It’s essential to understand that all bookmakers will have a maximum payout that they will include for each sport and different sporting events. For the majority of people the limits in which they do pay out will never be an issue, due to the stakes and odds that most people bet at. But for those of you who are either classed as high rollers or simply place massively speculative bets at high odds, then this article will explain everything you need to know.
For each sport, the bookmaker will outline the maximum that they are willing to pay out per bet; and it’s up to you to understand them before placing your bet. Whilst most bookmakers will prohibit bets that will exceed the maximum pay out, some won’t and many punters have been caught out in the past, winning what they think are truly staggering chunks of money and then being let down when it comes to the settlement of bet.
The first thing that we want to clear up is that the difference between a betting limit and a payout limit. The betting limit is the maximum amount that you are allowed to stake at the bookmaker for an individual bet. This will range massively across the board but will likely be determined on an individual betting market at the price the book maker feels comfortable laying at. The more popular the market, the higher the limit will be, although even the most popular markets will reach their threshold.
The payout limit is the maximum a bookmaker will pay out. Meaning that you could technically stake a very small amount at very long odds, but exceed the amount in which you can receive.
What happens if I exceed the payout limit?
If your bet does exceed the payout limit then the bookmaker will simply pay you the maximum amount stated in their terms and conditions for that sport or market. For example, you win a bet that should pay out £1 million, but the bookmakers limit is that of £500,000 for that type of bet. In this case the bet will be settled, but payout capped at £1 million.
What sort of payout limits should I expect to see?
Well, like all things in online betting, it massively depends on the bookmaker and the sport/market in question. For example, on single bets surrounding the English Premier League, bet365 will cap their max payout at £2 million for a single bet, whereas rivals 888Sport have a maximum payout of just £250,000.
Check out the table below for a full list of payouts from a number of the top bookmakers in the industry.
Accumulator bets
Accumulator bets are often the bet types that are called into question more often than not with maximum payouts, simply because of the ability to win huge sums of money for a relatively small stake. It’s these bets that punters often get carried away with and it’s so easy to simply keep adding selections and making your accumulator bet pay out tens, if not hundreds of thousands for very little money in comparison.
You also need to be wary with mixing your sports and bet types with these sorts of bets as well. As we mentioned earlier in the article, the payout limit is very sport AND market specific, meaning that their could be a general limit for paying out on football matches, but then if you wager on say the Asian Handicap for example, you might have to adhere to another limit.
Depending on the bookmaker, will depend on how they address limits for accumulator bets. Some have policies in place which state that all accumulator bets will adhere to a set payout limit. Whereas others will take the market/sport/bet you have chosen with the lowest payout limit in the acca and then adhere to these limits instead. We can’t stress highly enough that if you are betting on accumulator bets, check with your bookmaker prior to betting to find out your limits for each bet type.
As a final word of warning, there have been countless examples of people placing huge acca bets and then the bookmaker not paying out due to a breach in payout limits, which are clearly stated in their terms and conditions; the bookmaker will simply not turn a blind eye to this.