The number of each-way places a bookmaker offers on the Grand National is not a minor detail — it is the single variable most likely to determine whether your bet returns a profit or falls just short. Standard industry terms cover four places. Some bookmakers pay out on eight. The difference between those two numbers, applied to a 20/1 shot that finishes fifth, is the difference between losing your entire stake and collecting a meaningful return.
Grand National each-way places vary not just between bookmakers but between promotional periods. A firm might advertise six places in March and quietly extend to seven the week before the race. Knowing what to look for, and when to look, is a practical edge available to anyone willing to spend five minutes comparing terms.
What Standard Each-Way Terms Look Like
The Grand National is classified as a handicap race with 16 or more runners. Under standard industry rules, this means bookmakers must pay each-way bets on the first four finishers at 1/4 of the win odds. These are the baseline terms — the minimum a licensed operator will offer.
In practice, hardly anyone stops at the minimum for the Grand National. The race generates an enormous volume of new and returning customers, and extended place terms are one of the primary competitive tools bookmakers deploy. Remote betting on horse racing in the UK produced £766.7 million in gross gambling yield during the 2024/25 financial year according to the Gambling Commission. The Grand National is the single biggest contributor to that figure on any individual raceday, so operators are highly motivated to attract bettors with generous terms.
The distinction between 1/4 and 1/5 odds on the place portion also matters. At 1/4 odds, a 20/1 selection pays 5/1 for a place. At 1/5 odds, the same horse pays 4/1. On a £10 place stake, that is the difference between £50 and £40 in profit. Bookmakers who extend the number of places sometimes compensate by reducing the fraction from 1/4 to 1/5, so the headline number of places can be misleading if you do not check the fraction alongside it.
Bookmaker Place Terms at a Glance
Each-way terms for the Grand National are typically confirmed in the weeks leading up to the race, with some operators announcing early and others waiting until Grand National week. The pattern from recent years gives a reliable guide to what to expect in 2026.
At the conservative end, some bookmakers stick to the standard four places at 1/4 odds. This is common among operators who compete primarily on headline odds rather than place terms. At the other end, a handful of firms have historically offered up to eight places, though usually at reduced fractions of 1/5 odds.
The most common enhanced offer sits in the middle: five or six places at 1/4 odds, or six to seven places at 1/5 odds. A five-place offer at 1/4 odds is broadly equivalent in value to a seven-place offer at 1/5 odds for horses priced between 10/1 and 25/1 — the range where most Grand National selections fall. For longer-priced outsiders at 33/1 and above, more places at a lower fraction tends to be more valuable, simply because the probability of placing increases faster than the per-place payout decreases.
The specific terms for 2026 will be confirmed closer to the race, typically during Cheltenham Festival week or the week after. Checking multiple bookmakers on the Monday of Grand National week is the simplest way to ensure you have the latest picture.
How Extra Places Change Your Returns
The maths of extra places is not abstract — it changes real outcomes. Consider a horse at 16/1 that finishes fifth in the Grand National. Under standard four-place terms, that bet loses entirely. Under a five-place promotion at 1/4 odds, the place portion pays 4/1, returning £50 on a £10 place stake. The difference is £50 in your pocket versus nothing.
Now scale that across the entire race. With 34 runners, an estimated £250 million wagered on the Grand National in 2025, and the vast majority of bets placed each-way, the aggregate impact of extra places is substantial. A horse that finishes sixth might trigger payouts from some bookmakers but not others, depending entirely on who offered what terms. For punters who placed identical selections at the same odds, the only differentiating factor is where they placed the bet.
This is not a theoretical advantage. It is a practical one that requires no skill in horse selection, no understanding of form, and no special knowledge of the race. It is purely about choosing the right bookmaker for your each-way Grand National bet. The five minutes spent comparing terms before placing your wager can be the most valuable five minutes of your Grand National experience.
The calculus shifts slightly for different price ranges. At short prices — say 6/1 — the place fraction is modest regardless of terms, so extra places matter less in absolute return. At 25/1 or 33/1, the place fraction is large enough that each additional place materially improves your expected return. If you are backing a longer-priced selection, as many Grand National punters do, the number of places should be your first consideration when choosing where to bet.
Odds or Places: Which Matters More?
There is a persistent debate among racing bettors about whether it is better to take slightly shorter odds with more places, or the best available price with fewer places. The answer depends on where you think your horse will finish — which, in the Grand National, nobody can predict with much confidence.
Lee Phelps of William Hill noted ahead of the 2025 Grand National that betting interest across the country was expected to be intense, with turnover on the race potentially exceeding £150 million. That volume of money generates fierce competition between bookmakers, and the place terms are where much of that competition plays out. When two operators offer the same horse at 16/1 but one pays six places and the other pays four, the six-place firm is offering materially better value even though the headline odds are identical.
For the casual punter backing one or two horses at double-digit prices, the practical advice is straightforward: prioritise places over marginal differences in odds. A half-point of extra price is worth less than two additional place positions when your horse is a 20/1 shot in a 34-runner field. The probability of finishing fifth or sixth is considerably higher than the probability of winning, and extra places are the mechanism that converts those near-misses into payouts.