Dead-heat calculator
When the judge cannot separate two (or more) horses for a position, your stake on that position is treated proportionally. Here is what your return actually becomes.
For a two-horse dead-heat for the win with only the win paying, enter 2 and 1. For three horses dead-heating for 2nd and 3rd in a 3-place each-way, enter 3 and 2.
Dead-heat factor
1/2
Adjusted stake applied
£5.00
Adjusted return
£25.00
Profit / loss
£15.00
Why the stake, rather than the winnings, is halved
Imagine two horses hitting the line together. The bookmaker has liabilities on both, and the fairest settlement is to treat your bet as though you had staked half the money on each. Half your stake wins at full odds; the other half loses. So a £10 at 4/1 which dead-heats with one other horse becomes £5 at 4/1 — a return of £25 — and £5 lost. Net profit £15, rather than the £40 a clean winner would have brought.
The formula generalises neatly. The factor is the number of paying positions being contested at the tie, divided by the number of horses in the tie. A two-way dead-heat for a single paying place is 1/2; a three-way dead-heat for third with two places available at that level is 2/3; a four-way dead-heat for a single place is 1/4. Multiply your ordinary return by that factor, and that is what settles.
Dead heats are rare enough that most punters never give them a thought, and then fairly common when you start doing so — Saturday cards at Newmarket and Sandown seem particularly prone. They are also one of the few places where you will sometimes find an each-way bet beating a win-only at the same price, because the place half often escapes the reduction when the dead heat is for the win alone.