If you are a serious punter then it is worth looking at software such as Bet Angel Professional. It will do all the hard work for you and has a plethora of functions to aid you. All you need to do is make your selections and Bet Angel will automatically calculate the stakes required either to stake to a specific amount or to hit a particular profit target. One click and all your bets are placed instantaneously. Or if you wish you can get it to scan the market for the best margin and you can use to the ‘auto bet’ function to automatically place a bet for you when your specified margin is reached. With automated software such as Bet Angel, dutching is a quick and painless process and as such dutching is very popular on the exchanges for people who follow particular sports closely and who want to make value judgements on an event.

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There are some curiosities with Dutching on exchanges as well. Most people are familiar with ‘Rule 4’. When a horse is withdrawn from a race the betting market is re-adjusted to account for the horse that was withdrawn. Naturally, the same applies on a betting exchange but the adjustment is tagged to each horse as a reduction factor. By clicking on any horses name in an event you can see the reduction factor. If you are dutching a race and a horse is withdrawn at odds above its fair value, in terms of its reduction factor, you will suddenly net a small bonus, very useful indeed. Of course people on the other side of the book will face a sudden loss and as a consequence it is quite common to see the price on a horse that looks like it will be withdrawn suddenly drift quite quickly. It’s a dangerous game to play though. I still remember seeing ‘Wizard of us’ drift sharply from 100-1 to 900-1 on the exchange when it played up badly in the stalls. It went on to win, that’s one massive bluff to be called in.

Dutching isn’t just a horse racing strategy though. It also throws up opportunities on other sports such as soccer. Rather than making a judgement on a soccer match why not hedge your bets and dutch the correct score market? Dutching by excluding weak participants or outcomes that stand little chance of coming in you can turn a pretty useful profit.

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