If you’ve ever wondered what ‘tbp’ means when you see it on Betfair or any other betting site, it is an abbreviation that stands for ‘to be placed.’
The word ‘placed’ can also be used instead of ‘tbp’ – but has the same meaning.
To Be Placed is a specific term, which is in effect finishing in an each-way position. It’s predominantly used in horse racing, but it can extend to other sports.
Let’s take horse racing first. Even if you’re not a regular gambler on horse racing, there’s a good chance you’ve placed a bet on the Grand National.
With the Grand National having such a large field of horses to choose from (there’s 40 in the race), each-way bets on this race are popular.
Each-way on the Grand National is officially 4 places (although some bookmakers offer more for PR reasons). When you put your bet on for the Grand National, if you tick the each-way box, you’re betting on your horse to be placed (tbp).
So if your horse comes in the top four, it would be placed, and your each-way bet would be a winner.
Now let’s look at football.
The most popular tbp bets in football are normally on long term markets, such as to win a world cup, or a particular league.
If you are betting on the world cup winner, you can bet each-way for your team to come in the first three – to be placed (tbp).
So if your bet was each-way on Italy to win the world cup, and they lose in the final, Italy would finish second and would finish in a place. Therefore your bet is a winner.
What Does 2 tbp Mean on Betfair
This is where the tbp market starts to get slightly more complicated.
Bookmakers and more so betting exchanges, like the Betfair exchange, now offer markets on horses simply to be placed, as opposed to each-way.
So in order to win a 2 tbp race, your horse would have to finish in the top 2.
As well as offering each-way on the race, Betfair also offers you odds on your horse just to place in the top 2.
Take a look at the below screenshot. After you have selected a race on Betfair, you have options on the market you wish to bet on the race with.
Available markets are Win, Place, Betting Without, Match Bets, and there is also a More option.
After we click on Place, below is the page we see.
Inside the long vertical red rectangle is the odds for all the horses to finish in the first two places ( 2 tbp) of this race.
So if you think that Slipway (No7) is going to finish in the first two places, Betfair are giving you odds of 2/1 on that outcome.
The same rules apply to 3 places (3 tbp) and 4 places (4 tbp). If you think Slipway will finish in the first 3 (3 tbp), Betfair are offering you 5/4. While if you think the horse will finish in the first 4 (4 tbp), you can get odds of 4/5.
You can even bet on the horse not to finish in a place. That is the fourth and final column, listed as Not to be placed.
