Bet types explained: every bet on an Australian betting slip

Single runner bets: win, place and each way

A win bet pays if your runner finishes first. A place bet pays if it finishes in the paid places: on the TAB that is the top three when there are 8 or more starters and the top two with 5 to 7 starters. An each way bet is a win bet and a place bet of the same size, so it costs double. Use the each way calculator to see all three outcomes.

Exotic bets: quinella, exacta, trifecta and first four

Exotics ask you to name several placegetters and pay from a tote pool. The more you ask for, the bigger the dividend and the lower the chance.

Boxing covers every order of your runners. Flexi betting lets you spend less than the full cost and collect the same share of the dividend. Our calculators do the counting: quinella, boxed trifecta and first four.

Multis and same game multis

A multi links two or more bets and only pays if every leg wins. The odds multiply, which is why multis can pay so much from a small stake, and also why they lose so often. The multi bet calculator shows the combined odds and the implied chance of every leg landing.

A same game multi links several outcomes from one match, such as the winner and a player to kick a goal. Because those outcomes are related, the bookmaker prices the combination as a whole. On the TAB, same game multis are pre-game only.

Tote or fixed odds?

Every racing bet is placed either at fixed odds, where your price is locked in, or on the tote, where you share a pool after the race. It changes what you are paid and when. Our tote vs fixed odds guide explains both, with examples.

Racing

Horses, greyhounds and harness racing use the same bet types, but each code has its own rules for starts, scratchings and field sizes. Start with how to bet on horses, then go deeper:

• Melbourne Cup betting: how to bet on the Cup, with a field of up to 24 runners and huge exotic pools.
• Greyhound betting: boxes, reserves, place dividends and how the tote takes its cut.
• Harness racing betting: mobile and standing starts, pacers and trotters, and how the trots settle.
• Quaddie betting: finding the winners of four races, what it costs as you add runners and how the pool pays.
• Flexi betting: spending less than the full cost of an exotic for the same share of the dividend.

Sports

Each sport settles bets its own way: draws, overtime, retirements and extra time all change what a ticket pays.

Bet types and markets

Beyond win and place, these are the markets you will meet most on a sports slip:

• Head to head betting: pick the winner, and know what a draw does to your bet.
• Line betting: a points start that turns a mismatch into a near coin flip.
• Over under betting: totals markets, and the rules that decide the close calls.
• Futures betting: outright markets weeks or months away, and the All In rule.
• Prop bets: player and game markets settled by official statistics.
• First goal scorer betting: first and anytime scorer markets, own goals and penalty tries.
• System bets: trixie, yankee, lucky 15 and every combo, with the number of bets in each.
• Betting exchange: betting against other punters on Betfair and paying commission on wins.
• In play betting: what the law allows online, by phone, in person and on racing.

Settlement rules

The small print decides what a bet pays when something unusual happens:

• Dead heat rules: how a tie splits your payout in racing, golf and multis.
• Scratching deductions: why a late scratching cuts a fixed odds payout, with the schedule and timing.
• Cash out: how a bookmaker sets the price to settle early, and a check for whether it is fair.

Strategy and maths

Every price carries a cost, and these guides show how to measure it:

• How to read odds: the return, the implied chance and who the market favours.
• Bookmaker margin: how to calculate the overround and how it grows in a multi.
• Value betting: expected value, and how to tell a price worth taking.
• Bankroll management: setting a betting bank and a staking plan that survives losing runs.
• Lay betting: taking the bookmaker's seat, and working out your liability.
• Hedging bets: the stake that profits either way, and what locking in costs.
• Matched betting and arbitrage betting: covering both sides so the result barely matters, and what bookmaker terms allow.

Where to bet: licensed Australian bookmakers

Every bet type above is offered by licensed Australian bookmakers and the TAB, which are covered by BetStop and must follow the national consumer protection rules. Our desk reviews check who owns and licenses each one, its deposit and withdrawal options and its tools:

For a side-by-side comparison, see betting sites in Australia.

