What is Multiples betting?

Multiples betting, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a form of betting that combines multiple bets into one. Whether it’s a Money Line, Handicap or an Over/Under (or any other available market type), when you place a bet with one selection it’s known as a Single. When you combine more than one selection into one bet it becomes a Multiple.

The most common type of Multiple bet simply multiplies the odds for each selection by each other in order to calculate the odds for the bet overall. Below is an example of how to calculate the odds for a Multiple bet.

We know to calculate the return for each of these individual bets as a Single, we follow a simple formula:

However, to calculate it for a Multiple we must multiply each of the selections by each other.

Therefore, the return for this Multiple bet would be:

What are the different types of Multiple bet?

While the idea of a Multiple bet should be a fairly straightforward one to understand, there are some slight nuances as far as this particular bet type is concerned. We’ve already covered that a bet with one selection is a Single and anything above is a Multiple but as the number of selections increases, a Multiple bet can be split out to more than just one bet.

Two selections in one bet is a double, three a treble and anything above is a four-fold, five-fold and six-fold and so on (some might call these a four-leg or four-timer etc.). However, below are other bet types that might fall under the term Multiple in betting. Instead of all selections combined into one bet, these bet types cover various different bet combinations.

Patent – Seven bets covering different permutations across three selections (three singles three doubles and one treble).

Yankie – 11 bets covering different permutations across four selections (six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold)

Lucky 15 – 15 bets covering different permutations across four selections (four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold)

Lucky 31 – 31 bets covering different permutations across five selections (five singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold)

Canadian – 26 bets covering different permutations across five selections (10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold)

Heinz – 57 bets covering different permutations across six selections (15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds and six five-folds and one six-fold).

Super Heinz – 120 bets covering different permutations across seven selections (21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four-folds and 21 five-folds and seven six-folds and one eight-fold).

Goliath – 247 bets different permutations across eight selection (28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 28 six-folds, eight seven-folds and one eight-fold).

Multiples betting: Advantages and disadvantages

It’s clear to see, from the example provided earlier in the article, what the main attraction is for bettors when it comes the Multiples betting: the potential for a greater return on a smaller investment. This also highlights the main disadvantage to bettors. More selections increases the risk and reduces the likelihood of your bet winning because each selection must win for the bet to win as a whole.

It’s no surprise that this form of betting is a popular choice for more recreational bettors with little understanding of the probabilistic implications of such a bet. Those who are more serious about their betting will tend to warn against this type of betting as there is a greater chance for randomness or luck to impact the outcome of the bet given that its success is dependent on the outcome of more than one event.

If you have an edge and can beat the market, Pinnacle’s reduced margin on Multiples means you can get even more value out of your bets.

Despite there being good reason to avoid Multiples betting if your end goal is to make a consistent profit, there is also a case to be made for why Multiples betting might appeal to sharp bettors as well.

The mechanic behind a Multiple bet is that it’s multiplicative and when you have a legitimate edge as a bettor, this can multiplicative too. This means that a Multiple bet could provide an opportunity for bettors to magnify their edge.

We can use an example to help calculate how much a bettor would expect to win when they have an edge using two Singles bets and a Multiple bet with the same selections combined.

To make things simple, let’s suppose the bookmaker has both the Houston Texans (-3) and the Green Bay Packers (-5.5) listed at odds of 2.10 on the NFL Handicap market. This suggests around a 47% chance of covering the handicap, but by your calculation they have a 50% chance.

This is what your different bets might look like with a €100 bet on each selection (€200 total stake):

The expected profit in this example would be as follows:

Now, we can use the same example but calculate the expected profit with a €200 bet on the Multiples (€200 total stake).

Multiples betting at Pinnacle

Those who have placed a Multiple bet with Pinnacle in the past may be aware that the odds for the selections within a Multiple bet were slightly different to the odds for the same selections being placed in a Single bet. This is because Pinnacle used to apply a slightly increased margin on Multiples bets in order to help manage the risk associated to these types of bet from a bookmaker’s perspective.

If you have an edge and can beat the market, Pinnacle’s reduced margin on Multiples means you can get even more value out of your bets. It doesn’t matter how much you want to bet or how much you win, Pinnacle is always the smart choice for bettors.

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Source: pinnacle.com