You have backed a team to win, and with twenty minutes left they are ahead. You could wait and hope, or you could take a guaranteed amount now. That choice is what cash out offers. It is one of the most popular features on British betting sites, and one of the most misunderstood. This guide explains how cash out works, when it can be useful and why it is not free. For our full recommendations, see the main guide to the best betting sites.
What is cash out?
Cash out lets you settle a bet before the event has finished. The bookmaker offers you an amount based on how your bet is going. If your selection is winning, the offer may be more than your stake. If it is losing, the offer will be less than your stake, but more than nothing.
- Cash out noun
- An option to settle a bet early for an amount offered by the bookmaker, rather than waiting for the final result.
Worked example. You bet £10 on a team at 3/1, so a win would return £40. They go a goal up at half-time, and the bookmaker offers £26 to cash out. Take it and you have £26 whatever happens next. Leave it, and you could get £40 or nothing.
Cash out was once a special feature, but today almost every major British bookmaker offers it in some form. What differs is how widely it is available, how clearly the value is shown and whether partial and automatic versions are offered. Those differences matter most if you use cash out regularly.
Sites with good cash out
bet365
Widest cash out coverage
Available on a huge range of sports and markets, including partial and auto cash out.
Sky Bet
Clearest for beginners
The cash out value is shown plainly on each open bet.
Paddy Power
Good on accumulators
Reliable cash out on popular football multiples.
Betfair
Most flexible
The exchange lets you close positions yourself at market prices.
Not every bookmaker offers cash out on every bet. It is most widely available on football, horse racing and tennis, and less common on niche sports and unusual markets. The table of sites above focuses on those with the broadest coverage and the clearest display of cash out values.
How the cash out value is worked out
The amount you are offered depends on the current odds of your selection. If your team goes ahead and their odds shorten, your cash out value rises. If they fall behind, it drops. The bookmaker recalculates the offer constantly as the event goes on.
Crucially, the bookmaker also builds its own margin into the offer. The cash out amount is always a little less than the fair value of your bet at that moment. That is how cash out makes money for the bookmaker, and it is why using it on every bet costs you over time.
What changes the value
Anything that changes the odds of your selection changes the cash out value. In football, that includes goals, red cards and the time left on the clock. In tennis, a break of serve can shift it sharply. In horse racing, cash out is usually only available before the race starts, and the value follows the price of your horse in the betting market.
Types of cash out
Full cash out
You take the whole amount on offer, and your bet is settled. Nothing that happens afterwards affects you.
Partial cash out
You take part of the offer and leave the rest of your bet running. It is a way of locking in some money while keeping a chance of the full return.
Auto cash out
You set a figure, and if the cash out value reaches it, the bookmaker settles the bet automatically. It is useful if you cannot watch the whole event.
Worth knowing. Cash out is not guaranteed. Bookmakers can suspend it at any time, such as during a penalty or just before a goal is confirmed, and not every bet or market offers it.
Edit bet
Some bookmakers also offer an edit bet feature, which lets you add, remove or swap selections in an accumulator after you have placed it. Behind the scenes, the bookmaker cashes out your original bet and uses the value to place a new one. It is convenient, but the same margin applies, so treat it with the same care as a normal cash out.
When cash out can make sense
Cash out is most useful when your circumstances change, not the match. Perhaps you placed a bigger bet than you meant to and would feel better taking some money back. Perhaps your accumulator has one leg left and a guaranteed return means more to you than the chance of a larger one. In situations like these, cashing out is a reasonable choice.
It is less sensible as a reaction to every twist in a game. Watching the cash out value rise and fall can make you anxious, and cashing out in a panic tends to lose you money compared with letting good bets run.
Some people also find cash out useful for bets placed well in advance, such as a bet on the league winner made at the start of the season. If circumstances change halfway through, such as a key player being injured, cashing out lets you take back part of your stake rather than waiting months for a result you no longer expect.
Cash out on accumulators
Accumulators are where cash out is used most. When most of your selections have won and only one or two remain, the cash out value can be tempting. It is often the moment when a guaranteed return feels most valuable.
Before you decide, compare the cash out offer with the full potential return, and think about how likely the remaining legs are to win. If the last leg is a strong favourite, the offer will be close to the full return. If it is less certain, the offer will be lower.
- Leg noun
- One selection in an accumulator. A four-leg acca has four selections, all of which must win for the bet to pay out in full.
A useful habit is to look at the cash out value alongside the potential return every time, rather than the cash out figure alone. Seeing both numbers together makes it clearer how much of the potential win you would be giving up, and whether that feels worthwhile.
The hidden cost of cash out
Because the bookmaker builds its margin into every cash out offer, cashing out regularly means paying that margin again and again. Over time this adds up. Someone who cashes out most of their bets will usually end up with less than someone who lets most of their bets run, even though the cash out user may feel as if they are winning more often.
Worked example. Suppose the fair value of your bet at half-time is £28, but the bookmaker offers £26. You have given up £2 for certainty. Do that on many bets and the small amounts become a large one.
Questions to ask before cashing out
A few simple questions can help you decide in the moment. Would I place this bet again right now, at the current odds? If the answer is yes, letting it run is usually the better choice. Would the guaranteed amount make a real difference to me, or would it just feel nice? And am I reacting to a single moment in the game, such as a missed chance, rather than to the overall picture?
If you find these questions hard to answer calmly during a match, set auto cash out before the game starts. Choosing a target in advance, while you are not caught up in the action, tends to lead to better decisions.
A note on regret
Everyone who uses cash out will sometimes take the money and then watch their original bet win. It is frustrating, but it is not a mistake if the decision made sense at the time. Equally, cashing out a bet that goes on to lose does not prove you are good at timing. Judge your cash out decisions by the reasons behind them, not by what happened next.
Cash out on an exchange
On a betting exchange such as Betfair, cash out works a little differently. Because you can both back and lay selections, you can close a position yourself by laying the selection you backed. The exchange's cash out button does this for you at the current market price, with commission charged on any winnings. The prices are often fairer than a traditional bookmaker's cash out, but the principle is the same.
It also helps to check your bookmaker's cash out rules once, when you open the account. They explain when cash out may be suspended and how the value is settled if something goes wrong during the event.
Cash out and staying in control
Cash out can help you stay in control, if you use it with a plan. Deciding in advance that you will cash out once a bet reaches a certain value, and then setting auto cash out to do it, removes the temptation to act in the heat of the moment. What it cannot do is make a bet you could not afford acceptable. The best protection is still a deposit limit set when you open your account.
If you ever find yourself cashing out bets because you feel anxious watching them, it is worth asking whether the stakes are too high for comfort. Lowering your stake, or taking a break, may help more than any feature on the app.
Common questions
What does cash out mean?
It means settling a bet before the event finishes, for an amount the bookmaker offers based on how your bet is going.
Is cash out good value?
Not usually over time. The bookmaker builds a margin into every cash out offer, so cashing out regularly costs you more than letting bets run.
What is partial cash out?
It lets you take part of the cash out offer while leaving the rest of your bet running, so you keep a chance of the full return.
Why was cash out not available on my bet?
Bookmakers can suspend cash out at any time, for example during a key moment in a match, and not every market or bet type offers it.
Rhys Maddocks
Consumer writer and editor
Rhys spent twenty years as a consumer affairs journalist in the North West, covering everything from energy bills to bank charges. He now writes about betting for people who are new to it, or who want to understand what a family member has signed up for.