Scratching deductions: why a late scratching cuts your fixed odds payout

What a scratching deduction is

A scratching deduction is money taken off a winning fixed odds bet because another runner was scratched after you placed it. The reasoning is simple: your price was set against a full field. Take out a rival, especially a well-fancied one, and every remaining runner has a better chance than when you bet, so your price is now longer than the market would offer. The deduction pulls your payout back towards a fair price for the smaller field.

The TAB's fixed odds help page puts it in one phrase: the price you take is fixed "subject to scratchings and dead heats". Deductions only affect fixed odds. Tote bets are settled from the pool, so there is nothing to deduct.

The deduction schedule

Deductions are set by the price of the scratched runner, in cents in the dollar; Harness Racing NSW's local rules, for example, set their scale by the "odds against a non starter at time of declaration". The shorter that runner was, the bigger the cut. These rows are from the Tabcorp Schedule of Deductions for Fixed Odds Racing Betting, which Tabcorp says applies to both NSW and Victorian fixed odds betting.

The full schedule has many more price bands. Our deductions calculator applies the right band for you; the examples below show the arithmetic by hand.

How the deduction is applied

Rules differ on what the cents in the dollar are taken from, so check your own bookmaker's racing rules. The Thoroughbred Racing NT Rules of Betting are one official example. They define the "face value" of a ticket as the total payable "including the stakes", and rule BR12(4) says winning bets placed before a withdrawal are paid "the face value of the ticket less the amount of cents in the dollar deduction". On that method, the deduction comes off your whole return, stake included.

Using that face value method and the Tabcorp bands above, here is what a late scratching does to some winning bets:

In our calculation the fourth row is the shock: when a very short favourite is scratched, a winning $10 bet at $2.00 returns $4.00 on this method. The NT on-course rules add a safeguard for stewards' orders, saying that except for a dead heat no order should leave a backer with less than the stake (BR12(8)). Whether your online bookmaker has the same floor is in its own rules.

Pundit tip: the deduction is set by the scratched runner's price, not yours. A scratched $1.50 favourite costs you 62c in the dollar whether you backed a $3.00 chance or a $30 roughie.

Place and each way deductions

Place bets have their own scale, and it depends on how many place dividends the race pays. For a scratched runner at $3.40, Tabcorp's schedule takes 27c off a win bet, 19c off a place bet in a three-place race, and 26c in a two-place race.

Worked example: $10 each way at a win price of $7.00 and a place price of $2.20, in a race paying three places. A runner at $3.40 is scratched after you bet, and your horse wins.

In our calculation the scratching costs this each way bet $23.08 of its return. A scratching can also change the number of places paid: the TAB pays three places with 8 or more starters and two places with 5 to 7. Our each way calculator shows the return before deductions.

When deductions apply, and when they do not

Timing decides whether you get a deduction, a refund or nothing. For racing futures, the TAB's Victorian rules (rule 6.14) work like this:

• Bet before final acceptances: a bet on the runner that is scratched is All In and lost; other bets stand with no deduction.
• Bet after final acceptances, before the TAB adjusts its prices: a bet on the scratched runner is refunded; other bets stand, subject to a deduction from the schedule at the TAB's discretion.
• Bet after the TAB has adjusted its prices: a bet on the scratched runner is refunded; other bets stand, because the new prices already reflect the smaller field.

For greyhounds, "final acceptances" means after the box draw. The TAB's scratching refunds page confirms that All In futures on a scratched runner are not refunded and Final Field bets are refunded in full. Our guide to futures betting covers All In bets in more detail.

Where there is more than one scratching, the NT rules take a single deduction for simultaneous withdrawals (BR12(5)), and a deduction for each withdrawal for bets placed before it when they happen at different times (BR12(6)). The TAB's rule 6.14 says that for several withdrawals at different times it applies the controlling body's rules of betting as far as reasonably possible.

Why the tote has no deductions

Tote dividends are worked out after the race from the money in the pool, so a scratching simply changes the pool. Instead of deductions, the tote uses refunds and substitutes:

That last row is why a scratching in a quaddie leg does not refund that leg; see our guide to quaddie betting. For the wider choice between the two systems, see tote vs fixed odds.

Rule 4 deductions

Punters who follow British racing call the same thing a Rule 4 deduction, after the British rules on betting. The idea is identical, but the numbers are not: Australian bookmakers and racing bodies use their own schedules, such as Tabcorp's for NSW and Victoria. Use the Australian schedule for Australian races. Dead heats can cut a fixed odds payout too, and they stack with deductions in the NT rules, which make dead heat payments "subject to any deductions"; see dead heat rules.

Racing is one of the bet types explained on this site with the most moving parts. If keeping up with scratchings and late mail has turned into chasing losses, our gambling help page lists free support.

Related reading

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