A Betfair place market is an exchange market on one race where you back a runner to finish in the paid places, or lay it to miss them. It sits beside the race's win market as a separate market with its own prices, money and commission, and it states how many places it pays. Because punters set its prices, a busy one is also a yardstick with no bookmaker margin built in for checking a bookmaker's place price.
Every bet below is placed before the jump, prices are illustrative, and commission is an illustrative 6% input: the exchange sets its own rate in its terms and can change it.
How many places an exchange place market pays
Australia's written rule books show the usual pattern. The tote's place pools (in the rules gazetted in WA in 2010) and NSW on-course bookmakers (BR 18 of Racing NSW's Rules of Betting) pay three places with 8 or more runners and two with 5 to 7, and the tote takes no place bets with 4 or fewer. The tote counts the field at final scratchings, NSW on-course bookmakers when the bet is made, as place betting sets out.
An exchange's place market follows its own rules, so answer four questions from the market and its rules before you bet:
- How many places does this market pay, and where is that stated?
- When is the field counted: when the market opens, at final scratchings, or later?
- If scratchings shrink the field, does the market keep its places, pay fewer, or void bets?
- Is there more than one place market on the race? Use the one paying the same places as the bet you are comparing.
Backing and laying to place
A back to place wins if the runner finishes anywhere in the paid places, first included. A lay to place is the opposite bet: it collects the backer's stake if the runner finishes outside the places and pays the liability if it finishes in them. With illustrative prices for Runner 4 in a ten-runner race, three places paid, $2.30 to back and $2.34 to lay:
| Runner 4 finishes | Back $40 to place at $2.30 | Lay $40 to place at $2.34 |
|---|---|---|
| First, second or third | 40 x 1.30 = +$52.00, or 52 x 0.94 = +$48.88 after commission | 40 x 1.34 = -$53.60 |
| Fourth or worse | -$40.00 | +$40.00, or 40 x 0.94 = +$37.60 after commission |
To lay a horse to place is to bet that it finishes outside the places, so a win costs a place layer the full liability, just as a third does. Short place prices keep the liability small beside the stake, $53.60 here against 40 x 5.00 = $200 to lay the same $40 at a $6.00 win price, which makes a place lay feel safer than it is. At $2.34 the market gives Runner 4 a 1 / 2.34 = 42.7% chance of placing.
The place market is netted and charged on its own, apart from the race's win market, so a winning place bet pays commission even when a win bet on the same runner lost. The lay betting hub covers liability and commission in the win market.
Place market liquidity
A place market only gives a useful price when money is waiting near it, and it can stay thinner than the win market on the same race. Two checks take a minute:
- The place book. A three-place market's paid places add up to 300%, so the implied chances (1 / price) of the best back prices should total a little over 300% and the best lay prices a little under. A two-place market's line is 200%.
- The money at the best price. A stake bigger than it walks along the ladder to worse prices.
With illustrative prices for a busy eight-runner, three-place market:
| Runner | Best back | Best lay |
|---|---|---|
| Runner 1 | $1.38 | $1.40 |
| Runner 2 | $1.66 | $1.68 |
| Runner 3 | $1.98 | $2.02 |
| Runner 4 | $2.46 | $2.52 |
| Runner 5 | $3.15 | $3.25 |
| Runner 6 | $4.40 | $4.60 |
| Runner 7 | $6.40 | $6.80 |
| Runner 8 | $9.60 | $10.50 |
| Book (sum of 1 / price) | 304.4% | 296.9% |
Both books sit within 4.4 points of 300%, so the midpoints are a usable estimate. In a thin version of the same market the books drift far apart: if Runner 5 showed $2.94 to back and $3.50 to lay, its place chance could be anywhere from 1 / 3.50 = 28.6% to 1 / 2.94 = 34.0%, too wide to call one price.
Depth bites as well. Back in the ten-runner race, if backers are waiting on Runner 4 with $25 at $2.34, $30 at $2.40 and $60 at $2.50, a $100 place lay taken at once walks the ladder: 25 x 1.34 + 30 x 1.40 + 45 x 1.50 = $143 of liability, against 100 x 1.34 = $134 had it all gone on at $2.34. Liquidity in betting explains how to read the money behind a price.
