How to place a bet
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Betting shops are situated throughout the UK and numerous different kinds of bookies are dotted round the countries towns and cities. Common bookies include William Hill, Ladbrokes, and Coral and there are a host of independent bookmakers as well. Because there are so many, competition is fierce so you are likely to get some good odds when placing a bet at a bookmaker.
The format in all bookmakers is the same, so it is easy to place a bet and if you win collect your winnings. The desk where you place you bet is usually situated towards the back behind a screen of some sort. This is where you will place your bet, ask for odds on your bet and if lucky enough collect your winnings.
The shop will have betting slips dotted around the shop. There is a general slip that any type of bet can be placed on. The slip is usually blank and requires you to fill out the details. The simplest way to bet is just to pick an outright winner of an event. First you have to pick what you are going to bet on, in this example we are going to pick a horse race. So write down who you are backing and then write ‘win’ underneath your selection. Then put your stake down or how much you want to bet on your selection. Then as it is a horse race you will have to write down the time and where the race is taking place (you may not have to do this for all bets). Then at the bottom where it says ‘total stake’ write in how much the total your bet comes to. If you have just bet on one thing it would be the same as your bet, but if you have used the slip for more than one bet add your stakes together and put that total in the ‘total stake’ box at the bottom.
For special events or the weekend or midweek football fixtures, there are usually betting slips that are already made up. These make it really simple and easy to place a bet. All you need to do is put a mark in the box next to the selection you are backing, put a mark in how much you are going to bet and then your total stake at the bottom.