Accumulator, parlay, Trixie, Lucky 15

An accumulator and a parlay are the same bet wearing different hats. Britain and Ireland say accumulator. North America says parlay. One stake. Every name must win. Convert each price to decimal and multiply. That is the entire trick, and it is why a three-fold looks like a pension until the third one finishes second.

Worked example, because the internet is full of ones that skip a step. 5/2 is 3.50. 6/4 is 2.50. 2.10 is already decimal. 3.50 × 2.50 × 2.10 = 18.375. A £10 stake returns £183.75. Profit £173.75. One loser and you are looking at a used betting slip. The coupon will still call it a dream. The arithmetic will not.

Trixie to Goliath: the full covers

A Trixie is not an accumulator. Neither is a Lucky 15. Those are full-cover multiples: every combination of the names, at a unit stake on each line. A £1 Lucky 15 costs £15 because there are fifteen bets — four singles, six doubles, four trebles, one fourfold. Count them: C(4,1)+C(4,2)+C(4,3)+C(4,4) = 4+6+4+1 = 15. The book did not invent the number. Pascal did. The shop just put a lucky name on it and sold it as a Saturday.

Beat one selection and the doubles among the other three still pay. That is the point of the cover. A Trixie at evens, £1 unit, all win, returns £20. Same Trixie with C beaten returns £4 — the remaining double. A Patent adds three singles, which is why one winner still gives you something to put toward the taxi.

All four at evens on a £1 Lucky 15 returns £80. Heinz at evens is £716. Goliath at evens is £6,544 and 247 bets, which is either a Saturday or a full-time occupation. This desk will not tell you it is clever. It will tell you how many lines you bought.

Each-way: a second card

Each-way is a second identical card at place odds. It doubles the number of bets. Place 1/5 of 5/2 is 1/2 — decimal 1.50 instead of 3.50. Three of four placed and one won is why people still strike each-way Lucky 15s on big-field handicaps: the place half can live when the win half is mostly dead.

Book-specific Lucky 15 bonuses for one winner are left off the engine. They are a house extra, like a free sausage. Nice when they appear. Not the cover. Do not let a homepage that shouts “bonus if one wins” do the counting for you.

Accumulator · Trixie to Goliath