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Hedging Bets: Betting the Other Side to Lock a Result

Hedging a bet means placing a second bet against your first one, so that you lock in a profit or cut a loss whatever the result. You give up part of the best-case payout in exchange for a smaller range of outcomes.

A hedge is worth considering when the price has moved in your favor since you bet, most often on a futures ticket, the last leg of a parlay, or a bet that looks good at halftime. The examples below use made-up teams and prices.

A classic hedge, worked through

Say you bet $100 on Team A to win a title at +300, which pays $400 back ($300 profit plus the $100 stake). Team A reaches the final, and Team B is now -150 against them.

To win the same amount whatever happens, divide your potential return by the hedge price in decimal odds. -150 is 1.6667 in decimal (1 + 100/150), so the hedge is $400 / 1.6667 = $240 on Team B.

  • Team A wins: you collect $400 on the first bet and lose the $240 hedge. You are up $60 on the $340 staked in total.
  • Team B wins: the $240 hedge pays $400 back, and the $100 first bet loses. You are up $60 again.

Without the hedge, you were facing +$300 or -$100. With it, you get +$60 either way.

A partial hedge

You do not have to even it out. A smaller hedge keeps more of the upside and still cuts the downside. In the same example, the hedge that simply wins back your first $100 stake is $150 on Team B at -150, because $150 at -150 wins $100.

  • Team A wins: $300 profit minus the $150 hedge, so you are up $150.
  • Team B wins: the hedge wins $100, which covers the $100 first bet, so you break even.

That trade gives up $150 of the best case to remove the whole loss.

Hedging the last leg of a parlay

A parlay is a natural place to hedge, because the payout is large compared with the stake. Take a made-up $50 three-leg parlay with every leg at -110. Each leg is 1.9091 in decimal (1 + 100/110), so the parlay pays $50 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091, or $347.90, back.

The first two legs win. The last leg is a -110 side, and the other side of that game is also -110. The equal-profit hedge is $347.90 / 1.9091 = $182.23 on the other side.

  • Last leg wins: $347.90 back, minus the $50 parlay stake and the $182.23 hedge, leaves you up $115.67.
  • Last leg loses: the hedge pays $347.90 back, minus the same $232.23 staked, and you are up $115.67.

Without the hedge, that parlay was +$297.90 or -$50 on the last game.

What a hedge costs you

Every hedge is a second bet at the book’s price, and the book’s margin comes out of it. At -110 on both sides, each side implies 52.38% (110 divided by 210), so the two add to 104.76%. The extra 4.76% is the margin you pay on the hedge.

So if the book’s price is fair apart from that margin, hedging lowers your average result over many bets, even when it makes one result more comfortable. The parlay above was worth $297.90 if the last leg won; the hedge turned that into $115.67. Whether that is a good trade depends on how much a $50 loss matters to you, which is a bankroll question more than a betting one.

When a hedge does not work

A hedge needs the price to have moved your way. Say you bet $100 at +132 (2.32 in decimal) on Team C to win a game, and nothing has changed: the other side is still -148 (1.6757). The equal-profit hedge is $232 / 1.6757 = $138.45.

  • Team C wins: $232 back, minus $100 and $138.45 staked, is -$6.45.
  • Team D wins: $138.45 x 1.6757 = $232 back, minus the same $238.45, is -$6.45.

You would pay $6.45 to guarantee a loss. With no price move, a full hedge only hands the margin to the book.

Cash out and other alternatives

Cash out is the sportsbook’s own version of a hedge: it offers to settle your bet early at an amount it sets. FanDuel’s Massachusetts house rules, approved by the state’s Gaming Commission on March 27, 2025, say a cash out request “is not guaranteed to be accepted and may be unsuccessful if, for example, the market suspends or the odds move,” and that requests made in-play “may take longer to process because of the in-play bet delay.”

Compare the cash out figure with what a hedge would lock in before taking it. The same rules also say that using cash out “may mean you will opt out of and no longer be eligible for a particular promotion.”

A middle is a hedge that can win both ways. If you bet a favorite at -3 and the line moves to -7, a bet on the underdog at +7 wins both bets on a favorite’s win by 4, 5 or 6, and at worst you lose a small amount to the margin on other results.

Before you hedge

Work out four numbers first: your result if the first bet wins, your result if it loses, and the same two after the hedge. If nerves are the only reason to hedge, go back to the -$6.45 example: without a price move, a hedge costs money.

Our explainers on how betting odds work, the moneyline and live betting cover the prices behind every example here, and our guides to props and alternate totals cover more markets you can hedge in.

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