Early payouts are a type of promo where your bet can be settled as a winner, even if it didn’t go on to win. Let’s look at how it all works, typical early payout offers, and which specific bookie runs more of them than any other.
Is an Early Payout the Same as a Cash Out?
Some punters may get a bit confused as to whether early payout and cash out are the same thing. They’re not.
Cash out, as explained in greater detail in this cash-out betting guide, is a betting feature that allows customers to guarantee a portion of their potential winnings in advance rather than being struck by bad luck and losing on bets that looked certain to win.
A customer may decide that rather than taking the risk of missing out on a £10 win, they’d rather take a guaranteed £7.50 to avoid any unpleasant last-minute turnarounds.
Customers can also give up on their bet winning but recover a portion of their stake, instead.
The early payout we’re talking about here is also a betting feature offered by early payout betting sites. It’s rarer to see the latter than cash out, and it only applies to bets on a few events selected by the bookie itself and only on a few markets rather than all bets.
The other difference is that an early payout is ‘passive’ in the sense that once you’ve placed the bet, there’s nothing more you can do about it; either you’re going to get an early payout, or you’re not. With cash out, you need to actively decide when you want to cash out and whether it’s a full or partial cash out that you want to execute.
What Does Early Payout Mean?
All the best betting sites run regular, varied, good-value promos that keep customers engaged and coming back for more, and you can often find early payout among them.
Early payout bookies will decide on a particular event happening in a sports match and will promise that if you backed a player or team (let’s call it a selection) to win and that ‘event’ involving the selection happens, they’ll pay out early on it, whether it goes on to win, or not.
The ‘event’ normally involves the selection taking some sort of lead that would normally be enough for it to go on and win. If it doesn’t, the online bookies with early payout will settle the bet as a winner anyway, which is the whole point of the promo.
Examples of Early Payout Offers
The best way to get your head around early payouts is to see how they work in practice. Here are a few doing the rounds at the moment.
- If your team goes 2 goals up (football): Let’s say you backed Barcelona to beat Getafe, and they go 2-0 up, only for Getafe to score two in the last five minutes to draw the game 2-2. No matter. The early payout offer will already have kicked in and you’ll be paid out on your Barcelona bet anyway.
- If your fighter knocks down their opponent (boxing): As simple as that. If you backed Fighter A and at any stage in the fight they are deemed to have officially knocked down their opponent (Fighter B), you’ll be paid out on Fighter A even if they don’t go on to win the fight.
- If your team goes 17 points ahead (rugby union):The team you backed going 17 points ahead will normally result in them winning the match anyway. But if they don’t and suffer a late collapse, it doesn’t make any difference because you will have been paid out on your team as soon as they reach that 17-point lead.
How We Rate Early Payout Betting Sites
There aren’t nearly as many early payout bookmakers as there are bookies offering the more mainstream promos, but there are still a few.
The key is knowing which are the best early payout betting sites. Sure, how good and varied their actual early payout offers are should be a big consideration. But they need to excel in plenty of other areas, too. Here are other factors we consider when deciding which are the top early payout betting sites.
Bonuses, Promotions and Free Bets
A good welcome offer is a good starting point. It should ideally be easy to claim, not have unnecessarily complex terms and conditions, offer good value-for-money and be quite flexible to use, rather than just be limited to one sport or a specific type of bet.
Further bonuses down the line could include free bets, acca insurance, odds boosts, cashback, and reload bonuses. The more there are, the more varied, and the more they give customers something they actually want, the better.
Deposit, Withdrawals and Security
Getting your money in and out is an essential part of playing at all early payout bookies. So, you’re going to want one that offers a good selection of payment options, including debit cards, bank transfers, e-wallets and maybe even cryptocurrencies.
The deposits should be instant, free of charge, with low minimum deposits and as high maximum deposits as possible.
As regards withdrawals, the best early payout betting sites should also have a good selection of payment methods, be processed as quickly as possible and again, have no fees attached to them.
Just as important is the site’s security levels. That means your money and data are 100% protected from hackers and other fraudsters and that the bookie itself can be trusted when it comes to such things as actually paying out on winning bets.
Betting Features and Markets
Betting features can include such things as live streaming of events, having one of the best betting apps, a good cash-out product, offering Bet Builders, and boasting useful and insightful on-site content such as blog articles, stats and betting tips.
Additionally, the early payout bookmakers should offer all the sports you’d want to bet on, including some lesser-known ones such as squash, surfing, chess, handball and the like.
Lastly, they should offer a great selection of pre-match and live betting markets as well as the option to place different types of bets, such as Bet Builders, accas, and special bets, like Trixie and Patent bets.
How to Qualify for an Early Payout
As ever, not all bookies operate in exactly the same way when it comes to early payouts, but here are a few considerations that apply to most of them.
- It’s often automatic: That means that when looking to benefit from the promo, you just have to place a bet on a particular market(s), sit tight and wait.
- Meet the requirements: However, the terms of the offer may dictate that only selected markets count towards the promo and that only for certain stakes. For example, if the early payout kicks in if the football team you backed goes two goals ahead, it’s possible that it only applies to Premier League matches or only to bets of £10 or more. As ever, read the terms and conditions and meet the requirements or you may miss out.
- You may have to opt-in: In other cases, you may have to actively do something as a way of opting in, like ticking a box on a landing page.
What Can Stop You From Receiving an Early Payout
Even though the rules around early payouts are rather clear, there are a few things that may prevent you from benefiting from the early payout, so try to avoid them.
Using a VPN
In truth, if you’re using a VPN and the betting site doesn’t allow it, you probably won’t be able to access the site at all, much less log in or place bets in the first place. But in exceptional circumstances, it’s possible that you can do all the above anyway (using the VPN) but not claim the early payout.
Unverified Identity
Much of the above applies here, too. You won’t be able to withdraw any funds until you’ve verified your identity, and other limitations of not doing so may also extend to not being able to take advantage of an early payout. So, make sure you verify your identity/pass your KYC test as soon as possible.
You’re Specifically Excluded From Taking Part
In some cases, individual customers are excluded from taking part in specific offers, including an early payout promo. This could be because they’re perennial winners at the early payout betting site, so they don’t want to give them extra benefits. In other cases, the customer could be excluded if they’re identified as a bonus abuser.
Is the Early Payout a Feature for You?
Here is the sum up of the key takeaways about early payouts so you can decide for yourself if this is the right feature for you:
- They’re completely different to cash outs: Some sportsbooks list early payouts as a type of promo, whereas Cash Out is always a betting feature. The latter requires you to actively decide when you want to take a portion of potential winnings. The former is passive in that after placing your bet, you have no control over what happens next.
- They’re not as common as other features or promos: Only a small portion of betting sites are early payout betting sites. So, you’re far less likely to see early payout promos than other ones, such as free bets or Odds Boosts. But Boylesports is a good example of an early payout bookmaker that runs lots of different ones across different sports, so they’re an excellent choice.
- Make sure you qualify: You may have to actively opt-in to qualify for an early payout. Additionally, there may be restrictions on the size of the bet or the type of event. For example, early payouts on football bets may only apply to Champions League matches and probably only to the match-winner market.
- If it’s available, it’s often a no-brainer: If, for example, you were going to back Arsenal at 1.5 to win, it’s a no-brainer to do so at a site that has an early payout offer rather than one that doesn’t, assuming the odds were the same or very similar. It could make all the difference between it being a winning bet or a losing one.
