Dutching means backing two or more selections in the same market so that you collect the same return whichever of them wins. This calculator splits your total stake across your chosen selections by their odds, giving you the exact stake for each and the profit if any one lands.
How dutching works
Dutching uses the same inverse-odds split as arbitrage, but the intent is different. With an arb you cover every possible outcome for a guaranteed profit. With dutching you deliberately back a subset you fancy — so if one of your picks wins you profit equally, but if none of them win you lose your whole stake.
The math: each selection gets a share of the total stake proportional to 1 divided by its odds. That equalises the return, so you do not care which of your chosen selections comes in — the payout is the same.
It is most useful when you can confidently rule out some runners but not pick a single winner: horse racing, each-way markets, and outright competitions where two or three contenders stand out.
Worked example
You like three horses priced at 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0, and you want to stake $100 total across them.
The split by inverse odds is roughly $40.54, $32.43, and $27.03 — larger stakes on shorter prices. Whichever of the three wins, your return is about $162.16.
That is a profit of about $62.16 (a 62% return) if any of your three horses wins. If none of them win, you lose the full $100 — the trade-off for not covering the whole field.