Maximum Payout Rules
What some people might not realise is that there can be Maximum Payout rules that apply to certain bets. What makes it even more complicated is that it’s not a case of one rule fits all, with Maximum Payouts differing from sport to sport and even within an individual sport. Obviously I’m most concerned about football on this site, so it’s football that I’m going to be looking at and exploring the ways in which the Maximum Payout rules can affect your bets.
You might be surprised to learn that there are different rules depending on the league that you’ve bet on, as well as whether or not you’ve placed an accumulator rather than a straight single. I’ll talk about this more as the piece goes on, but you’ll also need to bear in mind that different bookmakers have their own rules and that my explanation here of how it all works is far from exhaustive.
What Maximum Payout Limits Are
This is something that it’s easy to get a little bit confused over, given that most people who don’t bet very often might well expect to receive all of the money they’re ‘owed’ when their bet comes in. Yet as I explained in the introduction, that’s not the way that bookmakers operate. They have to protect themselves from huge losses, so they tend to put limits in place to stop themselves from losing too much money in one go. One thing that’s important to point out is that this is different to Maximum Withdrawal amounts. That is the limit on how much you can remove from your betting account into your bank account on a given basis. You could win £2 million, for example, but only be able to remove £200,000 of it every week for ten weeks, say.
Maximum Payout rules specify the top amount of money that you’re able to win with a bet. Normally these limits apply on a daily basis, so if a bookie has a Maximum Payout of £500,000 then there may well be nothing in the rules stopping you from winning £500,000 every day for a week. That said, some bookmakers have daily and weekly limits, meaning that you might be able to win £500,000 per day and £2 million per week, meaning that the dream of half a million per day for seven says won’t become a reality. Again, this is the sort of thing you’ll want to check out with your bookie of choice so that you’re not disappointed if you hit the big time.
Maximum Payouts at the Time of Writing
As I write this we’re heading towards the end of April in 2018. Right now, this is the list of Maximum Payout amounts for some of the top bookmakers around. It’s worth bearing in mind that if you’re reading this after that date then it’s possible your selected company might have changed their policy, so do check their small print before you place a bet that has the potential of winning big.
Bookmaker | Maximum Payout for Football |
---|---|
William Hill | £2,000,000 |
Paddy Power | £1,000,000 |
Ladbrokes | £1,000,000 |
Betfair | £1,000,000 |
Coral | £1,000,000 |
Betfred | £1,000,000 |
Betway | £500,000 |
BetVictor | £500,000 |
Totesport | £500,000 |
Boylesports | €500,000 |
888Sport | £250,000 |
As you can see, some bookmakers have significantly larger Maximum Payout rules for football than others. It’s not purely down to the relative size of the bookie in the industry, either. BetVictor, as an example, have a strong reputation within the world of online gambling and in the past have had deals to be the official bookmaker of such giants of the game as Liverpool and Chelsea Football Clubs. Yet their Maximum Payout is a quarter of that offered by the likes of William Hill.
We all know out own limits in the market. That is to say, I tend to place bets of around £10 to £20, whilst my friend is much more likely to stray into the realms of £500 to £1000 because he has more disposable income than I do. You might well be a high-roller that is more likely to place a £500,000 bet on a market with odds of 1/2 than a £500 bet at 1,000/1. Now that you know how much you’re likely be paid if your bet comes in, you can consider whether your placing your big bets with the right company. There’s no point placing your wagers with 888Sport if you’re expecting winnings of any more than £250,000. Equally, if you’re like me and even your largest bets are likely to being home just a few thousand then you’ll be fine whoever you bet with.
Other Limits
There are other limits that bookmakers can put in place. Sometimes, rather than limiting how much you’re able to win, a bookie will put a limit to the stake amount you’re able to bet with. Let’s say that your chosen company has decided to do just that, you might find that they limit the stake you can place to, say, £10,000 rather than limiting your the Maximum Payout to £500,000. You’ll often find that Maximum Stake limits are applied to offers and, when they are, they’re usually much lower than £10,000! Welcome Offers are prime targets for these sorts of limits, as are offers that promise you ridiculous odds on matches that are considered to be certainties for the people betting on them.
Let’s look at an example of a bookmaker that is offering new customers odds of 50/1 for Manchester City to beat a League Two side in the FA Cup final. We know that, as it’s the final, Manchester City are likely to take the game extremely seriously and play their best team. We also know that the realistic odds for the Cityzens to win the game are 1/9, so 20/1 is clearly silly. In that instance a bookie doesn’t want to rely on its Maximum Payout rule to help them limit their losses, so instead they’ll confirm that the Maximum Stake is £1. They might also add other rules, such as the ‘real’ odds are paid out in cash and the rest is paid in Free Bets. That’s not all that important for this article, but good to know all the same.
