What is Dutching Betting? – An Explanation of the Dutching Strategy

Dan Fitch

Pro punter

Updated: 19 October 2023

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Dutching in betting is the art of backing on more than one selection in an event and adjusting the staking on these selections, to create an equal profit, regardless of the result. We’re going to explore the subject of Dutching betting, so you fully understand the concept.

How Does Dutching Work?

The term ‘Dutching’ has its origins in the 1920s. Al Capone’s accountant Arthur Flegenheimer, known as ‘Dutch Schultz’, coined the term as he looked for a strategy to target profit at a horse racing event.

We’ll start off by explaining what is Dutching in betting. As we said previously, it is the art of making a profit in a market at betting sites, by backing more than one selection.

There is a form of Dutching betting, where you are trying to increase your chances of making a profit, rather than guaranteeing profit. You don’t cover every selection, but you back more than one, so there is more than one result in the market that will deliver you a profit.

When it comes to Dutching betting that does guarantee a profit, you will need the odds to shift in your favour. This could come from a long-term, ante-post betting market, where quite naturally there are big fluctuations in prices. Over time, you back selections when the odds are advantageous, to guarantee your profit.

Or, perhaps the odds will change before an event, due to a piece of breaking news, such as injury to an important player in a football game, creating a Dutching opportunity.

Sometimes the odds for potential outcomes across different bookies allow for Dutching betting. If there is a big discrepancy in the odds between bookmakers for a single event, then it can create the potential for a guaranteed profit, or at least radically better your chances of emerging with a profit.

Most commonly, in-play events at online bookmakers will present opportunities for Dutching in sports betting. As the odds shift over the course of the sports event, in relation to the action, the chance can present itself to lock in some nice profits.

Example of Dutching Bets

We’re going to give you a couple of examples of Dutching betting that will illustrate how this sports betting strategy works.

Let’s say we’re going to back two horses, in order to give us a better chance of making a profit from single race. There are seven runners, so by backing two, we have given ourselves a two out of seven chance, rather than one out of seven.

Instead of betting the entire stake of £15 on one horse, we split it between two horses. If they were both priced at 4/1, it makes the staking split easy.

That scenario is very straightforward. If the odds of the two horses that you want to back are different though, then you have to make sure that you have the respective correct stake, to ensure that you come away with the same profit, regardless of which of your horses wins.

If Horse A was priced at 6/1 and Horse B at 3/1, then you would have to split the staking like this, to ensure that you’d receive nearly equal profits, no matter which of your selections wins.

Dutching is a common strategy and you can see the benefit of it from these examples. Rather than relying on a big win from a single outcome, you accept a smaller profit for an increased chance of winning.

When Should I Use Dutching Betting Systems?

We’re now going to take a look at some instances when it makes sense to take this betting approach when wagering on popular sports.

Pros & Cons of Dutch Betting Strategy

No exploration of Dutching betting would be complete without looking at the negatives, as well as the positives. Here are the pros and cons of this type of betting.

Dutching Betting Calculator

As we have pointed out, it is important to get the staking right when Dutching. This can be a tricky thing to work out, depending on the complexities of the odds. For this reason, we would thoroughly recommend using a betting Dutching calculator.

The slightest mistake when calculating, can have a big impact on the end result and leave you with uneven potential profits, or an even worse result. By using a Dutching bet calculator, you should eliminate the chance of making such a mistake.

With Dutching betting featuring all sorts of selections, across various bet types, it pays to be careful. Use our free bet calculator to make sure that everything is correct, before you place your wagers.

Conclusion

We hope that you enjoyed our guide to Dutching betting. You should now understand Dutching strategy and should be able to implement it, in its simplest form at least. It’s possible to Dutch on all sorts of types of bets, giving you plenty of options. If employed correctly, Dutching betting is a valuable tool that can help you to make consistent profits.

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Dan Fitch

Pro punter

A writer and editor for some of the top names in the gambling industry for nearly 20 years, Dan also works as a freelance sports journalist for publications and websites such as ESPN, FourFourTwo and LiveScore.

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