Draw No Bet Meaning and Explanation
This guide will clear up the Draw No Bet meaning for anyone who has ever wondered what it’s all about. As you’ll learn, this is a special type of bet that, for wagering purposes at least, takes the possibility of a draw out of the equation. Here we’ll explain how it works, why it can be useful, which sports it can be applied to, and more.
Draw No Bet – How It Works
Some sporting events are straightforward win-or-lose affairs. Those who bet on tennis can select a player to win and they either will or won’t. Other sporting events can also end in a draw. That can make things a tad more frustrating for those who bet on them. How many of us have lost out on a winning football bet thanks to an unexpected last-minute equaliser being scored?
The Draw No Bet (or DNB) wager was created to reduce that kind of frustration. And the way it works is simple. You select the team or player that you think will win the event. If the event ends in a draw, you get your stake money back. A last-minute equaliser is still a bit disappointing, of course, but at least it won’t cost you financially.
Well, maybe it will, but not directly. Because online betting sites refund stakes to all bettors in a Draw No Bet market when a draw takes place, they make up for this by offering lower odds about the two other possible results. For example, in a regular 90 Minutes market for a match between Aston Villa and Newcastle, a bookmaker might offer the following odds:
Aston Villa
Draw Newcastle
5/6 (1.83)
29/10 (3.90) 13/5 (3.60)
In this case, the odds from the same bookie in the Draw No Bet market would be more like this:
Aston Villa Newcastle 4/9 (1.44) 13/8 (2.62) That isn’t an insignificant difference, but it’s perfectly fair when you consider that you no longer have to worry about a draw costing you money.
Draw No Bet In Action
Making a Draw No Bet wager is as easy as making a bet in the main match result market. Simply select your chosen team or competitor, enter your stake and submit the bet. If your selection wins, so will your bet. And if the event ends in a draw, your stake will be refunded back to your account automatically.
Let’s take a look at how this works in practice. Imagine that you’re interested in betting on a match between Oxford Utd and Portsmouth. The odds in the 90 Minutes market are as follows:
Oxford Utd Draw Portsmouth 2/1 (3.00) 5/2 (3.50) 23/20 (2.15) You fancy Portsmouth to win the match at 23/20, but you don’t expect them to win by more than one goal. Oxford Utd have the home advantage, but you can’t see them winning. However, you’re concerned that they might be able to hold the visitors to a draw. That means you want to bet on Portsmouth, but you aren’t completely confident that the bet will succeed.
In this scenario, you could have a look at the Draw No Bet market for the same match:
Oxford Utd Portsmouth 6/5 (2.20) 8/13 (1.61) Here you can bet on Portsmouth at odds of 8/13, and if the match ends in a draw you’ll get your money back. That gives you a lot more confidence about betting, so you make the wager.
Why Use Draw No Bet?
The Draw No Bet wager isn’t always the most appropriate, but there are several good reasons why you should always consider it as an option. Here are the main ones:
Greater Confidence
As we’ve just seen, the Draw No Bet market can let you wager with a lot more confidence than you might otherwise. If you’re wary of making a 1X2 bet on an event, to the point where you might not bet at all, a Draw No Bet wager could make the event much more appealing.Accumulator Friendly
The draw has scuppered many an accumulator bet, so if you want to eliminate that risk, you could use Draw No Bet wagers instead. When you use Draw No Bet on accumulators, a draw won’t spoil the whole wager. Instead, it will usually be treated as a ‘non-runner’ and the rest of the bet will stand.Reduce Losses
Because a Draw No Bet wager removes the possibility of a draw, you can expect to lose money less often. Would you rather have five winning bets and five losers, or five winning bets and up to five refunds? That could be the kind of difference that awaits you now that you know the meaning of Draw No Bet.
Popular Draw No Bet Sports
Draw No Bet is a market that can be offered about any event that could potentially result in a draw. Here are some of the most common sports that are compatible with this kind of wager.
American Football
Ties aren’t nearly as common in American football as they are in what our transatlantic cousins call soccer. To illustrate, between 1974 and the end of 2022, the New York Giants had tied just 29 times. For that reason, many bettors are perfectly happy to pick a team to win and take their chances. However, if you really wanted to eliminate the possibility of a tie – perhaps because you want to stake a larger sum than usual or it’s a particularly big game – the Draw No Bet market would allow you to do that.Boxing
Draws are also fairly uncommon in boxing, which is why you’ll normally be offered double-digit odds for that outcome. But if you have two fighters who are equally matched, who both perform equally well on the night and the judges involved award the same number of points, it can happen. And what is Draw No Bet for if not to help you guard against such eventualities? If your favourite bookmaker doesn’t offer this market for a particular match and you’d like him to do so, that might be a good time to request a bet.Cricket
While draws don’t tend to upset cricket betting fans quite as often as they do football fans, they still occur more often than many bettors would like. So much so that most online betting sites offer Draw No Bet markets as standard for cricket matches. The good thing about these is that, because the draw is still quite unlikely, the odds for either team winning will be much closer to those in the main Match Winner market. You therefore get the benefit of a DNB wager without sacrificing much at all in the way of potential profit.Football
Football is the sport in which the Draw No Bet wager is both most useful and most commonly utilised. Take a look at the football results on any given weekend and you’ll see why. Although around 48% of all matches result as home wins, bookmakers generally expect draws to occur 25% of the time (we’re quoting figures from this paper from the University of Reading) and the results support that expectation, give or take a few percentage points. What does Draw No Bet mean against this data? Well, it means that if you were to consistently bet on the home team in a Draw No Bet market, you might win 48% of the time and get your money back around 25% of the time. Bet on football more selectively and you could fare even betterIce Hockey
This isn’t the most popular sport for betting purposes in the UK, but if you enjoy ice hockey you’ll know that it’s fairly common for both teams to be drawing at the end of regulation time. NHL games continue until a winner is determined, but since most match bets are settled according to the 60-minute result, draws are perfectly possible. That’s why bookmakers who accept 1X2 bets on ice hockey also offer Draw No Bet markets as a matter of course.