Personal Limits
whenever you talk about betting it’s important to be realistic. Bookmakers remain in business for many years because they’re very good at what they do and they know how to ensure that they virtually always turn a profit. They might pretend that they like winners, but the reality is that they’re much more keen on customers who tend to lose on a regular basis than the ones that win all of the time. If you demonstrate to a betting company that you know how to win then, unfair as it may be, they’ll soon start imposing limits on your ability to place bets.
That’s not to say that the second you get a winner you need to be worried about your account being shutdown or anything. Firstly, they’re obliged to payout your winning bets unless they feel that something dodgy has been going on, so you’ll still see the money that you’re owed from older bets. It’s not even as if a streak of wins will see companies jump to be banning you from their site, with many punters able to turn in modest profits without bookies caring all that much. Instead what I’m talking about here is customers that regularly win and win big, perhaps using a system that allows them to turn huge profits at the expense of the bookmakers.
The best companies out there actually employ people with the specific job of analysing the accounts of people that bet with them, keeping an eye out for those that they consider to be ‘unprofitable’. They use complex algorithms to analyse the bets that you place, the size of your stakes, the way that you take advantage of their offers and so on. The interesting thing is that this sort of risk analysis by companies can lead to punters who don’t actually win that often finding their accounts limited, purely because the bookie is concerned about what will happen when they do win big if they seem to have a system in place that comes to close to winning on a regular basis.
The restrictions put in place on individual accounts can vary from bookmaker to bookmaker. It’s quite common for some to operate a ‘referral system’, for example, that sees bets referred to a trader who will look at them all individually and assess the risk of each one separately. Others opt for a tiered system depending on the overall risk offered by a punter. Someone that is particularly successful might find that their stake is limited to just 1% of a regular customer’s bets, whilst those that enjoy moderate amounts of success might find that number comes in at more like 50%. If the limits imposed on your don’t stop you from winning on a regular basis then a bookie might even get to the point of simply closing your account. None of that is something that you can do anything about, nor is it anything to be overly concerned over. Still, it’s handy to be aware of the situation and to realise that it’s different from the general Maximum Payout restrictions put in place by all bookmakers.
Different Leagues Have Different Rules
Something that you might be interested to learn is that bookmakers actually have different Maximum Payout rules depending on the league it is that you’re betting on. Their can be numerous reasons for this, though the most common reason is that the major leagues, so the likes of the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the Championship, the Scottish Premiership and so on, are actively monitored by bookies and odds are informed by said monitoring. Lesser leagues, particularly across Europe, are monitored by algorithms rather than people, meaning that bookies might not have as close a grip on what’s happening in them as bettors would. As a consequence, there’s an increased chance that they’re more likely to lose money on the lesser-known leagues than the most popular ones.
Interestingly, some bookmakers also limit the Maximum Payout on football depending on the actual market that you’ve placed your wager on. The most common bets, such as Correct Score, First Goalscorer and Match Betting is paid out at the upper most limit, whilst less usual bets have a lower limit. Again, this is normally for the same sort of reasons as why they split the divisions that they pay out the maximum on. In order to get a clearer idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a look a the way both Coral and Paddy Power split the leagues that you can bet on:
Coral
Coral don’t instigate a Maximum Payout limit on the types of bet that you can place, but they do split leagues in three Grades and limit the payout on them accordingly. Here’s a look at that those three Grades and the associated Maximum Payout amount on bets, including ante-post bets, that you can place:
Grade 1 – Maximum Payout £1 million
- Premier League
- Championship
- League One
- League Two
- The Conference National division
- Scottish Premiership
- Scottish Championship
- Scottish League One
- Scottish League Two
- English Cup Matches
- Scottish Cup Matches
- International Fixtures
- Champions League (Post Qualifying Rounds)
- Europa League (Post Qualifying Rounds)
- German Bundesliga
- Spanish La Liga Primera
- French Ligue 1
- Italian Serie A
Grade 2 – Maximum Payout £250,000
- Italian Serie B
- German Bundesliga 2
- Spanish La Liga Segunda
- Dutch Eredivisie
- Belgian Jupiler League
- Portuguese SuperLiga
- Swedish Allsvenskan
- Norwegian Tippeligaen
- Danish Ligaen 1
- Finnish Veikkausliiga
- Turkish Super Ligi
- Greek Super League
- France Ligue 2
Grade 3 – Maximum Payout £100,000
This is a catch all for any other football, including both the Australian and Polish football leagues that might otherwise escape attention.
Paddy Power
When it comes to Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker has decided to streamline things. They’ve selected a group of competitions that they’ll pay out at the full price for most bets, putting everything else under the label of ‘All Other Football Event Types’ into a separate category. There are limits in each category depending on the type of bet placed, however. Here are the three bet types:
Category A
- Match Betting
- Total Goals
- Correct Score
- First Goalscorer
- Asian Handicaps
- Handicap Betting
Category B
- Match Betting
- Total Goals
- Correct Score
- Asian Handicaps
- Handicap Betting
Category C
All other markets not listed.
