In the age of online betting, it has become more and more common for bookmakers to offer punters the ability to Cash Out their bets. This means that bettors need to weigh up when to take an early offer on the bet that they’ve placed and when to let it ride, which is a skill in and of itself. In reality, opting for the Cash Out option means that you’re giving a bookmaker double to opportunity to make money from you.
Some punters will still want to use the Cash Out option from time to time, of course, with the decision about when to do so being an entirely personal aspect of betting. The type of bet that you’ve placed will also play a part in your decision making, as is whether the bookie in question gives you the option to take a Partial Cash Out. In this instance you could take your stake back to limit your possible loss.
Giving A Bookie Money Twice
Cash Out is a feature offered by the majority of bookmakers because they desperately want their customers to use it. When you choose to Cash Out your bet, you’re actually giving the company that you’ve placed your bet with double the opportunity to make money from you. When you place your bet in the first place they’ve already made money, thanks to the fact that the odds they’ve offered won’t be a true reflection of the likelihood of something happening.
When you Cash Out that wager, the bookie then gets the opportunity to take more money from you because the payout that they’ll offer won’t truly reflect the likelihood of the event in question happening. Of course, there’s nothing that you can do to avoid the margin that you’ll pay on the original bet because all bookmakers add one in and if you wish to play a bet you’ll have to pay it, but you can choose whether or not to allow them to take another margin on the Cash Out.
Cash Out If The Timing Works
Ultimately, whether you wish to Cash Out on your bet is a personal choice. You might be watching a football match, for example, in which you’ve placed a Correct Score bet of 2-1. The score in the game could go 2-1, but you look at the clock and realise that there’s still 40 minutes to play and that it’s been an end-to-end match with both sides looking like scoring. In that instance, the chance of it being 2-1 at full-time is slim.
That’s the sort of scenario where you might wish to Cash Out your bet for fear of losing it altogether. The longer you hold on to your stake, the more your Cash Out offer will increase as full-time approaches. The issue is, of course, that a goal could be scored at any moment and if it is your bet goes from being a winning one to a losing one. Is it better to take some return rather than potentially none at all?
Cashing Out Losing Bets
Another thing that you might want to consider is the ability to Cash Out bets that look like they’re going to be losers. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve placed a bet on Everton to beat Liverpool in the Merseyside derby. There’s half an hour left of the match and Liverpool are beating the Blues 2-0, suggesting that your bet is almost certainly a losing one. What is the best thing to do?
Let’s imagine that you staked £10 on the likelihood of an Everton win, with odds of 5/1. You’d stand to win £50 if it happened, but you can see that money drifting away. Upon logging in to your betting out, you notice that you’re being offered a Cash Out of £1.03, which is rubbish compared to the original stake and possible payout but better than the nothing you’re likely to receive. That might be a good time to take the money.
Partial Cash Outs
More and more bookmakers are offering the ability to take a Partial Cash Out of your bet, which is where you can choose how much of the possible payout to take and allow the rest of the bet to ride to its conclusion. This is a handy way to guarantee yourself at least some return on your bet, with the potential for it to be even bigger if it comes in. It is a way of hedging your bet without actually needing to hedge it.
In the instance of Partial Cash Outs, the remainder of your bet will alter in order to reflect the fact that you’ve removed some of your stake. One way to use the Partial Cash Out feature is to remove the amount of your stake in order to ensure that, at the very worst, you break even on your wager. If the remainder of your bet goes on to win then you’ll get an additional payout that can be added to the amount that you took the Partial Cash Out on.
Watch Out For Your Emotions
When you’re considering whether or not to take a bookmaker up on their Cash Out option, be careful to ensure that you’re not allowing your emotions to control your decision making. Let’s say that you’re an Evertonian in the scenario of the Merseyside derby that we mentioned before. You’ll have faith in your team’s ability to get back into the game and resist taking the Cash Out offer, but is that you thinking with your head or your heart?
Equally, make sure that you’re not tempted by the Cash Out because you’re fearful rather than thinking analytically. Yes, the team that you’ve bet on to win is only 1-0 up, but have they actually looked like conceding? Is the opposition actually causing an issue, or is that the monkey in your brain urging you to Cash Out so you can guarantee yourself at least a small payout? Try to think as emotionless as possible when deciding what to do.