Multiples betting is a great way to potentially land huge net wins from a very small stake. You may well have placed a multiple without even realising it, as a multiple is simply another name for an accumulator from a double upwards. If you’re still none the wiser let me explain. Multiples are most commonly placed on horse racing and football, although in theory they can be placed on any sport or event. Taking football as an example, a very simple multiple bet would be to bet on the winner of two games, for example the live games on a Sunday.
You might fancy Spurs to beat Arsenal at 2/1 in the first game and Everton to beat Liverpool in the second at the same odds and so you have a £5 double on that outcome. You need both results to happen as you predicted for your bet to win and if they do your payout is £45 (the first bet pays £15 including your stake and the £15 is then put on the second bet, paying £45 including the £15) for an overall net win of £40 – effectively odds of 8/1.
Advantages of Multiples Betting
The main advantage is, as stated, that you can win huge amounts without having to bet that much. In the example given above you are getting a payout of 8/1 for combining two bets of 2/1 and when you add on some bets at slightly higher odds and perhaps one or two more bets the numbers really stack up quickly. Imagine you add the other televised games to our previous bet, perhaps Stoke at 3/1 on Saturday and Newcastle at 11/4 on the Monday. Without calculating, how much do you think that bet would be worth come Monday night when Newcastle do the business for you? If you said £675 then well done; and if you placed such a bet then VERY WELL DONE!
Multiples are a great way of having an interest in a lot of games, races or matches without risking a large amount of money. Many people will have multiples of just 20p or even less and maybe even have several on the same events. At 20p a time you can afford to cover several outcomes. For example maybe you aren’t convinced about Everton beating Liverpool so you have one bet where that is a draw and maybe the same with Spurs so you cover a draw there too.
Disadvantages to Multiples Betting
Naturally, when you are betting at high odds you are less likely to win. It’s easy to believe that a horse, football team or tennis player at odds of 1/2 must win and therefore an accumulator (multiple) that has five bets of 1/2 but that pays out at almost 7/1 looks like a great bet. A 1/2 shot, a massive favourite will normally win right? You have to remember that you need all five to win and that remains around a 7/1 chance.
For most people multiples should probably be viewed as a bit of fun. There is a large degree of luck involved trying to pick three or four or more winners on one single bet. It’s great when it pays off – just don’t expect to win every time!
Related Contingencies
The various legs of a multiple must not be directly related. For example, backing Robin van Persie to score first and Man United to win 1-0 has a price that is quoted by the bookmaker independently of the two separate “legs”. You cannot take the odds for RVP to score first of 3/1 and have that in a double with United to win 1-0 at 8/1 (the odds would be 35/1) because those outcomes are related to each other (called related contingencies in the trade). If the Dutch striker scores first then United are far more likely to win 1-0 and so the odds on the scorecast are considerably lower than 35/1.
Another real life example is the poor gent who placed a bet on a white Christmas in 2009 in 27 UK locations. Ladbrokes took the bet in error as an accumulator and the gent assumed he was in line for a win of around £7m. However, all the 27 bets were related contingencies and thus not combinable in an accumulator. If it’s 5/1 to snow in Cardiff and 5/1 to snow in Bristol (less than 40 miles away as the crow flies) then the odds of it snowing in both are not 35/1 but much closer to 5/1, because if it snows in one it is much more likely to be snowing in the other too.
Types of Multiple – Full Cover Bets
If you have two legs then it is called a double, three legs a treble, then fourfolds, fivefolds and so on. However, for trebles and upwards you have the possibility to cover every possible outcome. So for example with three legs you have a three separate singles, three doubles and one treble. If you want to cover all of those bets it is called a Patent and is comprised of seven bets.
This is known as a full cover bet including singles. A £1 Patent on Bob’s Boy, Red Gloves and Horsesforcourses (three fictitious but hopefully lucky horses) will cost you £7 and as long as one wins you will get something back, although all three must win for all seven bets to win. Here we take a look at some of the most common full cover (with and without singles) bets.
- Lucky 15 – Invented by Betfred this covers four legs and includes all four singles, six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold for a total of 15 bets. Many bookmakers pay out at bonus odds if you only get one winner.
- Lucky 31 – As above but with five legs giving a total of 31 bets.
- Lucky 63 – As above but six legs for 63 bets in total.
- Trixie – A Trixie is like a Patent but without the singles. Betting without the singles is common as your return should only one outcome win is usually quite small compared to the total stake so people prefer to base the bet on at least two outcomes winning. A Trixie therefore is three selections and three double and one treble for four bets in total.
- Yankee – Like a Trixie but four legs, so 11 separate bets requiring at least two legs to win for any return.
- Canadian (or Super Yankee) – Five legs, 26 separate bets and again at least two selections needed to win.
- Heinz – Six legs, comprising 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, six fivefolds and one sixfold acca (accumulator).
- Super Heinz – As per a Heinz but seven selections totalling 120 separate bets.
- Goliath – The Daddy! Eight picks, 247 bets in total! A 10p Goliath will set you back almost £25 and whilst two wins will yield a return you probably need at least three or four (depending on the odds) to make a net win.