To complicate things further, Paddy Power then only pay out the maximum amount of £1 million on Category A bets that are placed on certain competitions, as I said a moment ago. That list of competitions is as follows:
- Premier League
- Championship
- League One
- League 2
- Scottish Premiership
- Scottish League One
- German Bundesliga
- French Ligue 1
- Spanish La Liga
- Champions League (Post Qualifying Rounds)
- Europa League (Post Qualifying Rounds)
- World Cup
- European Championships
Category A bets on those competitions have a Maximum Payout of £1 million, then, whilst Category C bets on them have a Maximum Payout of £100,000. As mentioned before, they cover everything else under the bracket of ‘All Other Football Event Types’ and that means any league or competition that is not listed above. If you bet on one then that’s when Category B comes in as a bet type, with the more observant amongst you likely having spotted that the only difference is that there’s no ‘First Goalscorer’ bets. Category B bets on the All Other Football Event Types market have a Maximum Payout of £50,000, whilst Category C bets will have a Maximum Payout of £10,000. Needlessly complicated, but there you go.
The difference in the way that just two bookmakers handle their Maximum Payout rules should tell you that it’s a topic in which there’s not a huge amount of agreement between the various companies. Make sure that you check out what the bookie you like to bet with does for their Maximum Payouts, as it would simply take too long for me to list every one here. It’s also worth bearing in mind that they can change their rules whenever they want, so don’t assume that just because you’ve seen your company’s rules in the past that they’re still the same now.
How It Affects Accumulator Bets
As you’ve seen, both Coral and Paddy Power separate competitions into different categories, with most bookmakers doing the same thing. Given that you could place a Correct Score Acca on seven Premier League matches, three Scottish League Two games and the Austrian Bundesliga, how will you accumulator be affected? Simply put, the Maximum Payout will shift to be the same as the lowest Maximum Payout applicable. In other words, with Paddy Power the bets on both the Austrian Bundesliga and Scottish League Two come under the bracket of ‘All Other Football Event Types’, meaning that the Maximum Payout amount will be £50,000.
If a bookmaker follows the Irish bookmaker’s lead of separating bet types into different categories then you’ll find that the same rules apply. That means that you could make fourteen Correct Score selections on Premier League matches for your Acca, but if just one of them is on a market such as Both Teams To Score, that doesn’t come under the Category A bracket of bets that have a Maximum Payout of £1 million, then you’ll find that the Maximum Payout shifts to £100,000, regardless of the fact that the majority of bets would come under the £1 million bracket if done separately. It’s something to bear in mind, given that accumulators normally have tasty odds that might ordinarily lead you to think you’ve got a chance of winning a huge amount of money.
Why Does It Matter?
Now we’ve looked at how Maximum Payouts work and the things you’ll need to think about if you manage to get lucky and land a massive bet, you’d be forgiven for wondering why it really matters. Does it change anything for you, given you’re likely to be placing your bets regardless? Well yes, actually. There are a few adjustments that you can make to your behaviour now that you know the way things work in the industry. The most obvious is that you can actually save yourself some money by changing the amount that you bet on an accumulator.
Let’s think about a bookmaker that has confirmed that they have a Maximum Payout limit of £750,00 on football bets. You’ve had a look at this weekend’s fixtures and decided to place bets on fifteen games across the Premier League and Bundesliga, with the combined odds of all of the results going the way you think they’re going to go being 7,500,000/1 or 7.5m to one. Ordinarily you might place a £1 bet on an accumulator, but in this instance you know that if you were to do so then you would only be paid a tenth of the value of the winnings you’re expecting to receive. Even cutting it down to a 50p bet will still see you miss out on £3 million, so why wouldn’t you just place a 10p bet? You’ve saved yourself 90p and will still be paid the same amount of money as if you’d bet £1.
The Independent Betting Adjudication Service, better known as IBAS, actually have a campaign over this matter in play at the time of writing. They believe that bookmakers could do more to stop punters from betting more than they need to in terms of the Maximum Payout that they can receive. With computer technology nowadays there’s really no excuse for bookies not to tell you when you’re betting higher stakes than you’ll be able to win with or putting more teams in your accumulators than you need to. If you bear in this in mind moving forward, you could save yourself the equivalent amount of a medium-sized win over the course of a year.
There’s also the thing that I hinted at before – now that you know which bookmakers have the best Maximum Payouts you can do your utmost to ensure that you’re not placing bets with one that is going to see you lose out on money if your bet comes in. Regardless of whether you’re a high-roller or a conservative bettor, the hope is that at some point you’ll get the chance to claim a large win from a bookie. Don’t let them pay you less than you deserve because you either didn’t note which one has the largest Maximum Payout or else hadn’t spotted the rules that the company you’re betting with employs.