Pundit tip: no bet type beats the margin built into the prices. Choose the bet that matches your view of the race, keep stakes you can afford to lose, and use the calculators to know the cost before you bet.

In this section

Betting AFL betting An evergreen guide to the AFL markets on an Australian betting slip: what each one asks, how the prices and the margin work, what happens when a game is drawn, and why you cannot bet in-play online. Read more Betting Arbitrage betting An arb covers every outcome across bookmakers for less than it pays back. Why the gap appears, how thin it is, what bookmaker terms allow, and the mistakes that turn an arb into a loss. Read more Betting Bankroll management Bankroll management decides how long your money lasts, not whether you win. Here is how to set a betting bank, four staking plans compared, and the odds of the losing runs every punter meets. Read more Betting Betting exchange On an exchange you bet against other punters, not a bookmaker, and pay commission on what you win. Here is how Betfair works in Australia and how to tell when its price really is better. Read more Betting Bookmaker margin Every fixed price has the bookmaker's cut built in. Add up a market and you can see exactly how big it is. Here is the method, three worked markets and how the margin grows in a multi. Read more Betting Boxing betting Boxing markets can list a draw, round betting pays on the exact round of a stoppage, and a late substitute can void every bet on the fight. Here are boxing odds explained, with worked examples and the settlement rules. Read more Betting Brownlow betting The Brownlow is a market on a secret: votes already cast by the umpires, revealed on count night. That is why its integrity rules are unusual. Here is how the markets, the odds, the dead heats and the 2023 controls work. Read more Betting Cash out Cash out lets you settle a bet before the result, at a price the bookmaker chooses. Here is how that price is set, a three step check for whether it is fair, and which bets you cannot cash out. Read more Betting Cricket betting Cricket has more ways to finish than any other sport on a betting slip: a win, a draw, a tie, a super over or a washout. Here is how each one settles, with the maths and the 2026-27 summer dates. Read more Betting Dead heat rules When two or more runners, players or teams tie, your payout is split. The formula is simple, but at short prices it can hand back less than you staked. Here is how it works, with every number shown. Read more Betting Esports betting Esports markets look like any other sport until you price a best of three series. Here is how map handicaps and totals work, what the maths says, how integrity is policed and how to spot an illegal site. Read more Betting F1 betting In Formula 1 the result can change hours after the chequered flag. For betting, it usually does not: the first official result settles your bet. Here are the markets, the settlement rules and the 2027 dates. Read more Betting First goal scorer Scorer markets pay big prices because only one player can score first. Here is how first and anytime markets differ, what the prices imply, and the rules for own goals, penalty tries and extra time. Read more Betting Flexi betting Flexi lets you bet any amount on an exotic and collect the same share of the dividend. Here is how the percentage is set, the TAB's minimums, and the one number that tells you whether a flexi bet can make money. Read more Betting Futures betting A futures bet is placed now on a result that is weeks or months away: a premiership, a medal count, a big race. Longer prices come with a catch: most futures are All In. Read more Betting Golf betting Golf fields are huge, prices are long and ties for places are everywhere. Here is how each way bets, top 10 markets and dead heats really pay, with worked examples and the 2026 Australian Open dates. Read more Betting Greyhound betting A greyhound race has up to eight dogs, and the box draw, the reserves and the field size all change what your bet can pay. Here is how to bet on greyhounds, with the national rules and the tote maths. Read more Betting Harness racing betting Trots betting uses the same bet types as the gallops, but the start is different: a mobile barrier or a standing start, with handicap marks. Here is what that means for your bet, plus exotics and dead heats. Read more Betting Head to head betting Head to head is the simplest bet in sport: pick who wins. The catch is in the draw rules, the margin on short favourites and the difference between two-way and three-way markets. Read more Betting Hedging bets Hedging means betting against a bet you already hold, so you profit whatever happens. The stake is one formula. The catch is that every hedge pays the margin again. Here are worked examples. Read more Betting How to bet on horses Eight steps from picking a race to collecting a dividend, with what win, place and each way bets pay, how the tote takes its cut, and the racing terms you will