Multiples calculator

A quick tour of the exotics

There is a distinction worth keeping straight from the off. A Trixie, Yankee, Canadian, Heinz, Super Heinz and Goliath all contain only the multiple bets — doubles, trebles and upwards — but no singles. A Patent, Lucky 15, Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 are the same bet plus singles on every selection, which is why they cost you one, four, five or six extra unit stakes respectively. The trade is that you need only one winner to get something back.

In descending order of size: Goliath (8 selections, 247 bets) and Super Heinz (7, 120) are the big-field specials, typically run on Saturday accumulator cards. A Heinz is 57 bets across 6 selections. Lucky 63 is the same six selections but with singles included. Below that, the Canadian (also called Super Yankee) and Lucky 31 cover five selections. A Yankee covers four, a Lucky 15 the same four with singles. Trixie and Patent cover three. Everything smaller is a named double or treble.

Most British bookmakers pay bonuses on Lucky bets: commonly a treble the odds for a single winner in a Lucky 15, and a 10% or 25% bonus on all-winner bets. These vary by firm and are not included in the figures above — check the shop rules before claiming. Each-way multiples stake is doubled (one bet to win, one to place) and the place returns are calculated at the place fraction of the odds for every placed leg, which is why a partial result can still return something meaningful even if the win side collapses.

A word of honest caution. Exotic multiples look romantic on the slip and pay out rarely. A Goliath with six winners and two losers from reasonably priced selections will often return less than the stake — the arithmetic simply does not stretch far enough to cover the bets that failed. Run as a regular strategy they tend to bleed. They are best treated as occasional flutters, or as a structured way of coupling a genuine punt with some downside protection.