QuinnBet Rule 4 Deductions: How Non-Runners Affect Your Bet (2026)

The Tattersalls Rule 4 deduction scale

The standard UK Rule 4 deduction scale (used by every UK bookmaker, QuinnBet included):

Withdrawn horse SP	Deduction (pence in the £)
1/9 or shorter	90p
2/11 to 2/17	85p
1/4 to 1/5	80p
3/10 to 2/7	75p
2/5 to 1/3	70p
8/15 to 4/9	65p
8/13 to 4/7	60p
4/5 to 5/8	55p
20/21 to 5/6	50p
Evens (1/1) to 6/5	45p
5/4 to 6/4	40p
13/8 to 7/4	35p
15/8 to 9/4	30p
5/2 to 3/1	25p
10/3 to 4/1	20p
9/2 to 11/2	15p
6/1 to 9/1	10p
10/1 to 14/1	5p
Longer than 14/1	No deduction

The deduction is pence in the £ of profit, not stake. So if you backed a horse at 5/1 for £10 and Rule 4 of 20p in the £ applies, the deduction is on your £50 profit (£10 stake × 5/1 = £50 profit), not on your £10 stake. The deduction works out as £10 — your settlement is £40 profit + £10 stake = £50 total returned (rather than the full £60 you'd have got without Rule 4).

Worked examples

Example 1: Single Rule 4 deduction, mid-priced withdrawal

You back Horse A at 6/1 for £20. After your bet but before the off, Horse B is withdrawn. Horse B's SP at withdrawal would have been 5/2 (20p Rule 4 deduction). Horse A wins.

• Profit before Rule 4: £20 × 6 = £120
• Rule 4 deduction: £120 × 0.20 (20p) = £24
• Profit after Rule 4: £120 − £24 = £96
• Total returned: £96 + £20 stake = £116

Without the withdrawal you'd have collected £140; the Rule 4 deduction took £24 off the win.

Example 2: Multiple withdrawals (deductions cap at 90p)

If two horses are withdrawn, the deductions stack — but capped at 90p in the £ total. So if Horse B (5/2 SP, 20p) and Horse C (1/1 SP, 45p) are both withdrawn before the off, the combined deduction is 65p (20 + 45). Stacked withdrawals at very short prices can hit the 90p cap, in which case your profit is reduced to 10% of what you'd have got otherwise.

Example 3: Rule 4 doesn't apply when the withdrawal is at long odds

You back Horse A at 5/1 for £10. Horse D is withdrawn at 16/1 SP. No Rule 4 deduction applies (SP longer than 14/1 = no deduction). Your bet settles normally.

When Rule 4 applies

• After final declarations — withdrawals between final-declaration time and the off trigger Rule 4
• Before final declarations — the market re-prices instead; no Rule 4

Final declarations are typically 24 hours before the off in UK racing (longer for some race types). Ante-post withdrawals well before final declarations don't trigger Rule 4 on the day-of-race book, but ante-post bets themselves typically lose if your selection is withdrawn (unless NRNB has been activated).

Each-way Rule 4 handling

For each-way bets, Rule 4 applies separately to the win leg and the place leg. The deduction is calculated on the place-fraction-adjusted profit, so a 20p deduction on a 6/1 each-way bet (1/4 odds places, place leg priced at 6/1 ÷ 4 = 3/2):

• Win leg profit: £6 per £1 stake; minus 20p in £ = £4.80 per £1 stake
• Place leg profit: £1.50 per £1 stake; minus 20p in £ = £1.20 per £1 stake

The mechanic works the same way as singles — pence per pound of profit, applied to whichever leg(s) actually pay.

Accumulator and Lucky-X Rule 4 handling

Each leg of an accumulator that has a Rule 4 deduction has the deduction applied separately. So a treble of 3/1, 4/1, 5/1 with a 20p Rule 4 deduction on the second leg settles:

• Leg 1: £1 × 4 = £4 (no deduction)
• Leg 2: £4 × 5 = £20 minus 20p = £16
• Leg 3: £16 × 6 = £96

Different from a "20p off the final accumulated profit" calculation — the deduction is applied at the leg where the withdrawn horse was, then the remaining legs compound from the reduced base.

