The longer the odds are on a bet, the less likely it is to win. That is just common sense, given the fact that bookmakers are unlikely to offer to payout a decent sum of money to people unless they’re literally forced to. Of course, the longer the odds are on something, the trickier it becomes to do the sums on what the payouts will be in the event that it wins.
This becomes even more the case when you move away from the world of straight-forward bets that don’t have odd numbers attached. Here, we’ll take a look at how much you should expect to receive if you’ve bet on something with odds of 33/1.
Payouts
Not everyone is good at mathematics. That is entirely fair and if you’re the sort of person that has always struggled with sums then there is nothing to be ashamed of. The good news is that the bookmaker will do all of the hard work for you in working out your payout, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t handy to have a sense of how much you’re going to be owed.
Here we’ll have a look not only at how much you’ll get paid if your 33/1 bet wins, depending on how much your stake is, but we’ll also explain what your profit would be for a straight Win bet with those odds:
| Stake Amount | Payout | Profit |
|---|---|---|
| £1 | £34 | £33 |
| £2 | £68 | £66 |
| £5 | £170 | £165 |
| £10 | £340 | £330 |
| £25 | £850 | £825 |
| £50 | £1,700 | £1,650 |
| £100 | £3,400 | £3,300 |
Each-Way Payout
If the mathematics around a 33/1 bet get confusing when you’re only placing a Win single, it is fair to say that that confusion level goes up a notch when you start to look at Each-Way wagers. That is because an Each-Way bet is actually two bets, with one being placed on the Win and another on the Place. It means that you end up paying twice the stake price for the two wagers, with further confusion added by the fact that bookmakers pay only a fraction of the odds on the Place part of the wager. Usually, this is about 1/4 of the odds, but it can differ from bookie to bookie and even event to event.
Here is a look at our chosen stake amounts, presuming the odds are being paid at 1/4 of the original and you get your full stake back with the win or the Place part of your stake if your horses finishes in the places:
| Each-Way Stake Amount | Total Bet | Win Payout | Place Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| £1 | £2 | £43.25 | £9.25 |
| £2 | £4 | £86.50 | £18.50 |
| £5 | £10 | £216.25 | £46.25 |
| £10 | £20 | £432.50 | £92.50 |
| £25 | £50 | £865 | £185 |
| £50 | £100 | £2,162.50 | £462.50 |
| £100 | £200 | £4,325 | £925 |
Examples
If you’re placing a bet with odds of 33/1, the truth is that you’re going to be rather surprised if it actually wins. Unless you have insider information, you’re taking a punt by going for something with such long odds and it is important to know and acknowledge that up front. Of course, just because something has long odds doesn’t mean that it has zero chance of winning. This can be evidenced in the countless times over the years that a selection with those odds has done exactly that. One such example came in the Stayers’ Hurdle during the Cheltenham Festival of 2023.
The first two days of the 2023 Festival were brutal to the bookmakers, with favourites winning time and time again. Things started to change when things moved over to the New Course, however, and the Stayers’ Hurdle was a good example. The Grade 1 race, which is run over two miles, seven furlongs and 213 yards, features 12 hurdles and Sire Du Berlais was one of the least fancied chances for it that year. He came storming in at the least to steal it, however, delighting the bookies as he finished in front of the 11/4 favourite Teahupoo in spite of his 33/1 odds.
Long-term horse racing fans will know that if you’re hoping to win a race on a horse with long odds then there are few events that offer that sort of chance quite like the Grand National. As if to prove the point, horses with odds of 33/1 won the race four times between its first running and the 2022 renewal. Here’s a look at those winners of the famous Aintree Racecourse event:
| Year | Horse | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Red Marauder | 11 |
| 2007 | Silver Birch | 10 |
| 2012 | Neptune Collonges | 11 |
| 2016 | Rule The World | 9 |
It is interesting to note that no horse won the race with odds of 33/1 prior to the turn of the millennium, but then four did so in the two decades that followed.