Cashing Out

Secure a profit or limit a loss with the click of the button if your nerves begin to jangle…

Cashing out is a tool that allows you to lock in a profit or cut your losses before the event you are betting on finishes. Cashing out manually has always been available, in that you can lock in a profit or loss by trading out your position. The difference between trading and cashing out is that the betting exchange does all the work for you: with a single click you can cash out all bets placed in a particular market.

When you cash out your bet for a profit, your stake (potential loss) is returned to your account immediately and your winnings are returned when the event finishes. If you placed a back bet you would need the odds to come down to cash out and if you layed a bet you would need the odds to increase in order to cash out for a profit.

If the outcome that you are betting on starts to look unlikely, you can either wait for the event to finish, hoping for the best, or you can use the cash out tool to limit your loss, freeing up what’s left of your stake for a potentially more productive bet.

You may use the cash out facility as a safety net (although bear in mind that that cashing out may not be available at all times and that cash out amounts are not guaranteed) or as part of your betting strategy. For example, if you think that a person or team has a better change of succeeding than the prevailing odds suggest, you could back that person or team at those odds, wait for the odds to drift lower and then cash out to guarantee a small profit.

Cashing out, does have a disadvantage, you may use it, for example, to guarantee a small win at the expense of a far larger one if you had just held your nerve. If you always settle early you will be lowering your profits in the long run. However that’s the difference between betting and trading, and cashing out remember is just an automated version of trading.

Cashing out is currently available on these betting exchanges: Betfair, BETDAQ (note that you need to use BETDAQ’s mobile app to cash out.)