Fair place price from the exchange vs a bookmaker place price
The exchange answers two different questions about a bookmaker's place price. In another race, with illustrative prices, Runner 6's three-place market shows $2.76 to back and $2.80 to lay, a midpoint of $2.78 and a 1 / 2.78 = 36.0% chance. Set a bookmaker price against the midpoint to see whether it beats the fair estimate (edge = bookmaker price / 2.78 - 1), and against the back price after commission, 1 + 1.76 x 0.94 = $2.65, to see whether it pays more than backing on the exchange:
| Bookmaker place price | Edge against the $2.78 midpoint | Pays more than backing on the exchange? |
|---|---|---|
| Bookmaker A, $2.50 | 2.50 / 2.78 - 1 = -10.1% | No |
| Bookmaker C, $2.70 | 2.70 / 2.78 - 1 = -2.9% | Yes, $2.70 against $2.65 |
| Bookmaker B, $2.90 | 2.90 / 2.78 - 1 = +4.3% | Yes |
Bookmaker C is the trap: it beats backing on the exchange yet sits below the fair estimate. Only Bookmaker B is above it.
B's $2.90 is also above the exchange lay price, which looks like an arb until commission is counted. Backing $50 at $2.90 and laying 50 x 2.90 / (2.80 - 0.06) = $52.92 at $2.80 carries 52.92 x 1.80 = $95.26 of liability, leaving 95.00 - 95.26 = -$0.26 if Runner 6 places and 52.92 x 0.94 - 50 = -$0.26 if it does not. Horse racing arbitrage sets out when a back and lay can lock a result above zero.
Bookmaker terms also decide what stands: many restrict or prohibit automated betting, third-party access and multiple accounts, and a bookmaker can limit stakes, void bets or close an account.
Compare like with like. A runner with an illustrative 36% chance of a top-three finish and 22% of a top-two one breaks even at 1 / 0.36 = $2.78 and 1 / 0.22 = $4.55, so a two-place price checked against a three-place market looks far too generous. When the place market is too thin, how place odds are calculated builds a place chance from win prices instead, and each way betting strategy runs this comparison on both halves of an each way bet.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A price above the midpoint beats an estimate, it does not make the runner likely to place: on that estimate Runner 6 misses the places about 64% of the time. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
Scratchings and reduction factors in place markets
A late scratching reaches a place market under the exchange's place-market rules, which can differ from its win-market ones. Common rule types:
- Bets on the scratched runner are void, and waiting offers can be cancelled.
- Matched bets on the runners left can have their prices cut by a reduction factor, and a place market can have its own factors and thresholds.
- The number of places may or may not change with the smaller field.
With illustrative figures, say you laid Runner 4 to place for $40 at $2.34, a $53.60 liability, and another runner is then scratched with a 9% factor in the place market. If the factor comes off the whole matched price, your lay stands at 2.34 x 0.91 = about $2.13, and the liability falls to 40 x (2.1294 - 1) = $45.18. You still collect $40 if Runner 4 misses the places.
At bookmakers, the Stewards declare deductions in cents in the dollar for fixed-odds bets placed before a late scratching, setting place deductions runner by runner: Racing Queensland's stewards' report for Eagle Farm on 21 September 2019 shows 13c on the third placegetter against 16c on the first two. Nothing makes that match an exchange's place factor, so a bookmaker place bet laid on the exchange can come apart, as matched betting on horse racing works through.
Dead heats for the last place
For NSW on-course bookmakers, Racing NSW's Rules of Betting pay half the ticket's face value on a dead heat for third with 8 or more starters (BR 16), and WA's Rules of Wagering divide the return by the number of runners that tie (r 58). An exchange applies its own dead-heat rule, so check it; dead heat rules works the rule-book cases.
If yours works the same way, a two-runner dead heat for third treats half of each $40 stake above as placed and half as unplaced. The back at $2.30 returns 20 x 2.30 = $46.00, so +$6.00 instead of +$52.00. The lay at $2.34 pays 20 x 1.34 = $26.80 and collects $20.00, so -$6.80 instead of -$53.60.
Place market mistakes, with what each costs
| Mistake | What it costs (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Laying to place as if only a win could lose | The $40 lay at $2.34 pays $53.60 on a third, the same as on a win |
| Checking a two-place price against a three-place market | A 22% top-two chance needs $4.55 to break even, not the $2.78 the three-place market implies |
| Forgetting commission on a short back | At 6%, $1.50 to back pays like 1 + 0.50 x 0.94 = $1.47, so a bookmaker's $1.48 pays more |
Where B337 fits
B337 does not back or lay on the exchange, so any place bet there is yours to place. The Terminal shows racing and sports prices from 40+ bookmakers with Betfair back and lay beside them, and on racing its EV overlays compare each bookmaker's price with the exchange, as an estimate.
Its prices are read on a repeating cycle, so confirm each place price in your own accounts. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds, which does not include Betfair's prices or the EV overlays. Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A place lay can cost more than its stake, a thin place market can show a misleading price, and there is no guarantee of profit. See responsible gambling for limits and support.