When you place a bet on sports, odds are you’re getting confused with the term win either half. What does this mean exactly, and how does it work? Let’s examine.
What Is Win Either Half?
In gambling, win either half is used to describe a bet where the bettor wins either half of the amount wagered. For example, a bettor bets £10 on the game and the bookmaker’s offered odds of 1.6 (1.60) for the game to win and he or she gets back £16.50 (the £10 and the half of the original £20). In the example, the bettor wins half of the £20, £10 of which he or she won back plus the original £10, for a total of £20.50 from the £20 wagered. This is also known as a ‘win-tie-win’ situation because the bettor wins something, the bookmaker doesn’t lose anything, and the game doesn’t change the bettor’s win either.
When Is It Used?
This bettor wins either half is mostly seen in Australian horse racing, where the term ‘win and half’ is used instead. This is because in Australian thoroughbred horse racing, Win either half is a combination of the ‘win’ and ‘place’ bets. A win bet is where the bettor wins some prize (usually money), and a place bet is where the bettor places some prize (usually a horse) for the bookmaker to win. In the example above, the bettor placed a win bet on the Greyhound race and won £10. In another example, the bettor placed a place bet on the Melbourne Cup and, because he or she selected the Cup as their chosen winner, he or she won £10.
How Is It Different From A Tie?
A tie is when two or more outcomes are exactly the same. For example, in the Victoria Derby this year, all 20 entries were considered to have a 0 chance of winning because the odds were 1.15 in favour of each horse. In these types of situations, with no clear ‘winner’, the win either half just keeps track of what happens, with no indication of who actually won.
Other than in horse racing, ties are quite rare in sports betting. Ties can happen when there are identical twins where one plays one way and the other plays another, or when there’s a fixed fight between two boxers or a couple of mixed martial artists where one wins and the other one loses. In these cases, the win either half just tracks the outcome of the fight without either competitor gaining an advantage. In the example above, if the Greyhound and the winner of the 1000 Mettre were to finish first and second, the bettor would win £9.60 (the £10 win bet on the Greyhound plus the win on the 1000 Mettre). If they both complete the race but, for some reason, the Greyhound finishes first and the 1000 Mettre last, the bettor would win £16.50 (the £20 win bet on the Greyhound plus the £10 win on the 1000 Mettre). In the event of a tie, win either half can be applied as follows:
- For a win bet, half of the amount wagered is returned
- For a place bet, place is returned without an indication of who actually won
- For a ‘win-tie-win’ bet, half of the amount wagered is returned as before but with an indication that the bettor has won three times (once for the Greyhound, once for the 1000 Mettre and once for the tie)
In short, win either half can be applied to any type of bet in which the total number of wins exceeds the total number of losses. For example, you can apply it to a pick ‘3’ horse where you predict three winners. In this case, you would win three times the amount wagered with three winners and one place, or loss. For the win-tie-win situation, you would win six times the amount wagered because you have three wins (once for each horse) and twice for the tie.