The Concept
If you are not already familiar with the term Dutching the concept is very simple and its the process of betting on more than one selection or runner in a market to cover several outcomes and return an equal profit no matter which of them is the eventual winner.
The origin of this tactic is sketchy but often attributed to Arthur Flegenheimer, also known as Dutchy Schultz, in gangster circles, alongside various rackets he had running at the racetrack. The strategy has since taken his name.
What this Betfair trading strategy does is turn traditional betting on its head. When you place a traditional bet you are trying to find a winner, but with Dutching you are defining how much you want to win then making a range of selections that could win and you will an equal amount if any of those go on to win.
Scenario’s
Imagine in horse racing your looking at a competitive handicap race with twenty-plus runners, all roughly similarly weighted and with many at the front of the betting all priced at similar odds. Trying to pick a winner is almost an impossible puzzle to solve from a betting perspective.
By Dutching you can simplify the problem, instead of worrying about picking a single runner to win, you can now say ‘I expect any one of these four, five or six selections to win’, making your task of profiting so much easier and far likelier than trying to find a winner by picking a single selection.
It is also a very popular method among Soccer traders with many opting to Dutch the correct score market for the same reasons as above it allows you to cover multiple selections or in this case score lines. For example, you may feel the away side will sneak a win but don’t have any idea what the actual score might be so may opt to cover a few and dutch the 0-1, 0-2 and 1-2 scores, this again increases the chances you winning as any of these scores will now return and equal profit. Much easier than trying to pick a specific score.
Bet Angel Dutching Calculator
The first thing you’re probably thinking now is that’s all fine and good but how do I work out what stakes to place so that I get an equal profit on the selections I choose and how long will this take?
This is where Betfair software like Bet Angel will help. Bet Angel contains a Dutching bet calculator that is intuitive and easy to use. the process could not be made simpler, all you need do is set your stake then tick the selections/runners you wish to Dutch, you can take the current back price at the current available decimal odds or ask for your own price and wait to see if someone is willing to take it or do a mixture of both, then click ‘Place Bet’ and job done. Bet Angel will work out all the total stakes required for the prices asked for to return an equal profit on the selections chosen.
In the image below I’ve chosen to use a £100 stake and dutched the front 4 runners in this race taking the current back price for each. In the stake column (2nd from right) you can see the stakes which have been calculated by Bet Angel for each runner. If any of the 4 runners I have dutched win I will make a profit of £62.17
If none of the 4 runners win then I will lose my £100 stake, you can see this by looking at the figures in the predicted profit column.
Bet Angel’s Advanced Dutching
What I’ve covered here is just the bare basics of what’s possible with the Bet Angel Dutching tool. For starters, as you can see in the image there are three different staking methods to choose from and each of these open up additional options like the ability to set margin percentages on selection.
Or if you opt to dutch to a target potential profit it’s also possible to go even further and override the profits of individual selections, this is known as advanced Dutching or variable Dutching. It works by carefully varying the stake on each selection. Check out our feature on the Advanced dutching tool on this blog post. It’s only since betting exchanges came about that you could do these sort of advanced calculations at the touch of a button. You just need to keep an eye on the amount staked and whether you feel that represents a value bet.
This is one of my favourite ways of using the Bet Angel Dutching tool and is worth reading up on that if you want to take your Dutching betting strategy to a much higher level.
