Bookmaker place terms are essentially how many places will be paid on an each way bet within horse racing and other select sports (i.e dogs, outright betting on golf markets etc).

Bookmakers use industry standard place terms for horse racing with 2 exceptions: Ante-Post betting and extra place races.

In UK and Irish horse racing, along with dog racing the standard place terms offered by bookmakers are as follows:

1-4 runners: win only.

5-7 runners: 1/4 odds, 2 places.

8+ runners: 1/5 odds, 3 places.

12-15 runners handicap: 1/4 odds, 3 places.

16+ runners handicap: 1/4 odds, 4 places.

What happens if there is a non runner? How will the place terms be affected?

In this scenario we must first see what type of race we are betting on. If it is a Handicap race that initially had 17 runners and we placed our bet with 1/4 odds, 4 places but is now down to 15 runners our place terms have now dropped to 1/4 odds, 3 places.

So what happens in that handicap race continues to lose runners and falls from 17 runners to 11? After the initial drop to 3 places for going under 16 runners, our next change is in the place odds. 11 runners or less will result in our initial 1/4 odds being replaced by 1/5 of the odds.

If we had a race that wasn’t handicapped but had 23 runners, bookmakers will still only pay 3 places 1/5 odds.

To summarise:

Handicaps 16 runners or more: 1/4 odds, 4 places. 12-15 runners 1/4 odds 3 places. 8-11 runners 1/5 odds 3 places. 5-7 runners 1/4 odds 2 places. 4 or less runners win only.

Any other race: 8 or more runners 1/5 odds 3 places. 5-7 runners 1/4 odds 2 places. 4 or less runners win only.

As mentioned before there are 2 exceptions to the industry standard: Ante-Post bets (bets placed 48 hours or more before the event start time) will be settled at the place terms outlined by the bookmaker and Extra Place races, where the bookmaker is offering more places than the industry standard. The bookmaker is allowed to stipulate what amount of runners are required for the extra place payout so always read the terms and conditions as these vary between bookmaker.