What is a Double bet?

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Have you ever thought to yourself ‘What is a Double bet?’ but not been certain how it works? Have a read of our explanation below.

A Double bet is one of the more straight forward examples of different bet types. It is a bet that consists of two selections. If you wanted, for example, two short odds horses to win their respective races and wanted to increase the odds a bit, you could combine them into one bet, as shown in the example below.

Example of a Double bet
Kauto Star to win at 5/1
Sprinter Sacre to win at 5/1

If one of these selections loses, and you have placed a Win Double bet, then your returns will be £0. If you place an Each Way Double, they would both need to place or better to guarantee returns.

Win returns
A £10 Win Double would be calculated as follows:

£10 x (5/1 + 1) x (5/1 + 1) = £360 return or £350 profit
Note: if you prefer decimal odds, it would be £10 x 6 x 6 = £360

Each Way returns
A £5 Each Way Double (£10 total stake, 1/5 odds) would be calculated as follows:

If both horses won – £5 x (5/1 + 1) x (5/1 + 1) = £180 return followed by £5 x (1/1 + 1) x (1/1 + 1) = £20
Total return of £200 with £190 profit

If one horse wins and one places, or if both place, the returns would be equal to the second part of the above bet – £5 x (1/1 + 1) x (1/1 + 1) = £20
Total return of £20 with £10 profit

If one selection loses, the bet loses.

There is something important to note with Each Way multiples. If you were to place an Each Way multiple (be it double, treble or ten fold – something that does not include permutations to cover all other parts of the bet such as Yankees, Lucky 31s etc) and all of your selections win, other than one who places, every selection in your bet will become 1/4 or 1/5 odds depending on the event. That means your odds will be slashed dramatically. Best to avoid very short odds selections in Each Way multiples.