Betting limits & maximum payouts

Such intense interest in betting can see even the most seasoned punter overlook specific details, while bettors learning the ropes perhaps won’t need to know about maximum payouts and betting limits right this minute. But both are important to know about regardless of where you are in your betting career. This article will help shed some light on what are meant by the terms and how it could affect you.

It’s widely known in the industry that bookmakers make their money from the casual punters, rather than the seasoned pros who, when staking significant amounts, have the potential to win on an extremely large scale.

A betting limit – a maximum amount you can place on a particular bet – is put in place by a bookmaker to ensure it remains profitable, while protecting itself from potentially becoming financially ruined by a bet that wins big. It’s often the case they’ll set a cap on the amount you can bet on a specific event. However, betting limits can also be handed out on an individual basis if they’re seen to be winning large sums on a consistent basis

• General Limits

Usually, the maximum amount you can stake on any given bet will depend on the sport you’re betting on and the bookmaker you’re using. A bookie tends to have a specific amount outlined for each sport or market in its terms and conditions which we came across pretty easily. These we’ll get to shortly.

Others will let you know of your betting limit as you attempt to place a bet, though this is more in the case of a bettor who has a restriction placed on them. This may be frustrating for a high roller who had the intention of staking more than permitted however, the limit is clear from the outset and avoids any ambiguity.

• Individual Limits

If you’re subject to having a limit placed on you individually, then it’s quite a bittersweet moment. Your betting triumphs, which have probably yielded some hefty amounts no doubt, are being recognized. But there’s no reward form the bookie for your achievements, far from it in fact.

Instead, a personal limit is likely to be handed down to prevent you from staking considerable amounts and winning even greater sums. In some instances, bettors will have their accounts closed permanently by a bookmaker.

Why? Well, to put it simply, bookmakers are out to make money and not line the pockets of customers. If this so happens to not be the case and the bettor is getting the better of the bookmaker one too many times, then the bookie will soon put a stop to it by imposing a betting limit of some sort.

As was referred to earlier, betting limits are placed on certain sports. But rather than making known a betting ‘limit’, which can sound negative, you’ll find a lot of bookmakers list their betting limits in the form of a ‘maximum payout’ – the most that will be paid out on a given sport or market through a winning bet.

For instance, instead of simply stating the most you can bet on a Premier League match is £10,000, a bookmaker may list the maximum payout of £50,000 which comes about from using the maximum odds and the stake, as opposed to just the stake. This not only sounds better and reflects positively on a sensitive rule but makes the subject a lot more transparent for everybody involved.

Several high profile bookies paid the price for failing to have such a tightened grip on maximum payouts in 2015, when Leicester City’s shock title win cost the industry over £25 million in payouts to bettors who staked low amounts on a seemingly impossible outcome, only for The Foxes to pull off one of the greatest sporting achievements in living memory. Not that the bookies saw it this way, of course!