What is Win Lose Or Place Bet? Win Lose Or Place Bet Explained in 2 minutes
Jesse M. Cox Last Verified
19/04/2026
What is Win Lose or Place Bet?
The most common form of sports betting involves placing a bet on a specific outcome, such as a football team winning a particular match or a tennis player winning a tournament, and this is known as a single bet. In many circumstances, however, it will make sense to play slightly safer by placing a win lose or place bet, which is also known as an each way bet, and will play out if a horse comes inside either the top four or five of the race.
How is Win, Lose or Place used in Sports Betting?
When betting on win, lose or place it’s vital to confirm which finishing positions will count as a place with the bookmaker taking the bet. In most cases this will be either the first four or first five places in the race. When placing a bet to win, lose or place it has to be remembered that the stake should be doubled, since the bet, in effect, takes the form of two bets.
An example of a win, lose or place bet:
If a £3.00 bet is placed on a horse to win, lose or draw at odds of 8/1, then it will pay out as follows:
If the horse wins, the pay-out will be £24 for the win, plus the original £3 stake, which equals £27. There will be another pay-out for placing, which, if the bookmaker is paying out on the first four places, will be the original odds divided by four. That means an additional pay-out of £9, which is £3 at odds of 2/1, plus the original £3 stake. This makes a total pay-out of £36, a profit of £30 on the win, lose or place £3.00 bet.
If the horse comes in second, third or fourth, then the bet to win will be lost, whereas the bet to place will pay out £9.00, a profit of £3.00 on the overall stake of £6.00.
