Should you Cash-Out Your Bets or Not?

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The ability to cash-out your bets is a new phenomena in online betting and is pretty much a standard feature where ever you choose to bet, but is it actually the right strategy for you?

If you are not familiar with what a cash-out is, it basically voids your bet and returns you a stake set by what the bookmaker will offer you to cancel your bet. If your bet is losing they will offer you less than you placed, if it is winning they may offer more than your stake, but less than what you would win.

So let’s first start off with the advantages of cashing out.

  • Can be useful with accumulators

If you have a multiple bet and a few legs have already won, but you don’t fancy the chances of the last bet coming in as much cash-outs could be a very good insurance policy. Of course you won’t win as much, but you are guaranteed a payout.

  • Can cut your losses

If a bet isn’t going your way, or at least you don’t think its going to go your way you can change your mind and get some of your stake back. You may have still lost money, but you will have lost less. You may do this because you have some additional information, you may also be watching the event live and have changed your mind on what you have analysed.

  • Guaranteed Payout

Placing some bets can be a nervous experience, particularly towards the end of the event. For example if you have a bet on a team to win and the are 1-0 up at the 88th minute, you may simply want to cash out to guarantee a payout rather than have to bite your nails and potentially lose the bet in the final minute and injury time.

Of course cashing-out is not for everyone and here are some of the disadvantages to using this feature.

  • Poor value odds on Cash-Out

Unlike before an event where you have numerous bookies to choose from and can select the best value odds across bookies, you can only cash-out at the bookie you placed the bet with, and you have to accept what they judge to be the partial cash-out price. This could include a heavy bookie profit margin and it may be difficult to analyse on the spot if you are actually getting a decent cash-out price that’s good value.

  • You may make an emotional decision you regret

The fear of losing is a powerful motivator, but perhaps you are not thinking straight when you hit the cash-out button and you could be playing it safe and losing out on the full wins of your bets because you had a feeling it would go wrong.

  • Smaller Wins & Smaller Payouts

The cautious cash-out bettor is likely to lose out on some wins if they cash-out often enough. While cash-out may seem like the safer option, with the odds on your partial cash-out likely to be in the bookies favour it is unlikely you can ever beat the best option of either not betting on something you are not confident in or sticking with your bets if you can accept you can afford to lose the amount you have staked.

In short, it is great that online betting and new features are available such as cash-out, but its important to be sure these new features are working in your favour. Collecting records of your cash outs and what you would have won or lost if you hadn’t used the feature is a good way to determine if its something that is helping or hindering your online betting.

To find the best free bets to use with cash out see our best uk free bets list