Online Bookmakers That Let You Cash Out Your Bets Early

Cash out is a standard feature of online sports betting now, offered in some form by almost every major bookmaker. No, it has nothing to do with withdrawing your winnings to the bank. Cash out lets you settle a bet before the event finishes, at a price the bookmaker offers you at that moment. That price is not the price your original bet implied — it is the bookmaker's own valuation of the position, with its margin taken out of it a second time.

Where You Will Find It

Almost everywhere, which is why this page does not list operators. What differs between them is what the feature is called — cash out, settle now, trade out — how much of the stake it will let you take back, and whether it is offered on the market you are actually in. Partial cash out, where you take some of the position and leave the rest running, is common but not universal.

How It Works

A cashed out bet starts like any other wager. You scroll through the list of markets, find a match, pick a side and place your bet. Normally, all you would do now is watch the match and hope you picked correctly. A bet with the cash out option never really closes; the odds fluctuate up and down as the match progresses. You can choose to cash out the bet at any time at the current odds.

These things are always best explained with an example. Let’s say you place a £100 bet on Stoke City at 2/1 to defeat Liverpool today. If this bet wins, you will profit by £200. You like your odds, book the bet and then sit back to enjoy the game. There are basically two things that can happen from this point forward: you start to feel like a genius OR you start to regret your wager.

One thing that could happen is Stoke City get off to a strong start with a quick goal. You go and check your cash out page and see that you can now cash out your bet for £125 in profit. It is less than the original bet would have returned, and it removes the chance of the bet losing — those two are the trade, and which side of it you are on depends on the price offered. This is an option you might take if Liverpool look like they are about to rally a comeback.

Or, let’s say Stoke City start off poorly and give up an early goal. The in-play odds suddenly jump up to 4/1 and you’re feeling not-too-confident in your selection. Your bookmaker is willing to cash out your bet right now and return £40. It’s a guaranteed loss, but it’s better than potentially losing the whole £100 that you originally bet.

(These numbers are just completely made up by the way.)

In either case, choosing the cash out your bet results in the bookmaker immediately crediting the current value of the bet to your account. Settlement is usually immediate and it closes the original bet. Offers can be withdrawn or suspended while a market moves, and the price you are shown is the one being offered at that second, so it is not quite the clean break it looks like.

Is the cash out option a good deal?

I would say the cash out feature is neither good nor bad. It’s a tool. Tools can be used for good or bad. And like any tool you would go buy at the store, it comes with a cost. Cashing out your wager does not generally give you the true, current value of your bet. You pay a premium in the form of vigorish.

Cashing out a winning selection early does not pay as much as that selection is actually worth at the moment. The book is holding back just a bit off the true value in return for letting you get your money back right now. Think of it as a business transaction. You pay to break the contract early.

What I would not recommend is getting too comfortable with the cash out feature. Used constantly, the margin in each cash-out price adds up against you in the same way the margin in any other price does. You need to have a concrete, justifiable reason to close the bet early. Simply having “a bad feeling” does not count.

If you don’t know what to do, it’s best to let the bet ride. If your team is ahead on points, they will probably stay ahead. That’s why the in-play odds move even further in the winner’s favour. Your default play should be to stick it out, endure the risk and collect the full value of your wager at the end of the match.