When it comes to placing bets, there are often two types of people: the ones that bet sensibly, doing their research and working out what it is that they should be placing their money on and those that pick their wager based on how much their likely to win.
A bet with odds of 10/1 is not as likely to have many heavily researched bettors as shorter odds, though of course it does happen. In fact, there are longer odds that we’ll talk about elsewhere on this site, though it is fair to say that even a wager like 10/1 is something that bookmakers don’t think is likely to win.
Payouts
Just because the bookmakers don’t fancy the chances of the thing that you’re betting on that has odds of 10/1 doesn’t mean that it will never win, of course. The reality is that plenty of 10/1 offerings have won in the past and will do again in the future.
Placing a bet on that amount feels like it should be relatively easy to work out how much you’re going to be paid out, but the truth is that the maths can become complicated when you remember that you’re also going to get your stake back with your winnings. Here is how much you’ll be paid, depending on the size of your stake:
| Stake Amount | Payout | Profit |
|---|---|---|
| £1 | £11 | £10 |
| £2 | £22 | £20 |
| £5 | £55 | £50 |
| £10 | £110 | £100 |
| £25 | £275 | £250 |
| £50 | £550 | £500 |
| £100 | £1,100 | £1,000 |
Each-Way Payout
The mathematics on 10/1 wagers basically requires you to multiply your stake by ten, with the profit being the resulting figure minus whatever you placed on the bet in the form of your stake. That is simple enough to do for many, though not all. Things are definitely more complicated when you start trying to figure out how much you’re likely to get back on an Each-Way wager.
That’s because bookmakers usually payout on an amount such as 1/4 of the odds for the Place part of an Each-Way bet, with Each-Way wagers costing twice the stake as they are effectively two different bets. Here’s a look at what to expect from an Each-Way payout, presuming 1/4 odds and using the same stake amounts as before:
| Each-Way Stake Amount | Total Bet | Win Payout | Place Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| £1 | £2 | £14.50 | £3.50 |
| £2 | £4 | £29 | £7 |
| £5 | £10 | £72.50 | £17.50 |
| £10 | £20 | £145 | £35 |
| £25 | £50 | £362.50 | £87.50 |
| £50 | £100 | £725 | £175 |
| £100 | £200 | £1,450 | £350 |
Examples
As you might imagine, there are fewer examples of winning bets with odds of 10/1 than much lower odds. Bookmakers know what they’re talking about, so if they’ve decided that your selection has such long odds then there is a good chance that it isn’t all that likely to win. Over the years, though, there have been a number of winners with just such odds.
Indeed, at the time of writing, 10/1 is one of the most popular Starting Prices for Grand National horses, with 14 horses having won the ‘World’s Greatest Steeplechase’ with those odds, one of which was the favourite and another the joint-favourite. Here is a list of those 10/1 National winners, with some famous names amongst them:
| Year | Horse | Age |
|---|---|---|
| 1847 | Matthew | 9 |
| 1857 | Emigrant | 11 |
| 1864 | Emblematic | 6 |
| 1882 | Seaman | 6 |
| 1884 | Voluptuary | 6 |
| 1895 | Wild Man From Borneo | 7 |
| 1936 | Reynoldstown | 9 |
| 1950 | Freebooter* | 9 |
| 1981 | Aldanti | 11 |
| 1988 | Rhyme ’n’ Reason | 9 |
| 1999 | Bobbyjo | 9 |
| 2000 | Papillon | 9 |
| 2010 | Don’t Push It** | 10 |
| 2018 | Tiger Roll | 8 |
* Freebooter was the favourite that year
** Don’t Push It started that year’s race as the joint-favourite
Arguably the most famous of the horses that won the Grand National with odds of 10/1 was Tiger Roll. The 2018 victory was the first of two for the horse, matching The Colonel, Reynoldstown, Peter Simple, Manifesto, Abd-El-Kader and The Lamb in winning the race twice, becoming the first horse since Red Rum to do so.
Interestingly, Red Rum was 9/1 when he won the race for the first time and 11/1 when he repeated the trick a year later, also being 9/1 when he won it for a record third time in 1977, meaning he was close to featuring on this list in his own right.