that Ladbrokes will boost the price offered, but what does this mean? How do they figure out what the new price is? Do they just make it up as they go along?
If you’ve done any betting whatsoever through a bookmaker then it won’t surprise you to learn that everything is laid out meticulously and no chances whatsoever are taken when it comes to how much Ladbrokes will pay out if a horse wins and had a different starting price to the one offered earlier in the day. You can find full details on their website, but here are some examples of the amount you can expect to be paid if you take advantage of the offer:
- An SP of 5/2 will become 11/4, which will become 3/1, which will become 10/3
- 7/2 turns to 4/1, which turns to 9/2, which becomes 5/1
- 11/2 – 6/1 – 13/2 – 7/1 – 15/2 – 8/1 – 9/1 and so on
I won’t bother listing every price increase as that would just be a waste of time when you could be placing bets, but you get the idea. There’s an increase of around 50p to £1, though that gets larger as the odds get larger. A starting price of 500/1 would become 1000/1, for example. The most important thing to know is that if you win on a bet with this offer in play then you will get paid out more than via the standard BOG offer.
Things to Bear in Mind
There are numerous things that you should be aware of with this offer. For starters, it’s available on selected races rather than all UK & Irish races. Often races shown on ITV Racing are covered, but do check the Ladbrokes site for confirmation.
There is a maximum payout of £25,000 via BOG Plus, with £200 the maximum stake on win singles or each-way bets. If you bet more than that then the first £200 will be paid out at the BOG plus odds and the rest of the money will be paid out at the starting price. That’s unlikely to be a major issue but if you’re a high staker then it’s something worth thinking about.
There are numerous betting methods that are excluded from the offer, including multiple bets. Tote or pool bets are also not covered and neither are ‘Without X Horse’ style bets. If you take another offer such as faller insurance or place insurance then you’re also unlikely to be covered as well.
The whole point of this offer is that it covers you from taking a price too early in the day, but that doesn’t apply to ante-post bets. After all, ante-post bets are normally placed in order to get really good odds before the bookies take into account factors in the future. To then be given a price boost if the starting price is even larger than the ante-post bet would be a step too far in terms of generosity.