see on the slip. Read more Betting How to read odds A price tells you three things: what you get back, the chance the bookmaker is implying, and whether the market thinks your pick is a favourite. Here is how to read all three. Read more Betting In-play betting Australia bans online in-play betting on sport, but not by phone, not in person at a venue and not on racing. Here is what the law actually says, how the exceptions work and what ACMA has fined bookmakers for. Read more Betting Lay betting Laying means betting that something will not happen, with you in the bookmaker's seat. You win the backer's stake if you are right and pay their profit if you are wrong. Here is the maths. Read more Betting Line betting A line bet gives the outsider a head start so both sides pay about the same. Here is how the handicap is applied, why half points matter and what a $1.90 line really costs. Read more Betting Matched betting Matched betting pairs a bookmaker bet with an opposite bet on an exchange so the result barely matters. Here is the maths, why Australian sign-up offers are off the table, what bookmaker terms allow, and tax. Read more Betting Melbourne Cup betting The Cup is the biggest betting race of the year. Here is how each bet works in a field of up to 24 runners, what exotics really cost, and how to bet without blowing the budget. Read more Betting NBA betting Basketball cannot end in a draw, so every NBA game that is level after four quarters goes to overtime. That one rule decides head to head, line and total points bets. Here is how, with the season dates. Read more Betting NFL betting An NFL regular season game can still end in a tie after overtime, but a playoff game cannot, and that changes how head to head bets settle. Here are the markets, the overtime rules, the maths and the dates. Read more Betting NRL betting An evergreen guide to rugby league markets: what each one asks, how the prices add up, why a two-way and a three-way result can settle differently when a game goes to golden point, and what in-play rules mean for you. Read more Betting Over under betting An over under bet ignores who wins and asks one question: will the total be higher or lower than the number? Here is how totals are set, what they cost and the rules that decide the close calls. Read more Betting Prop bets Prop bets are on what happens inside a game rather than who wins it: disposals, tries, top batter. They are settled by official statistics and sport-specific rules, and they rarely come cheap. Read more Betting Quaddie A quaddie asks you to find the winners of four races. The cost grows fast as you add runners, the pool pays out after commission, and scratchings are handled by substitute. Here is the full maths. Read more Betting Rugby union betting Rugby union games can be drawn, knockout games can go to extra time, and a penalty try changes who wins a try scorer bet. Here is how each rule works, with the maths and the 2027 dates, World Cup included. Read more Betting Same game multi A same game multi links several outcomes from one match into one bet. Here is why the price is not the legs multiplied together, what the TAB's rules say about voids and cash out, and what each extra leg costs you. Read more Betting Scratching deductions When a runner is scratched after you took a fixed price, the field is weaker and your price is now too long. A deduction claws some of that back. Here is the schedule, the timing and the maths. Read more Betting Soccer betting In soccer, the bet you placed usually ends at 90 minutes plus stoppage time, even if the match goes to extra time and penalties. Here is how each market settles, with worked prices and the A-League season dates. Read more Betting Origin betting Origin is three games and a shield, and each layer settles differently: a game bet on golden point, a three-way bet without it, and a series bet that has twice been decided by a draw. Here are the markets and the maths. Read more Betting System bets A system bet turns a handful of picks into every double, treble and bigger multi they can make. Here is how many bets each type holds, what it costs and what it pays. Read more Betting Tote vs fixed odds Fixed odds lock your price in. The tote pays a share of a pool after the race. Here is how each works and when one beats the other. Read more Betting UFC betting A UFC fight can end by knockout, submission, a judges' decision, a draw or a no contest, and each one settles a different set of bets. Here are the markets, the scoring rules and the maths behind the prices. Read more Betting Tennis betting Tennis looks like the simplest bet in sport: two players, one winner. The catch is the retirement rule, which can void a bet on a player who was winning. Here are the markets, the maths and the rules. Read more Betting Value betting A value bet is a price longer than the real chance deserves. The maths is one line; the hard part is the estimate and the patience. Here are the formulas, worked examples and the variance. Read more