How To Bet a Daily Double On Horses

Updated: November 29, 2022

Daily doubles are one of the most unique types of bet in horse racing. This is because it is one of the only types of bet where you won't know what the odds are when you place the bet.

It is also the only type of bet that greatly limits the bet selections that you can make.

 Don't worry if this bet may seem confusing to you at the moment, you are going to learn exactly how it works! 

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How To Bet a Daily Double On Horses and make Money

What Is a Daily Double On Horses?

A daily double is a very specific type of parlay bet. Although, you will likely never see them referred to as a parlay bet.

The idea is that you will bet on the winner of two horse races, normally consecutive horse races.

Now, here is the kicker. It will be the gambling company that controls what races are included in the daily double. This means that you won't just be able to choose a couple of horse races and select your favorites from that. You are told what the two horse races are up front.

The reason why the gambling company controls which horse races are included in their daily double is to try and make the bets harder to win.

They will often select races where it is going to be exceedingly difficult to predict which horses are going to be walking away the winner.

How does a Daily Double work?

The gambling company will choose two races at a track meet. At larger track meets, there may be four races selected, two in the morning and two later on in the day.

However, they will not be a single bet. With a daily double, you will always be betting on pairs of races.

In each of the daily double pairs, you will need to choose the horse you believe will win each race. There may be some companies that offer an each-way daily double, but this is rare.

How much does a daily double pay in horse racing?

You don't actually know how much a daily double will pay out until the second race.

This is because betting odds are not calculated in the traditional way (i.e. the likelihood of something happening), but with the number of bets placed on a specific race.

More on that soon, though.

When the second race rolls around, the bookie will list what the odds now are.

 MyBookie, BetOnline, and BetUS will list how much the payout will be if your horse won the first race, and it will now give you the odds for each of the second selections. 

If your horse didn't win the first race, you won't see any betting odds related to you.

Remember, at this point, you will no longer be able to place a bet.

In some cases, you could easily win a few hundred dollars from a single bet.

How is double daily payout calculated?

At some point before the first race, the bookie will close betting on the daily double.

All of the money wagered on the daily double will then be added together. A small chunk of cash will be removed from this total. This will be the bookmaker's cut (they have to make money, after all!)

After the second race, the bookmaker will then divide all of the money between the selections left in the running.

The odds will then be based upon the number of bets for each of the second outcomes. For example (we will keep things simple here), if 2 people bet on one selection, then the odds will be 2x better than the odds for a selection that attracted 4 bets.

Basically, the money (after the bookie's cut) will be spread between everybody that made 2 correct selections. The proportion of cash you receive will be relative to the amount you bet. So, if you placed $4 bet, then you would win more than the person that placed a $2 bet.

Because of the way in which doubles odds are calculated, you may find that the potential winnings are higher than if you built up a standard parlay with the same bets.

What is a $2 double in horse racing?

The minimum bet for a double in horse racing will normally be $2.00, although you can bet more if you want.

A $2 double can mean multiple things. For some bookies, it may just show what the minimum bet is. For others, they will cap the betting at $2.

Conclusion

As you can see, when it comes to how to bet a daily double on horses, there isn't much you need to know.

Sure, it can be a bit more complicated insofar as the fact that the betting odds are not displayed for you.

However, at the end of the day, it is all about making 2 picks over 2 races. Do your research, and you should be fine.

If you are looking to jump into placing daily doubles, then we suggest that you head to either MyBookie, BetOnline, or BetUS.

They have a huge number of daily doubles running, and the number of gamblers they attract often keeps the prizes high.

Where to Place your Daily Double wager

References

https://www.gamblingsites.org/horse-racing/bets/daily-double/

https://www.thesportsgeek.com/sports-betting/horse-racing/daily-double-pick-3/

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