Seasoned gamblers know that it isn’t a great idea to just bet on any old thing that you’ve spent no time whatsoever researching. Those in the know are aware of the fact that you should spend a good amount of time investigating every bet that you place, which will give you the best possible chance of not throwing your money away to the bookmaker you bet with.
Sadly, even plenty of research can still result in a selection finishing second rather than first, so one of the best things that you can do is opt for a bookie with a second place finish offer. The question is, what are they?
Current Offers
On a number of races each day you could be refunded with a free bet up to £20 if your horse finishes in second place. This is available from 9am on the selected races, max £20 free bet per customer per race.
On any race at the selected meeting or meetings, if you place a single bet and your horses finishes in second place behind the start price favourite, you could be refunded with a free bet up to £10 in value. This applies to win singles and the win part of each way singles, first bet on each race only.
Place a bet on any horse race in the UK or Ireland and if it finishes second to the SP favourite, your stake could be refunded as a free bet up to £10. To qualify, bets must be placed at odds of at least evens with the SP of the favourite greater than 6/4. Applies to win singles and the win part of each way singles. Minimum six runners.
Coral are offering to pay out losing second place bets as winners when your horse gets pipped to the post. To qualify, your horse will need to finish second by a Head or less, and the max stake is £10.
This offer applies to selected races, see the Coral website for more details. Note that you also need to opt in to the promotion before placing your bet.
Money Back if Your Selection Comes Second
The first type of second place offer that we’ll tell you about is that of getting your money back in the event that a selection you’ve made comes second. It is fair to say that horse racing is the most common sport for bookmakers to choose to offer this on, but don’t be surprised if you also find them on sports such as greyhound racing or even a golf tournament. For the purposes of ease and consistency, we’re going to write the rest of this piece talking about horse racing, but do keep an eye out for offers on other sports that work in the same way.
A money back offer is exactly what it sounds like: in the event that the horse that you’ve placed a bet on ends up coming second, you will get your money refunded back to you. There are often certain things that you need to be aware of, such as companies not giving the refund if your horse comes second in a dead heat or the fact that they might need to come second to the starting price favourite in order for the promotion to be triggered, but generally speaking it is an easy enough offer to understand and to work out whether or not you’re likely to get your money back.
Things to Think About
Firstly, it is the exact nature of the refund that some companies tweak and play with, such as whether or not they will refund it as a free bet or just put it back into your betting account as cash. Obviously, the latter is preferable because it allows you to withdraw your money straight into your bank account if you wish to, but free bets are always a good thing to be able to use if you’re likely to bet again in the future.
There is also the fact that most companies will refund your initial stake only up to a certain amount. It is not unheard of for bookmakers to say that you can get up to £10 refunded, for example, rather than the entire stake that you’ve placed. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to limit your initial bet to £10, but do bear in mind that if you’re placing your wager with a given bookie because of the promise of refunding your stake money, then there isn’t much point in betting £100, given that you will only end up getting 1/10th of that sent back to you.
Second Treated Like a Winner
One of the other second place offers that bookmakers tend to put forward is the idea of your bet being treated as though it’s a winner if your chosen horse ends up coming second. This will usually depend on the horse finishing within a certain distance of the winner, but we’ll come back to look at that in more detail in a moment. In essence, this offer is exactly what it sounds like, with punters receiving a payout as if their horse had won the race on occasions when it ends up coming second. Usually, there are some restrictions placed on how much of your stake will be paid out.
That is to say, you might have to place a minimum stake of £1 and only as much as £10 will be paid as a winning bet in the event that your chosen horse comes second. Sometimes you will also find that bookmakers will only offer the promotion on bets placed on the day of the race, meaning that the likes of ante post bets won’t count. It could also only be in place on specific meetings, such as those being shown on TV, whilst the offer will also only be in place on win and each-way wagers. Any bets that are a little specialised will not find themselves qualifying for this offer.
Distance Matters
In both types of bet, the distance between the race winner and the second-place horse could be the crucial factor. That is to say, each bookmaker will have their own rules around how close your horse has to be compared to the winner in order to end up being paid out on the offer. You will often see the offer labelled with the relevant information, such as ‘Money Back if Your Horse Comes Second by a Head’. Typically speaking, the maximum distance that a horse can finish behind the winner is longer in jump racing than in flat racing as races and therefore winning distance tend to be longer over jumps.
A nose is around 1/20 of a length in terms of distance, whilst a short head is akin to 1/10 of a length. A head, which is that distance used for flat and all-weather racing, is about 1/5 of a length, whilst jump racing’s distance of a neck is around 3/10 of a length. Any longer than that and you’ll struggle to find a bookmaker willing to pay out on your horse as though it was a winner, which is worth bearing in mind. In essence, the offer is in place in order to protect people from seeing their horse just miss out on winning a race, as opposed to being trounced but still coming second.