Menu

Is There a Minimum Amount You Can Bet?

When using a betting website, they often ask you to deposit a minimum of £5 or £10. Often, this gets people wondering the minimum stake possible on a given platform. If you deposit £10, but you want this money to last, can you just bet pennies and have fun for several months? On the other hand, what is the maximum amount you can stake and win? While this one is only a dream for many players, the answers are important for a more knowledgeable betting experience!

Minimum Bet Amount

Answering our question from the introduction, some platforms WILL allow you to bet pennies. That’s right, both Betfred and William Hill allow players to place a stake of under 3p. However, we should state that these are exceptions to a general rule. Betvictor allow bets of 5p, but after this, the minimum is set to 10p with most betting websites. For example, this includes the following:

After this, 888Sport require players to place at least 50p on a selection while Betfair have set a minimum of £2. Therefore, assessing this information is important when choosing a bookmaker. If you want the ability to place pennies on a bet, we recommend Betvictor, Betfred, or William Hill.

Is It Worth It?

You might be wondering whether it’s worth betting pennies, and you would be right in thinking that more winnings come with higher stakes – you have to speculate to accumulate. Yet, there are stories of people winning big with tiny stakes. For the most part, people putting 20p on a bet will probably have this money on an outrageous accumulator. When it comes in, the story makes the social media news (and we all get jealous!).

Back in 2016, one William Hill punter put £1 on a 16-team accumulator. Though placed on games across six countries, every team won, and the bettor won a cool £180,000. Elsewhere, a player won £585,000 on an 85p accumulator when all 19 selections came in. Finally, a certain Fred Craggs from Yorkshire won £1 million from 50p when he placed an accumulator from eight horse races around the world.

If you want to win big from a small bet, you need to follow in the lead of those above and go for an accumulator. If you place pennies on a single selection, you’re going to get pennies back. For those with no experience with accumulators, the odds of each selection are multiplied together because the bet has a smaller chance of success with each added selection. 15-team accumulators might not win often, but when they do the winnings are worth noting.

Benefits of Small Bets

There are many benefits to betting small, and it starts with those who don’t have the funds for bigger bets. Why should you not enjoy betting just because you don’t have the money? Elsewhere, small betting is perfect for those who only enjoy accumulators. Elsewhere, you might like ‘Yankee’ and other special bets, you might be testing a new bookie, or you may just want to use bonus funds without having to keep depositing.

Maximum Bet Amount

We’ve seen that the minimum bet amount varies from 1p to £2, but what about maximum bet amounts? In the same way, the maximum amount you can bet depends on the bookmaker. Also, it’s difficult to put a number on the amount because some bookmakers choose to limit payouts and winnings rather than stakes.

A bookmaker is a business and, naturally, they want to protect their profits. With a maximum payout, players can’t manipulate odds and match-fixing is less common. We recommend looking at the terms for your chosen bookmaker because of the maximum payout rules per bookie and per sport. For example, you could win hundreds of thousands on football yet only tens of thousands on horse racing or motorsports.

It’s important to understand both the maximum stake and maximum payout figures. If you win £500,000, you might only receive £250,000 if this is the maximum payout policy for the bookmaker. Especially with accumulators, there’s no point placing £20 on an accumulator when you would only receive half the winnings anyway. Also, be aware that some VIP schemes increase the payout limit for loyal bettors.

Carl Hughes - Editor

Carl Hughes is a leading expert on sports and casino betting. Carl began his career with a BSc in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences from the University of Birmingham before working within the industry for some of the bigger names (GVC and Bet365) and has been praised as being "a leading sports betting commentator".