Multiple Bets – What They Are And What You Are Betting On – Part One

When punters start betting, particularly on horseracing, for the first time, then most often they will place the simplest form of bets. These are either a straight on-the-nose To Win bet or alternatively an Each Way bet if they feel their chosen selection may not win a race, but has the ability to finish in one of the paying places.

These bets are the ideal choice for the novice punter as they are cheap to place, easy to understand and can offer a decent chance of a return, especially if you can land a relatively long odds winner, or an outside bet in an each way place.

However, it is not too long before punters realise that there are alternative forms of betting. An accumulator is arguably the next bet that most people will graduate to. A single line bet where a number of selections are listed and all must win, with the winnings from each selection ‘accumulating’ as the bet progresses. This bet offers punters the chance of a much bigger reward for a smaller outlay.

The problem with such bets however is that accumulators, even if they consist of just three or four selections are extremely difficult to predict accurately and just one result incorrect means that your bet is lost.  When you consider that some accumulator bets can consist of 10 or more selections, it is easy to see why these bets are so difficult to hit on a regular basis.

However, there is an answer. There is a way you can place a bet (or rather a number of bets) on a number of selections were not all selections need to win to guarantee you a return. These bets are called Full Cover Bets and in this article, we are going to learn more about the different types of Full Cover Bets available, what individual bets each covers and how your stakes and returns are calculated for each.

You can place all these bets at Bet365 Sport so don’t forget to read the latest Bet365 bonus code no deposit introductory offer information before you sign up.

What is a Full Cover Bet?

As the name suggests, a Full Cover Bet is a bet consisting of multiple selections (at least three and usually no more than eight) where the punter covers all possible multiple bets that can be made using any of the selections from within the bet.

This means that the more selections you make on your bet slip, then the greater the number of potential multiple bets, including doubles, trebles, fourfold bets and more, that you will need to cover with each individual “line” of the bet.

A “line” simply refers to an individual bet within the larger full cover bet that requires a unit stake placed on it to be covered.

Therefore a Full Cover Bet is not simply “one” bet at all, it is actually a cluster of bets covering all possible multiple bet permutations based on the number of selections on your betting slip.

What are the main Full Cover Bets available?

There are essentially six main Full Cover Bets that people place. These are listed below complete with the number of individual lines that need to be covered with each bet and how these lines are comprised:

Full Cover Bets Breakdown

How is my stake calculated with a Full Cover Bet?

Once you know the number of Lines that are in a typical Full Cover Bet, such as those outlined above, it is very easy to work out what the stake of your bet will be as it is simply your Unit Stake x the Number of Lines that need to be covered in the bet.

For example, if your Unit Stake was £0.50 and you placed a Heinz Full Cover Bet using six selections. This is a bet comprising of 57 lines. Therefore your stake is calculated as follows:

57 lines x £0.50 = £28.50

Therefore, to place a “50p Heinz Bet” would actually cost you £28.50 and as such, you would need to make at least this back from your winnings before you actually start to post a profit. As you can see, this means that the more you pay for your bet and the more lines you cover, then the more of your selections will need to win in order to generate you that profit.

How are any winnings calculated?

Now that we understand how Full Cover Bet stakes are calculated, let us now move onto how any winnings are determined as this is slightly more complicated and is entirely dependent upon the odds of each selection in your Full Cover Bet and how many of your selections win.

This is best illustrated by means of an example, so let us carry on with the example above and say that we placed our 50p Heinz Bet (costing £28.50) on the following six selections with the odds for each selection shown in brackets:

• Selection 1: My Lovely Horse  (1/2)
• Selection 2:  I Love My Brick (Evens)
• Selection 3: Pat Mustard (2/1)
• Selection 4: Resting In My Account (4/1)
• Selection 5: Matador Stuff (6/1)
• Selection 6: Ah Gwan (10/1)

Now the first thing to note is that to guarantee any return, a punter will need two of the selections from the six shown above to win. If just one, or no selections win, then no return is generated.

If two selections win then the amount the punter gets back would vary enormously depending on which two horses win.

If My Lovely Horse and I Love my Brick (the two lowest odds selections) win, then this would generate a return on the Double bet on those two horses. This is a return on a £0.50 line stake of £1.50. Therefore, the punter would be down -£27.00 on the bet as they have not covered their initial bet outlay.

However if Matador Stuff and Ah Gwan were the two horses that won, then these are considerably higher odds choices (6/1 and 10/1) and as such, a £0.50 line bet on that double would give the punter a total return of £38.50, which would be a £10 total profit.

The same principle applies to all line bets contained within every Full Cover Bet listed above, only with the more winners you select, the more of your individual line bets will win. Obviously, the more selections and the greater the odds of those selections that win, then the greater your potential return.

Are Full Cover Bets good value for money?

Full Cover Bets can be good value for money depending on how successful you are at picking winners, especially those with longer odds. Essentially, it is the same as any form of betting, if you can pick the right selections and bet the right amount, you can find them a profitable way to bet.

What Full Cover Bets undeniably offer is a more flexible approach to multiple selection betting, where not all your selections need to win in order to generate you a return. So if you are a punter who consistent misses out on accumulators by just one or two selections, when all the rest win, then Full Cover Betting may well be a viable option for you.