Rule 4

Posted on by Bryle

Tattersals Rule 4 (or technically Rule 4c)

Bookmakers offer prices on each participant in a race (or sporting event) but reserve the right to make a deduction from the winnings if one of the perticpants is withdrawn so close to the start of a race that they haven’t had time to “reform” the market ie offer shorter odds on the remaining participants.

The official wording of Rule4 is something as follows

In the event of a late withdrawal of of a horse from a race before it comes under coming under starters orders, or the horse is officially deemed not to have taken part in a race by the starter, then this horse is treated as a non-runner. As such any bets on this horse will be refunded and any winning bets in the race will be subject to a deduction in line with Tattersalls’ Rule 4c.

Tattersalls’ (the official bookmakers rules guidlines) sets out a scale which they deem to be fair to both bookmaker and punter. Most punters believe Rule4 to be unfair but in fact I will show you below how Rule4 is actually in the punters favour … and how you can use it to give your bookmaker a caning!

This is  the standard rate of deductions  set out in Rule 4 which is used by virtually every bookmaker in the country

Price at time of withdrawal

1/9

2/11

1/4

3/10

2/5

8/15

8/13

4/5

20/21

Evens

5/4

13/8

15/8

5/2

10/3

9/2

6/1

10/1

Amount deducted from winnings

Or

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

to

Shorter

2/17

1/5

2/7

1/3

4/9

4/7

4/6

5/6

6/5

6/4

7/4

9/4

3/1

4/1

11/2

9/1

14/1

90p in the £

85p in the £

80p in the £

75p in the £

70p in the £

65p in the £

60p in the £

55p in the £

50p in the £

45p in the £

40p in the £

35p in the £

30p in the £

25p in the £

20p in the £

15p in the £

10p in the £

5p in the £