Have you ever tried to place a double only for the bookmaker to tell you that you can’t place this bet? Yet, you are able to place the two bets on their own as singles and even allowed to add in other markets, but not the two markets originally selected.
Well, this is likely to do with related contingencies, which bookmakers do not allow.
What are related contingencies?
A related contingency in the betting industry is where two or more of selections will have a direct effect on how the other bet is priced. This means that whatever happens in your first bet might have huge implications on how the other bets price would fluctuate. Let’s run through an example of bets that are deemed as related contingencies.
- Rafael Nadal to win the semi final and to win Wimbledon. In this case if Nadal went on to win his semi final then the odds of him winning Wimbledon would be affected by this. So this bet cant take place as the fist part (to win semi final) will directly influence what the odds for the second part (winning Wimbledon) would be.
- Tiger Woods to win all four major golf titles. After each major that Tiger wins, it’s going to again massively affect the price of him winning the next event. Usually the winners of past major tournaments in golf will go in as one of, if not the favourite for the next tournament.
- Arkle to win the Grand National and the Gold Cup. Fictional, we know, but if Arkle were to be entered via ante post in both races and then goes on to win the Grand National, this is turn would have a dramatic and direct affect on the odds for him winning the Gold Cup.
Alternative Bets
As with a lot of things in the betting industry, there are exceptions to the rule. A way that bookmaker’s work around this is by offering up specials markets for these types of bets so punters can in fact back the scenarios above. But, it allows the bookmaker to then create a price that in the event that the first result does have an affect on the second result, they wont be too far away.
Let’s continue with the Tiger Woods example above. If you were to try and back Woods to win all four majors as single bets to create a multiple bet then the odds would be astronomical as the make the acca then you’d multiply each bet. For example, let’s that Woods is priced at 10/1 to win each tournament before the start of the season. That would make odds of (10x10x10x10) = 10,000/1, an astronomical price. This bet, as mentioned above, would fall under the related contingencies rule.
The bookmaker, as a ‘special’ bet, may offer up exactly the same bet for around 50/1, just to provide this market, but also massively reduce their potential liability.