Win Place Show, huh? So you want to partake in some pari-mutuel wagering? Don’t worry, that’s a fancy term that means “betting among ourselves”. When you place a wager on a horse race you are not betting against the “house” as you would be if you were wagering at a casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Instead, you are betting your horse against every other bettor. Let the best man win!

• The Three Different Win Place Show Bets. Win: If you wager $2 to Win on your horse, you collect only if your horse finished first. Place: If you wager $2 to Place, your horse must finish first or second for you to collect. But remember, you don’t get the Win payoff, just.
• To work out the return on any bet, simply enter the Odds and the Stake. For example, if you were betting £100 on a 9-4 chance, enter: Odds = 9 (to) 4, Stake = 100, then click 'Calculate' The Instant Bet Calculator will then show the return on a: Win only bet Winning each way bet (1/4 odds) Winning each way bet (1/4 odds) Winning Place bet (1/4 odds).
• Payoffs represent your profit PLUS the return of the $2 you originally bet. A winner at 5-2 means that will pay $5 profit for every $2 wagered. The payoff is $7 which is the profit ($5) plus the cost of your wager ($2). Figuring the Cost of Your Online Wager.
• Betting a Favorite: The odds for favorites will have a minus (-) sign, and represent the money you need to risk to win $100. So if you're betting on the Packers at -140 against the Vikings, that means Green Bay is a slight favorite. You need to risk $140 to win $100 on the Packers. If they win, you profit $100 and get your original $140 back.

The following simple equation is used to calculate the potential profit of a wager with positive moneyline odds. Potential Profit = Stake x (Odds/100) Since you also get your stake back with a winning wager, this needs to be taken into account when calculating your total payout. Let’s use a couple of examples to illustrate how this works.

What is a Win Place Show Bet?

Win Place Show bets are commonly called straight wagers and are the most traditional in horse racing. They are lower risk bets compared to exotic wagers like Exactas and Trifectas. These wagers are a good place for the novice horseplayer to jump in. Let’s look at the different wagering requirements.

The Three Different Win Place Show Bets

How Does A Win Place Show Bet Payout Odds

Win: If you wager $2 to Win on your horse, you collect only if your horse finished first.

Place: If you wager $2 to Place, your horse must finish first or second for you to collect. But remember, you don’t get the Win payoff, just the Place payoff, which is generally smaller than the win payoff.

Show: If you wager $2 to Show, your horse must finish first, second, or third. But remember, you only collect the Show payoff.

Many experts consider playing a horse to Win to be the best bet in horse racing. Before placing a Win bet a horseplayer can see the odds on the tote board and then determine if those odds represent good wagering value.

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After all, return on investment is really the name of the game.

Win Place Show Strategy

A term you may hear tossed around at the track is an “Across the Board” wager. Here you are wagering on a horse to Win Place Show on one ticket. If your horse wins, you receive Win Place Show payoffs. If your horse finishes second, you receive Place and Show payoffs; and if your horse is third, you receive the Show payoff only.

These wagers would be considered “low risk” betting, at least compared to the rest of the wagering menu. There also is a lower “takeout” on these wagers. The takeout is the cut the track takes to pay purses and expenses. The “take” on Win Place Show wagers is generally around 17% depending on the jurisdiction. The takeout on Exactas and Trifectas can range from 19% to as much as 30% at some tracks.

Win Place Show Payout Examples

Here are a couple of examples of Win payoffs based on the odds you might see on the tote board:

2/1 pays $6.00
7/2 pays $9.00
9/2 pays $11.00
10/1 pays $22.00
(Based on a $2 win bet).

Horse Racing Betting Explained

Win, Place, Show – How To Bet On Horses

WIN (W) bets require that a horse finishes in 1^st place.

PLACE (P) bets require that a horse finishes in 1^st or 2^nd place.

SHOW (S) bets require that a horse finishes in 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd place.

I’m going to use the diagram (of the finish of a race) below to answer some common questions on the Win, Place, Show bets. The Tote-Board Win odds are above each horse in parenthesis.

How do you calculate the expected payout for a Win Bet?

• Win payouts are based on a $2 wager. Multiply the Tote-Board odds times $2 and then add the $2 wager back.
  

  For example, #8 is (7-1), so 7 x $2 = $14, Add $2 = $16 payout.

• To calculate prices for odds other than X-1, simply convert the (fractional) odds to a decimal equivalent and do the same calculation.
  

  For example, odds of (8-5) equals 1.6 x $2 = $3.20, Add $2 = $5.20 payout.

• I always do this mental conversion to decimal equivalents for clarity in my own mind. In fact when I jot down the Tote-Board odds on my sheet they are always in decimal format. For Example:

What does it mean to bet a horse “Across the Board?”

This is just a shorthand way for making a Win, Place, and Show bet in equal amounts. For example, if you bet #8 for $2 Across the Board in the above race, your bets would be $2 to Win, $2 to Place, and $2 to Show for a total of $6 wagered.

In this example, a $2 WPS wager on #8 returned $28 ($16w + $7p + $5s).

To continue with the example, the same $2 WPS bet on #6 would have cost $6, but only returned $3 since the Show ticket is the only one cashed.

What happens if I bet a horse to Place and he wins the race?

You get the Place price only. So $2 to Place on #8 returns $7.

Can you calculate the expected Place price based upon the Win odds?

Win, Place, and Show wagers are all placed into separate Pools. So the anticipated Place price cannot be directly calculated based on the Win odds. In addition to that, the Place price is dependent on exactly who the 1^st and 2^nd place finishers are in the race. For further explanation on this point, keep reading.

Let’s change the order of finish slightly by switching the top two horses #8 and #2.

The former payouts are shown on the left for comparison, and the new payouts are shown on the right.

Since #2 is now the winner, his payout line is switched to the top of the chart. He pays $12 for a win ticket because his odds are 5-1. Formula (5 x $2) + $2.

Notice that the #8 place price stayed exactly the same ($7), as did the #2 place price ($6). That is because the same two horses finished in the top two positions, just in reverse order.

Now let’s change the order of finish again by pushing the #8 horse back to 3^rd place and moving the #6 horse up to 2^nd place.

Since #2 remains the winner, his Win price ($12) does not change. However, notice that his place price decreased from $6 to $5. Why? Because more total money was bet on #6 (the new 2^nd place horse) to place than on #8 (the former 2^nd place horse). This is reasonable, considering that the Win odds on #6 are 3-1, while the Win odds on #8 are 7-1.

How Does A Win Place Show Bet Payout Results

Generally the amount of money bet on a horse is proportionate between the Win, Place, and Show pools. The simple reason why the payout is less for Place and Show wagers (compared to Win) is that the payout pool is being divided by two horses for Place and three horses for Show.

You can conclude from this information that your best return from a Place or Show wager generally happens when the favorite(s) does not finish “In The Money” (The Top Three Spots). Unless of course you bet on the favorite, which is another story!

There are a lot of opinions on whether or not it’s even wise to make Place and Show bets, as opposed to just Win bets, but we’ll save that topic for a future article.

Select “Get Started” from the menu above for a complete list of articles about Handicapping and Wagering. For example, Racing 101 has several articles about the basics of Horse Racing. And Meet The People has interviews with trainers (e.g. Christophe Clement), Jockeys (e.g. Gary Stevens), and on-track personnel (e.g. Maggie Wolfendale).

How Does A Win Place Show Bet Payout Jackpot

By Neal Benoit