What is a Canadian Bet? The Super Yankee Explained
A Canadian bet is a multiple wager that covers five selections for all possible combinations of doubles, trebles, and fourfold accumulators, plus one fivefold. Also known as a Super Yankee, the Canadian costs 26 bets in total.
How Does a Canadian Bet Work?
The Canadian bet can be used to wager on any five selections as long as they are involved in separate and unrelated events. Canadian betting is particularly popular with those who like to bet on horse racing and greyhound racing, but it also has plenty of fans in football and other sports. Simply pick five selections, and the Canadian will cover them for doubles, trebles, fourfolds, and one fivefold accumulator.
We’ve said that a standard Canadian costs 26 bets. However, it can also be used – if your selections allow – to bet each way, in which case it would cost 52 bets. Because this wager covers you for doubles and better, you’ll get a return with as few as two successful selections. Here’s how the number of winning selections in a standard win-only Canadian determines how many parts of the bet will pay out:
Successful Selections
Winning Doubles Winning Trebles Winning Fourfolds Winning Fivefolds 1
0 0 0 0 2
1 0 0 0 3 3 1 0 0
4 6 4 1 0
5 10 10 5 1
Canadian Bet Example
With the Canadian bet explained in theory, we can now show you how it works in the real world. Here is a horse racing Canadian on the first five races at Nottingham:
To make it easier to explain this five horse bet, let’s refer to each selection as the letters A, B, C, D and E, as shown below:
A = Fanzone at odds of 4.00 B = Leovanni at odds of 2.20 C = Fantasy Master at odds of 5.00 D = Graham at odds of 2.63 E = Phoenix Passion at odds of 2.75 With that in mind, here’s how the bet would play out:
- If just two of those selections were to win, such as A and B, you would get a payout for one winning double (AxB).
- With three winners (A, B, and C), you will get a payout for three doubles (AxB, BxC and AxC) plus one treble (AxBxC).
- Four winning horses (A, B, C and D) would give you a payout for six doubles (AxB, AxC, AxD, BxC, BxD, CxD), four trebles (AxBxC, AxBxD, AxCxD and BxCxD) plus one fourfold (AxBxCxD).
- If all five of your horses win (A, B, C, D and E), you would get a payout for ten doubles (AxB, AxC, AxD, AxE, BxC, BxD, BxE, CxD, CxE and DxE), ten trebles (AxBxC, AxBxD, AxBxE, AxCxD, AxCxE, AxDxE, BxCxD, BxCxE, BxDxE and CxDxE), five fourfolds (AxBxCxD, AxBxCxE, AxBxDxE, AxCxDxE and BxCxDxE), plus one fivefold (AxBxCxDxE).
When you look at this breakdown, it’s clear that the Canadian comes into its own when all five selections are successful. In that case, every one of your 26 bets would give you a return.
How to Work Out a Canadian Bet
We recommend using our free Canadian Betting Calculator to work out how much you can expect to get back from a winning Canadian bet. That’s because if all of your selections win, you’d have to calculate 26 separate bets to work out your total return manually. However, if you really want to know how to do things the old-fashioned way, here’s the procedure you’d need to follow:
1. Work Out the Doubles
Your first task is to calculate the returns for each winning double that you’ve managed to succeed with. Calculating a double return is a simple case of multiplying the decimal odds of both winners together and then multiplying by your stake. For example, if Fanzone and Leovanni from our Canadian bet example were to win, and you’d used a £1 stake, you would calculate:
4.00 x 2.20 x 1 = £8.80
When you have calculated the return for each winning double, add all of those returns together to arrive at a Doubles Return total.
2. Work Out the Trebles
Next, turn your attention to the trebles that have won. To calculate the return from a treble, you multiply the decimal odds of your three winners together before multiplying by your stake. For example, if Fanzone, Leovanni and Fantasy Master win at odds of 4.00, 2.20 and 5.00, you would calculate the following:
4.00 x 2.20 x 5.00 = £44
Again, you need to calculate the returns for each of your trebles and add those figures together to get a Trebles Return total.
3. Work Out the Fourfolds
Now do a similar thing for each of your winning fourfolds. Multiply the decimal odds of each winner in the fourfold together, and then multiply by your stake. For example, if Fanzone, Leovanni, Fantasy Master and Graham win in our example Canadian horse racing bet at odds of 4.00, 2.20, 5.00 and 2.63, you would calculate:
4.00 x 2.20 x 5.00 x 2.63 = £115.72
Do the same for every winning fourfold and add their results together to give you a Fourfolds Return total.
