Dutching Calculator

Dutching is a betting strategy that allows you to back multiple selections in the same event and distribute your total stake so that you receive the same profit regardless of which selection wins. It is named after the infamous gangster Dutch Schultz, who reportedly used this technique at the racetrack in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, dutching is widely used by professional bettors in horse racing, football, and other sports markets.

The core idea is simple: instead of putting all your money on one outcome, you spread it across two or more outcomes in proportion to their implied probabilities. Selections with shorter odds (lower payouts) receive a larger share of the stake, while longshots receive a smaller share. The result is that every winning outcome produces exactly the same payout, and therefore the same profit or loss.

Dutching vs. Arbitrage: Both strategies involve backing multiple outcomes for a guaranteed result. The key difference is that arbitrage exploits price discrepancies across different bookmakers: you find the best odds for each outcome at separate books to lock in a risk-free profit. Dutching, on the other hand, typically uses odds from a single bookmaker. Because a single book sets its margins, dutching on a standard market almost always results in a small loss (the bookmaker's overround). However, dutching becomes profitable when the combined implied probability of your selections drops below 100%, which can happen with enhanced odds, price boosts, or in exchange markets with low margins.

Common use cases: In horse racing, dutching is used to back two or three fancied runners instead of picking just one, reducing the risk of a losing bet if your second pick wins. In football, you might dutch "Home" and "Draw" when you believe the away team is unlikely to win. On betting exchanges like Betfair, where margins are razor-thin, dutching across selections can occasionally produce a positive expected value. Professional bettors also use dutching as part of larger strategies like matched betting and bonus hunting, where free bet conversions require covering multiple outcomes.

Important note: For dutching to be profitable, the total implied probability of all your selections must be less than 100%. In practice, a typical bookmaker market has an overround of 105 to 115%, meaning the sum of implied probabilities exceeds 100%. This is the bookmaker's margin. You can only achieve a profitable dutch when the market is priced below 100%, which is rare on traditional bookmakers but possible on exchanges, in early markets, or with promotional odds.