A number of bookmakers have Horse Racing Refund offers where you will receive a refund if your horse finishes certain places. The easiest option with these offers is to just Back and Lay a horse with a low qualifying loss and then hope your horse finishes in one of the places being refunded.

However, it may be possible to lock-in a small profit with these offers by laying slightly less on the win market, and also placing a lay bet on the Place market. These lay stakes can be calculated by using our Refund If Places Calculator. You will need a Place market to be available, if it isn't you should just do the easy option.

This method does NOT work for Second to SPF offers.

William Hill Example

William Hill are offering a £10 Cash Refund if our horse finishes 2nd.

For this race, I'm going to look to Back Eclair Surf as the minimum odds for the offer is 4.0.

The Lay odds for the win at Betfair are currently 4.6 and we need to check the 2 Places market for the final part of the calculator. At Betfair the standard place market for a race is just called Place, you will need to check that this is for 2 to be placed first.

We now need to fill out the calculator.

This offer is a Bet £10 get £10 cash if 2nd. So we set the Back Stake to "£10", Refund If to "2nd", Free Bet Award to "£10" and Free Bet Retention to "100%" as it's cash.

By Laying £7.32 on the Win market and also £4.57 on the 2 Places market we will make £1.28 no matter where our horse finishes.

Other Offers

Paddy Power often has refund if 2nd, 3rd or 4th. You can use the same calculation for these offers, you just need to find a 4 Places market to Lay. Paddy Power refund as a Free Bet so you must ensure that you set the Free Bet Retention to "80%".

Other Exchanges

You don't have to exclusively use Betfair for your Lays, the other Exchanges all offer a place market. At Smarkets, you'll find these below the Win market. Just remember to check that the number of places matches the refund.