4. Work Out the Fivefold
If you have managed to pick five successful selections, you’ll need to work out the fivefold return. There is just one fivefold possible with a Super Yankee bet, so all you have to do is multiply the odds of the five winners together and multiply by your stake for the Fivefold Return total. If our fifth horse, Phoenix Passion, also wins in our Canadian horse racing example at odds of 2.75, our calculation would be:
4.00 x 2.20 x 5.00 x 2.63 x 2.75 = £318.23
5. Calculate Your Total Return
All that remains now is for you to add up your totals for your doubles, trebles, fourfolds, and fivefold to give you your total return for the Canadian bet. As you can see, the process of working out a Canadian isn’t difficult, but it can be time-consuming, so use a Canadian bet calculator if you would rather get on and do other things.
Why Make a Canadian Bet?
The reasons for making a Canadian bet are similar to those for making a variety of other multiple bets. Some of the main reasons that bettors give for using this type of wager are as follows:
Chance of a Big Win
With 26 bets running for you, a successful Canadian can give you a big payday. For example, if all five of the selections we used in our earlier example had won their races, a £1 Canadian (costing a total of £26) would have won you a total return of £1,289.22. Of course, it’s more likely that you’ll get fewer than five winners, and if you only get two then it’s unlikely that you would even recover your outlay. For fans of the Canadian, however, that’s the price of admission for the chance of a big winExtended Interest
When you make a Canadian bet (or a Super Yankee bet if you prefer that name), you have five different events to keep you entertained. Those events could span hours, days or even weeks, so this bet offers plenty of potential for maintaining your interest for much longer than a regular bet on a single event.Two Winners Yield a Return
Another reason why people like this particular multiple bet is that it guarantees you a return with just two successful selections. As we said earlier, two winners probably wouldn’t cover the 26-bet outlay (unless they both have average odds of 5.10 or better). But any return will help to recoup some of the cost, and three winners at average odds of 3.0 or better would pay for the whole bet and more.
How to Make a Canadian Bet Online
By now, you’re familiar with the Canadian bet meaning and how the bet works, so let’s explain how to place a Canadian bet online. It isn’t at all difficult, and if you already know what you want to bet on, it should only take a minute or so. Here’s how:
1. Add Your Selections
The first thing you need to do is visit any of the best online betting sites that you have an account with and log in. You can then go through the various betting markets to find your desired selections. After finding a selection that you would like to include in your Canadian bet, all you have to do to add it to your betting slip is tap its odds. Remember that you can bet on any mix of sporting events, so keep going until you have five selections on your slip.
In the above example, we’ve selected Carlos Alcaraz to win the French Open, England to win Euro 2024, Luke Littler to win the PDC World Championship, and two horses - Cool Dividend and Thunder Star - to win their respective races at Haydock. These selections were added merely for example purposes, so don’t take them as any kind of endorsement.
2. Locate the Canadian Bet Option
Below the selections, the betting slip should show you the various bets that you can place on them. You should scroll down through the list of available options until you find the Canadian bet. Remember that this wager is also known as a Super Yankee, so it could be listed as that.
Enter your required stake into the Canadian or Super Yankee box, and your maximum potential returns for five winning selections will be shown automatically. In this case, our £1 Canadian (with a total cost of £26) could potentially give us a return of £2,064.31.
3. Review and Place the Bet
All you have to do now is submit the bet. But before you do that, take a second to review the selections you’ve made and the stake you’ve entered, as mistakes can’t be rectified later. The total cost of your Canadian bet will be taken from your account when the bet is submitted, and any returns that are due will be added shortly after the last event has concluded.
Three Alternatives to the Canadian Bet
The Canadian or Super Yankee is just one of a whole range of multiple bets that you can make with online betting sites. Here are a few others that you might also want to consider:
Yankee – This is a more compact version of the Canadian. It covers four selections instead of five for doubles, trebles and one fourfold accumulator. The Yankee costs 11 bets, making it considerably cheaper than the Super Yankee.
Lucky 31 – Like the Canadian bet, the Lucky 31 covers five selections. It works in exactly the same way as a Canadian, but also covers your five selections for single bets as well as doubles, trebles, fourfolds and a fivefold. It therefore costs five bets more, hence the Lucky 31 name.
Heinz – If you want to be even more ambitious, the Heinz bet covers six selections for doubles, trebles, fourfolds, fivefolds and one sixfold accumulator. However, this bet costs more than twice as much as a Canadian, weighing in at 57 bets for a win-only Heinz.
FAQs
Is a Canadian a good bet?
Is a Canadian bet the same as a Super Yankee?
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