Create Your Own Draw No Bet Wager
As we said earlier, not every bookmaker will offer a Draw No Bet market about every event in which it’s a viable proposition. In those cases, a handy alternative is to create your own wager by betting on both your main selection and the draw. By adjusting your stakes according to the odds available, you can get all the benefits of Draw No Bet from a regular 1X2 market.
To do this, you first need to know the odds for the home, draw and away outcomes in decimal format. You also need to know how much you want to stake in total on the event. Once you’re armed with that information, you can work through the following formulas:
Draw Stake = Total Stake divided by Draw Odds
Main Stake = Total Stake minus Draw Stake
For example, let’s imagine that you’re interested in a match between Livingston and Ross Country, and the 1X2 bet odds are as follows:
Livingston Draw Ross County 5/4 (2.25) 21/10 (3.10) 21/10 (3.10) You want to bet on Livingston to win and you also want to get your money back if the match results as a draw. You’ve also decided that you want to bet £10 on the match in total. In this case, your Total Stake would be 10, the Draw Odds would be 3.10 and the Main Odds would be 2.25. You’d then proceed to apply the formulas just provided.
Your calculation for your Draw Stake would be:
Total Stake divided by Draw Odds
= £10 divided by 3.10
= £3.23
Your calculation for your Main Stake would be:
Total Stake minus Draw Stake
= £10 minus £3.23
= £6.77
You should therefore stake £6.77 on Livingston and £3.23 on the Draw.
- If Livingston wins, your £6.77 stake at 2.25 would return £15.22.
- If the match results as a draw, your £3.23 stake at 3.10 would return £10.01.
That’s all there is to it. Armed with this simple approach, you can now enjoy all the advantages of Draw No Bet even when no DNB market is offered. And if you wanted to get really clever, you could make your main and draw bets with different bookmakers to get the best odds possible.
Draw No Bet Tips and Strategies
The Draw No Bet wager can be as versatile and useful as you want it to be. Here are just a few ideas on how you might want to think about using it in the future:
Bet More
Being able to bet without worrying about the draw can give you a lot more betting opportunities. Matches that you would normally leave alone because you don’t have complete confidence in a team to achieve a clear win can, with Draw No Bet, be much more attractive.Accumulate
Draw No Bet accumulators are a lot easier to win with than those with draws being possible. That means you could consider putting three or four solid Draw No Bet selections into an accumulator to give yourself the chance of landing a more generous payout.Get Better Value
If you create your own Draw No Bet wagers instead of relying on ready-made markets, you can shop around for the best odds and potentially get better value. We’re strong advocates of value betting so this is a strategy that we’re particularly keen on.
Pros and Cons of Draw No Bet
Now that you’re aware of both the Draw No Bet meaning and how this wager can be used to enhance your betting activities, let’s summarise its main advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Draw No Bet Potential Disadvantages ✅Never lose money because of a draw. ❌Lower odds than in the main market. ✅You can create your own DNB wagers. ❌Might cause you to be less selective. ✅Can give you more betting opportunities. ✅Help you bet with more confidence. Draw No Bet Alternatives
We wouldn’t be doing you justice if we didn’t point out that there are two other betting markets that you might want to consider as an alternative to the Draw No Bet. These are the Asian Handicap and the Double Chance, both of which are defined below:
Asian Handicap
The Asian Handicap is a market that is also designed to eliminate the possibility of a draw for betting purposes. It does this by asking you to bet on a match where the stronger team is given a handicap of some size. What makes this type of market interesting from a DNB perspective is that 0.0 markets are available. In these markets, your stake is returned if a draw occurs. That effectively makes it a completely viable alternative to the Draw No Bet.
Double Chance
This market is similar to Draw No Bet but with a notable difference – a draw here will pay you the same as a win. Essentially, you are betting on a team to win the match OR to draw, and your bet will be settled at the same odds no matter which outcome occurs. The odds given for a Double Chance bet will be lower than in the main match result market, but your wager covers two out of three possible outcomes, so that’s for good reason.
Conclusion
Draws have long been the bane of sports bettors who like to try and pick winning teams and players. The Draw No Bet market does a great job of dampening that potential source of frustration by making sure you don’t lose money from it. While this type of wager isn’t suitable for every event, it’s always one worth considering.
FAQ
What does Draw No Bet mean?
What is DNB?
What are the disadvantages of Draw No Bet?
What is the difference between Draw No Bet and Double Chance?
Is Draw No Bet profitable?
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Ties aren’t nearly as common in American football as they are in what our transatlantic cousins call soccer. To illustrate, 
