Bet Calculator

How to use the bet calculator

Five steps, and the calculator does the manual maths.

1. Choose your bet type from the dropdown menu. Single, double, treble, accumulator, or one of the full cover bets below.

2. Enter the odds for each selection as decimal odds. For a fraction, divide it and add one (5/1 is 6.00), or use our odds converter.

3. Add your stake. On multiple bets this is the unit stake per line, not the total stake. A £1 Lucky 15 costs £15.

4. Untick any selection that lost. Every selection starts as a winner, so the first figures you see are the full potential return.

5. Betting each way? Use our each way calculator, which works out the win and place parts separately.

Nothing is submitted anywhere: the bet calculator runs in your browser, and the potential returns update as you type rather than after a button press. The bet type sets the number of selections, up to eight for a Goliath; an accumulator takes four to twelve, added or removed with the buttons beside its heading. Adjust the stake at any point to see how the total amount changes. There's no minimum stake and no maximum. Put a minimum wager of 10p through it or £1,000, the odds and the bet type do the work and the total return scales with the money you enter.

Bet types explained

Every common UK bet type, what each bet covers, and how many bets you're actually placing. The bet type you choose changes the total stake as much as it changes the potential winnings, which is the part most punters get wrong before they've used a bet calculator.

Singles, doubles, trebles and accumulators

A single bet is one selection and one bet, the simplest bet type there is. If the selection wins you're paid at the win odds; if the selection loses you lose the stake. Nothing else to it. A double is two selections on one line and both have to win. A treble is three, and four or more selections combined on one line is an accumulator bet, and the betting odds are simply multiplied together to give the price. Accumulators are the cheapest way to chase a big return and the least likely to land, because one selection loses and the entire bet goes with it. Accumulators of six or seven legs are lottery tickets whatever the odds say.

One thing worth knowing about accumulators before you calculate one: the number of selections you add changes the risk far faster than it changes the odds. Four selections at evens is 15/1 and roughly a 1-in-16 outcome. Add two more at the same price and the accumulator becomes 63/1, but the chance of it landing has dropped to about 1 in 64. The second number is the one most punters skip. Accumulators reward optimism and punish it in the same breath, whatever the odds look like on the slip. Multiples like these are where a bet calculator earns its keep. Four decimal odds multiplied in your head is a mistake waiting to happen, and four fractional odds is worse. Accumulators also behave differently from the full cover bets below when a leg is void. A non runner in an accumulator doesn't kill the bet — that leg is settled at odds of 1.00 and the remaining odds carry on, so a five-fold quietly becomes a four-fold. A lot of punters predicting their own returns forget it.

Full cover bets without singles

Trixie, Yankee, Canadian, Heinz, Super Heinz and Goliath bets cover every combination of your selections from doubles upwards. No singles, so you need at least two winners before you see any return. Accumulators aside, they're cheaper per line than the lucky bets because there are fewer bets to fund. A £1 Yankee costs £11; a £1 Lucky 15 on the same four selections costs £15. A Canadian across five selections gives you 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds and a five-fold for £26, and a Super Heinz across seven selections runs to 120 bets, while eight selections in a Goliath means 247 bets before you've backed anything. Experienced bettors use these to cover a card at Cheltenham; most punters should start with a Trixie and its three doubles and one treble, which is four bets and easy to follow.

Full cover bets with singles

Patent, Lucky 15, Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 add the singles back in. One winner gives you a return, which is why they're the popular choice for horse racing punters backing four or five favourites in one race meeting. The trade-off is cost. More bets, more total stake, and you need a decent-priced horse among the winners to cover the extra. Run both through the bet calculator with the same odds and the same money and you'll see the crossover point for yourself. As a rough guide, the lucky bets pay their way when your selections are 3/1 and bigger; below that the extra stake outruns the extra cover.

Union Jack, Round Robin and the specials

A Union Jack bet takes nine selections arranged in a grid and covers the eight trebles that make up the rows, columns and diagonals. A round robin is a Trixie plus three up-and-down pairs across three selections, giving ten bets. Neither is in our calculator yet. Both are more complex bet types than most punters need, and the manual calculations are horrible. An Alphabet across six selections is 26 bets built from two patents, a Yankee and a six-fold, and nobody is going to calculate that on the back of a betting slip.

Fractional and decimal odds

Fractional odds show the profit relative to your stake. 5/1 pays five pounds profit per pound staked. Decimal odds show the total return, so the same selection's odds are 6.00.

