Cash out is a function that some online casinos offer, that allows you to lock in a profit or loss before the event you’re betting on has ended. A lot of players really enjoys the option of locking a profit in advance, so most betting companies are now offering the service!
What is cash out and how do you close a bet?
Cash out is a service provided by the betting companies, that allows you to close a bet in advance. That way, you can secure a certain profit or loss depending on how big the chances are of your bet actually going in.
The amount of profit or loss you get when you’re closing a bet using cash out is decided by the probability of your bet hitting or missing.
Why use cash out?
There are two different occasions when cash out might come in handy – when your bet is about to hit, or if it’s about to miss. In the first scenario – you’ll get more than you’ve wagered back, and in the second you’ll get less money back than what you wagered. So in short – cash out can be used to secure a profit, or to minimize a loss.
How does it work?
Cash out might be a bit hard to get your head around at first. So we’re using an example to make things easier:
On a game between Barcelona – Liverpool, you place a £10 bet on Liverpool at the odds of 3.80 – which will give you a profit of £28 if it hits. Liverpool scores the first goal, and is in the lead at halftime. The betting company will then give you the option of cashing out your bet for £25 – which means a profit of £15. That way you can secure a profit from what is far from a safe bet – since we know that Barcelona are strong at Camp Nou.
And as we guessed – Barcelona scores a goal in the second half of the game. The betting company gives you another offer – to close your bet even though it won’t hit. You won’t get as big profit as when your bet was right, but at least you won’t lose your entire bet. Maybe you’ll be offered to get £3 back, which means a loss of £7 for you. In that scenario, you’ll need to decide if you want to secure not to lose your entire bet, or if you think Liverpool still have a chance of winning.
Pros and cons with cash out
Closing a game in advance comes with both pros and cons. One given advantage with it is that you can close the game in advance if you realize that the game isn’t going along with your bet. The con however, is that it’s usually hard to decide whether it’s a good idea to close the bet in advance or not. If you close the game in advance to be on the safe side, you might miss out on the real big wins.
In order to make the right call on whether to close your bet or not, watching a live stream from the game can be a big help! These are some of the betting sites that we recommend to use if you want to try the cash-out function:
When should you use cash out?
Knowing when to close a bet and cash out is really hard. It’s all about making subjective assessment on the game and where its going, which isn’t an easy call. Some bets you might want to close really quickly, and others you want to keep open because you’re sure it will it.
But there’s also a simple rule that will help you decide whether you should cash out or not. Because, believe it or not, there’s actually a mathematical formula for it.
Calculate your cash out
We’ll just keep going with the example we gave above. You’ve placed a bet on Liverpool to win to the odds 3.80. Let’s say that, when the game reaches half time, the betting site offers you to cash out to the odds 1.60.
The calculation you can make when that happens, is to divide your original odds with the new odds and multiply with your stake: (pre-match odds / odds offered by betting company) x your stake. In this specific case – that means:
(3.80 / 1.60/ * 10 = £23,75
The result of your calculation, in this case £23,75, is the lowest amount of money you should settle with if you decide to cash out.
The calculated amount of money to cash out above is most of the times not what the betting company will offer you. They do use a similar calculation, but then they take off a few percentages in order for them to make money of it. What you’re looking for is the times when the betting companies makes another assessment than you, so that they’ll offer more than what you get in the above calculation.
Close games automatically
Some betting companies that offer cash out to their players, also offer the opportunity to close bets automatically. This means that you simply set a limit to your bet. When that limit is crossed by the betting companies offer to you the game will close automatically. It’s a simple and easy way for you to use cash out without having to be on standby.
Closing parts of a combination bet
If you’ve placed a combination bet, it is possible for you to just close one bet of the combination. If you do so, the odds for that bet will be changed to 1,00. That means it won’t change your combination bet for the better or for the worse.