A dead heat happens in various different sports where two or more players, horses or team finish in the same place. The most common sport this happens in is golf, followed by horse racing.

Dead heat rules divide your initial stake between each of the tied winner or place parts of your bet. Here are some possible outcomes and examples of dead heats and how to calculate your returns.

Win markets: Two runners tied

Calculation: ((Stake / 2) x (Odds – 1)) – (Stake / 2) = profit/loss

So for this example we will be using a back stake off £50 on a horse of odds 10 (9/1) that has been ruled as a dead heat outcome with 1 other runner. We should have won a total of £500 inc. stake (£450 profit) but due to the dead heat we must calculate our returns as follows:

((£50 / 2) x (10 – 1)) – (£50 / 2) = £200 profit

Win markets: More than two runners tied

Calculation: ((Stake / Number of tied runners) x (Odds – 1)) – (Stake x (Number of tied runners – 1) / No of tied runners) = profit/loss

It is obvious that as the amount of tied runners increases, the complexity of the calculation also increases. However as long as you follow the calculation then there should be no issues. For this example we will be using a stake of £50 on a horse at odds of 26 (25/1) that has tied in first place with 2 other horses. Our initial bet should have returned £1,300 inc. stake (£1250 profit) but due to the dead heat we must calculate our returns as follows:

((£50 / 3) x (26-1)) – (50 x (3 – 1) / 3) = £383.33 profit

Place markets: any number of tied runners

Calculation: ((Stake x Number of payouts / Number of tied runners) x (Odds – 1)) – (Stake x (Number of tied runners – Number of payouts) / Number of tied runners) = profit/loss

Things get even more complicated when we are calculating the place market. For this example we will be using the results from the 2019 US Masters golf tournament where we have placed 2 separate bets on the top 10 market. However (as pictured below) there were actually 11 Golfers who finished within the top 10 market.

Our example for this calculation will be a £50 stake on Jason Day top 10 finish at odds of 6 (5/1) along with a £50 stake on John Rahm top 10 finish at 4 (3/1).

Jason day would receive a full payout of £300 inc. stake as he placed joint 5th with 4 other Golfers. However, John Rahm would fall into the dead heat category for placing 9th with 3 other Golfers – these places would have been be considered 9th, 10th and 11th. To work this out we must treat our Number of tied runners as 3 and the Number of payouts as 2 as our back bet was on the top 10 market, not 11.

((£50 x 2 / 3) x (4 – 1)) – (£50 x (3 – 2) / 3) = £83.33 profit

As you can see it can be complicated to calculate dead heats correctly but so long as you take your time and use the formulas above you will be able to successfully calculate dead heats successfully.