To convert, divide the fraction and add one. 5/1 becomes 6.00, 11/4 becomes 3.75, 2/1 becomes 3.00. To go the other way, subtract one and turn the remainder back into a fraction. Decimal format is easier for accumulators because you multiply the odds and stop. The bet calculator takes decimal odds, and our odds converter turns any fraction into one. Decimal odds also make value easier to see. Divide 1 by the decimal odds and you get the implied chance the bookmaker is pricing in, which is a more useful number than the price itself when you're comparing betting odds at two bookmakers on the same event. Converting between the two formats is the one bit of manual maths worth learning, because half the racing market is quoted in fractions and every odds comparison site runs on decimals.

Each way bets and place terms

An each way bet is two bets — a win bet and a place bet — so a £10 each way costs £20 in total stake.

The place part is settled at a fraction of the win odds. Place terms are usually 1/4 or 1/5 depending on the race and the number of runners. A horse that places without winning pays the place part only, and our each way calculator shows the place returns split out from the win returns.

An each way accumulator works the same way across every leg, with the place parts combining into their own accumulator. Each way bets are the most common source of confusion we see. Half your money is on a different bet at different odds, and a horse that runs second is a winning bet and a losing bet at the same time.

Rule 4 deductions

When a horse is withdrawn from a race too late for the market to be reformed, a Rule 4 deduction is taken from your winnings to reflect the value the rest of the field just gained. Your stake is never touched.

The size of the Rule 4 deduction depends on the withdrawn horse's price and nothing else.

Rule 4 deduction table

Non runners at longer prices don't matter. Anything over 14/1 leaves your bet alone, and the deduction only ever comes off winnings rather than off your stake. Rule 4 applies to every bet type, accumulators included. On an accumulator it hits the leg the withdrawn horse was in, and the reduced odds then feed through the rest of the multiple, which is why a small Rule 4 on a big accumulator bet costs more than it looks.

Dead heat rules

If two horses can't be split for a place, the bookmaker applies dead heat rules. Your stake for that selection is divided by the number of participants in the dead heat, the reduced stake is settled at full odds, and the rest is lost.

A £10 win bet at 5/1 in a two-way dead heat is settled as £5 at 5/1, so you get £30 back instead of £60. Dead heats bite hardest on each way bets, where a dead heat for the final place halves your place returns as well. Dead heat rules apply in golf and other sports too, not only horse racing.

Bookmaker bonuses and winner consolation

Lucky 15, Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 usually carry bookmaker bonuses. The two common ones are a percentage uplift when all your selections win, and a winner consolation that doubles the odds if only one selection wins.

Bonus terms vary between bookmakers, so check your own rather than assuming. Paddy Power, bet365 and Betfred all differ. Paddy Power applies its own version, the Paddy Power numbers won't match another firm's, and some bookmaker bonuses don't apply at all if a selection is a non runner. A bookmaker adds the bonus after the lines are settled, so work it out from the settled returns.

A note on where these bonuses are worth having. All-winners bonuses are most relevant on short-priced favourites where the raw odds don't create much profit on their own and every relevant penny counts, and a winner consolation matters most on a Lucky 15 built from four horses at 2/1 and shorter. Neither turns a bad bet type into a good one.

Working out a free bet

Our free bet value calculator works out what a free bet is really worth. A free bet is stake-not-returned, so the stake doesn't come back with your winnings.

A £10 free bet at 5/1 pays £50, not £60. Everything else — Rule 4, dead heats, place terms, bonuses — works exactly the same way. Stake-not-returned matters most on multiples. A free bet on a Lucky 15 covers the total stake, so a £15 free bet becomes a £1 Lucky 15 rather than fifteen separate free bets. Bigger odds hold more of a free bet's value, which is why we'd use a free bet on a 5/1 shot rather than an odds-on favourite.

Worked examples

A £2 Lucky 15 that lands

Four horse racing selections at 2/1, 6/4, 3/1 and evens. That's 15 bets at £2, so a £30 total stake.

All four win and the bet returns £418 for a £388 total profit at those odds, before any all-winners bonus, with the four-fold alone accounting for £120 of it. If only the 3/1 shot wins, one bet in fifteen pays out. With a winner consolation doubling the odds to 6/1, £2 returns £14 against your £30 stake — a £16 loss on a winning selection. Bonuses soften a bad day; they don't rescue one.

An each way bet with a Rule 4

£10 each way on a 9/1 horse racing selection at 1/5 place terms, £20 total stake. Clean, the horse wins the race and returns £128. Now apply a 55p Rule 4 after one of the favourites is withdrawn at 4/5. Win winnings drop from £90 to £40.50, place winnings from £18 to £8.10, and the total return falls to £68.60. Same result on the track, £59.40 less in cash.