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What Is Dead Heat Rule In Sports Betting? (Ultimate Guide)

MiaWritten by Mia
Last updated: October 30, 2024
Last updated: October 30, 2024
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As it is known in sports betting, the dead heat rule is an important concept for bettors to understand. When two or more selections finish in an exact tie in a sporting event, this creates a dead heat situation. In these cases, the dead heat rule comes into effect for wager grading. This rule can affect how much bettors receive in winnings, especially for exotic wagers like Exactas and Trifectas in horse racing.

This article will explain the dead heat rule, how it works, the most common sports where it happens, and the impact it can have on payouts for various bet types. Understanding these key details will help sharpen your betting strategy when that dramatic photo finish inevitably occurs.
Key Takeaways:
  • In most cases, the winnings from a dead heat are divided equally among the bettors who placed wagers on the tied competitors.

  • While the equal division rule is the most common, some sportsbooks may have slightly different variations for grading bets with dead heat rule.

  • In parlay bets, a dead heat typically results in the entire parlay being voided. However, the policy may vary among bookmakers.

  • Similar to parlays, dead heats in accumulator bets often lead to the entire bet being voided.

  • The dead heat rule can apply to various bet types, including win bets, place bets, show bets, and more.

Dead Heat Rule Explained (The Easy Way!)

Simply put, the dead heat rule is a rule that is applied when more than one outcome occurs in a particular market. It is a settlement policy used in sports betting to determine payouts when two or more selections finish in an exact tie in an event. For instance, suppose you are betting on the college football first-half market, and at the end of the first-half, both teams are tied at 17; neither team won nor lost. So sportsbooks need to find a way to grade bets and decide on the payouts. Ordinarily, they would grade bets as a push which is typically a full refund- some sportsbooks may keep a small portion as commission.

For sportsbooks, push and refund does not equate to profit. So, they cannot gain a profit when they do a full refund. So, here is when they apply the Dead Heat Rule to secure their profit.

How Does the Dead Heat Rule Work?

When a dead heat occurs, and bookmakers apply the rule, the stakes on wagers are divided between the number of winners. So if you bet $10 on a horse that finished in a dead heat, you’d get back half your stake – $5 – since there were essentially two “winners.” This reduces potential payouts and prevents sportsbooks from taking a big loss. In the case of our college football example above, instead of one possible outcome to be paid out, two outcomes occurred. So, you will receive half of your odds. It is definitely different from the case where more than two outcomes occur and we will discuss it later in this article.

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Betting On The Favorite VS. Underdog

Let’s use our college football example again. Here is how wagered on the favorite:

Betting market College football first-half
Favorite odds -370
Stake $100

If you remember, -370 odds mean if you wager $370, you would win $100. Now, you wagered $100, and if the team wins, you will win $27 and a net profit-payout- of $127 (your initial stake + $27 win).

Now, the dead heat occurs at the end of the first-half, and the sportsbook applies the dead heat rule. Now, you will receive half of the “payout”. This is crucial to understand that you receive half of the payout, not half of the profit. In this particular example, you will receive half of the $127, which is $63.5. It means from your original stake, you actually lost money- $36.5, to be exact.

So, in the case of betting on the favorite, push and refund is a better outcome for bettors. But if the sportsbook applies DHR, betting on the favorite does not favor bettors. Still, it is better than not receiving anything back at all!

So, a general rule of thumb:

When the dead heat rule is applied, negative odds(favorites) are not in your favor.

Now, what about the underdog? Suppose you wagered on the underdog in the same game:

Betting market College football first-half
Underdog odds +285
Stake $100

Here, you would bet $100 to gain $285 profit and a total payout of $385. Now, the same scenario: dead heat occurred, and you will receive half the payout, which is $192.50. So, even though the dead heat rule applied, you gained an extra $92.50. So, push and refund do not favor bettors when betting on the underdog and dead heat occurs.

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So, another rule of thumb:

Positive odds(underdogs) are in your favor when the dead heat rule is applied.

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