![\"80\/20](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/80-20-strategy-horse-racing-400px.jpg\")
In life, you may have stumbled across the concept of the Pareto Principle, which states that for \u201880% of consequences come from 20% of causes\u2019.<\/p>\nIn life, you may have stumbled across the concept of the Pareto Principle, which states that for \u201880% of consequences come from 20% of causes\u2019.<\/p>\n
It was derived from the work of the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who found that 80% of Italy\u2019s land mass was owned by 20% of its population (back in the early 1900s, at least).<\/p>\n
He extrapolated his 80\/20 rule into many other fields, with it held today in the business world that \u201880% of sales come from 20% of clients\u2019.<\/p>\n
These are approximations, rather than exact figures, but its interesting that horse racing has its own 80\/20 principle: roughly 80% of races are won by 20% of jockeys and trainers. That explains why backing certain jockey-trainer partnerships, who have the requisite number of wins and places under their belts, is a system deployed by many punters.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s another betting strategy which utilises these digits\u2026<\/p>\n
![\"80\/20](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/80-20-strategy-betting-slips-400px.jpg\")
One of the common questions that newcomers to horse racing betting have is, \u2018should I bet on a horse to win, place or both?\u2019<\/p>\n
Wagering on the horses is a hobby packed with paradoxes. You\u2019ll bet on a horse to win and watch it place, or back it each way and rue the fact that it comes home in first place \u2013 meaning that you haven\u2019t maximised your return on the selection.<\/p>\n
To help combat some of those feelings of uncertainty and regret, you can deploy the 80\/20 rule in your betting to provide a simple, concrete system to deploy when backing any horse.<\/p>\n
The strategy is simple: you place 80% of your stake on the horse to place, and the remaining 20% on them to win on the nose<\/strong>.<\/p>\n By doing so, you can effectively win twice if your pick does prevail, while ensuring that if they place you still take home a fair ROI compared to a traditional each way bet.<\/p>\n But does the maths behind the 80\/20 betting system actually stand up?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s imagine that you want to wager \u00a310 per race.<\/p>\n For each way bets, that would be \u00a35 e\/w (for a total outlay of \u00a310), while in our 80\/20 system we would stick \u00a38 on the place bet and \u00a32 on them to win outright.<\/p>\n If we crunch the numbers, how do the two approaches compare?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s find out: we\u2019re backing One-Eyed Willie in the 14:50 at Cheltenham at odds of 10\/3, with three places paid at 1\/5 (you can find out more about each way place terms etc in our other articles).<\/p>\n Each Way<\/strong>:<\/p>\n As you can see, this is the traditional each way betting plan that \u2013 at relatively short odds of 10\/3 \u2013 scores an overall loss if the selection places and doesn\u2019t win. That can be a frustrating outcome.<\/p>\n So what would happen in this scenario if we deployed the 80\/20 system? Note that One-Eyed Willie is 10\/3 to win and 11\/10 to place.<\/p>\n 80\/20<\/strong>:<\/p>\n As you can see, in this example the 80\/20 rule really is the way to go if you think that your pick has a greater chance of placing than winning, which is generally the case in 99.9% of your bets.<\/p>\n The formula stands up whether you are betting on short-odds runners or longshots. Backing a 7\/4 favourite each way scores a \u00a320.50 return if it wins and a loss of \u00a33.25 if it places. Under the 80\/20 system, you\u2019ll return a total of \u00a317.77 if it wins and a net of \u00a310.57 if it places.<\/p>\n At 10\/1, your each way returns are \u00a370 (win) and \u00a315 (place), while an 80\/20 pair of punts yields \u00a322 (win) and \u00a324 (place odds of 2\/1) respectively.<\/p>\n Clearly, if you bet on the entirety of the National Hunt and\/or Flat season, you will back more placers than winners \u2013 that is simple probability theory. By deploying the 80\/20 theory, you can maximise your returns from horses that place while sacrificing some of the extra returns you would make if you do back a winner or two.<\/p>\n Therefore, your own psychology will determine whether the 80\/20 system beats betting each way, but the maths of outcomes displayed above speaks volumes.<\/p>\n Of course, there are other ways you can manoeuvre the odds in your favour. For the win part of your 80\/20 bet you will, of course, take the best price available. But you can take extra place promotions and the like for the \u201880\u2019 part, and you can even spread your win and place bets across different bookmakers if there\u2019s discrepancies in pricing between two firms.<\/p>\n In fact, any outright market where there\u2019s a list of runners and places are paid can be a target for 80\/20 \u2013 who will win the Premier League\/Wimbledon\/World Darts Championship etc. The strategy can be used to maximise returns should your chosen team or player place, with a decent ROI should they manage to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n The 80\/20 system really comes into its own for huge odds selections, which are most likely to lose, place or win in that order. But the rewards if you can back a placer are clear with this strategy \u2013 it\u2019s perfect for golf betting, where picks of 30\/1 and longer regularly hit the places each and every week.<\/p>\n A 80\/20 punt on a 50\/1 golfer would yield \u00a3102 if they win (\u00a32 stake) and around \u00a388 if they place (\u00a38 stake), compared to \u00a3301 and \u00a355 respectively from an each way punt. But with winners hard to come by and up to eight places available for each event, there\u2019s no mistaking which betting system is the savvier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In life, you may have stumbled across the concept of the Pareto Principle, which states that for \u201880% of consequences come from 20% of causes\u2019. It was derived from the work of the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who found that 80% of Italy\u2019s land mass was owned by 20% of its population (back in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":54,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2234","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2241,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2234\/revisions\/2241"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}80\/20 vs Each Way<\/h2>\n
![\"20](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/20-80-strategy-10-pound-note-850px.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
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80\/20 Outright Betting Strategy<\/h2>\n
![\"Each](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/each-way-golf-betting-400px.jpg\")
There\u2019s not a great deal more to say about the 80\/20 betting system other than to say it can work for other sports and markets beyond horse racing.<\/p>\n