The order of operations

Rule 4 and Best Odds Guaranteed interact in a specific order at QuinnBet (and at most UK operators that retain BOG):

1. You take a price on a horse — say 6/1 for £20
2. A horse is withdrawn — Rule 4 of 20p in the £ applies
3. Rule 4 is deducted from the price you took — your effective price drops from 6/1 to (6 × 0.80) = 4.8/1
4. SP returns — say at 7/1 (drifter)
5. BOG comparison — your post-Rule-4 price (4.8/1) is compared against post-Rule-4 SP (7 × 0.80 = 5.6/1)
6. BOG settles at the higher — 5.6/1 in this case (post-Rule-4 SP)

Why this matters

The Rule-4-then-BOG order means you can still benefit from BOG on a drifter even when Rule 4 has applied. The deduction reduces both the price you took and the SP, so the BOG comparison is on like-for-like post-deduction prices.

Worked example. £20 bet at 6/1; Rule 4 of 20p applies; SP drifts to 8/1.

• Price taken: 6/1 → post-Rule-4 = 4.8/1
• SP: 8/1 → post-Rule-4 = 6.4/1
• BOG settles at the higher: 6.4/1
• Win: £20 × 6.4 = £128 profit + £20 stake = £148 returned

Without BOG and without Rule 4: would've returned £140 (£20 × 6 + £20). With BOG and Rule 4: £148. So BOG actually compensated for the Rule 4 hit in this case — the drift was wider than the deduction.

When BOG can't fully compensate

If the price doesn't drift, Rule 4 reduces both the taken price and SP equivalently — and BOG settles at one or the other (whichever is higher post-deduction). In a steady-priced market, BOG just confirms the price you took (post-deduction); the Rule 4 hit is real and unmitigated.

So BOG doesn't reverse Rule 4 — it caps the downside on the price-taken side. If your horse drifts post-Rule-4, BOG captures the drift uplift; if the price doesn't move, the deduction stays.

What if BOG doesn't apply?

For markets where BOG is excluded (ante-post, Tote, Lucky-X multiples, free-bet stakes), Rule 4 applies straightforwardly to the price taken. The post-Rule-4 price is what you collect on; no SP comparison.

Practical advice

• For day-of-race singles and each-way: don't worry too much about Rule 4. BOG cushions the worst of it on drifters; the deduction itself is rarely larger than 20-25p in the £ on routine withdrawn-runner scenarios.
• For ante-post bets converting to day-of-race: when the ante-post bet picks up day-of-race BOG status, the Rule 4-BOG interaction kicks in if a runner is withdrawn before the off.
• For Lucky-X and accumulators: Rule 4 applies leg-by-leg with no BOG cushion. Larger deductions on multiple legs can compound visibly into the final return.
• For very short-priced withdrawals (1/3 SP and shorter): deductions are 70p+ in the £ — the bet is significantly hit. Worth understanding the worst-case before placing on featured handicaps.

Comparison to Betfred / Bet365 Rule 4 application

QuinnBet's Rule 4 application matches the industry standard at Betfred, Bet365, Paddy Power, and the rest of the UK majors. The Tattersalls scale is universal; the BOG-Rule-4 order of operations is also standardised across operators that retain BOG.

The only variation is the caps: some operators apply per-bet Rule 4 caps (e.g. "no Rule 4 on bets settled under £X total return"), but these are rare and verify-direct rather than standard. Assume QuinnBet applies the standard scale without operator-specific caps — verify direct on the live terms page if you're placing a bet where Rule 4 cap status would materially affect your return.

For the technical mechanics of Rule 4 across operators, see the Rule 4 Calculator for modelling deduction scenarios.