Beginners Guide to Dutching

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Man of Mystery

I opened my Betfair account on 22nd April 2003. I was one of the first subscribers to Adam Todd's BetTrader and was a founding partner of JuiceStorm.com on 17th February 2007.

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You are probably familiar with the idea of covering all outcomes by backing and laying the same selection for a profit using a bookie and an exchange. Dutching uses the same principle but involves backing all the possible outcomes at different bookies and/or exchanges. This can be useful for completing wager requirements for free bets when sometimes dutches can be found with a better return than a close match with Betfair, or maybe there are rules differences with Betfair (on tennis for example). Some bookies are particularly good for dutching – 12bet, sbobet and pinnacle are probably the best.

The simplest dutches are in markets with only 2 possible outcomes, such as over/under or tennis match odds. In this case it is easy to see that if one bookie has one player at 2.0 and another has his opponent at more than 2.0 there is money to be made by backing both. It is not quite so easy to recognize dutches at other odds, we now have a dutching tool on the site which has its own dutching calculator (click the blue i), and there is a 2-way-dutching spreadsheet in the Spreadsheet Library, which calculates how much to back at each bookie at the available odds, with an option to factor in commission if one of your bookmakers is an exchange.

Dutching does have disadvantages – you may place one bet then find the other bookie has cut the odds, or limited your stake and you have to then find some other way of matching your first bet. I prefer to dutch with Betfair if at all possible, placing the bookie bet first, as you can see how much money is available and if the odds move the difference is likely to be smaller.

You should also be aware that if you place bets with odd stakes such as £56.14 regularly at bookmakers they are likely to realise that you are dutching and limit your account.