What is a Treble Bet? How to Start Betting Trebles Online
A treble bet is a bet on three selections. The overall odds of a treble bet are the odds of the three individual selections multiplied together. All three selections must be winners for the treble bet to win. It is possible to have combined treble bets with more than three selections. This article will explain all there is to know about treble bets so you can work out if betting on trebles is for you.
How Does a Treble Bet Work?
As explained in the introduction, a treble bet is a bet on three singles combined, to win or each way. The overall odds are combined too, so winnings from the first single become the stake for the second, and so on. It does not matter the order in which the odds of the three singles are multiplied as the result will be the same. What is important though is that all three singles win. If two singles win but one fails to win (or fails to place if an each way bet), then the entire trebles bet fails.
Here is an example of a treble football bet, for the fifth round of the 2024 Emirates FA Cup.
The three single bets are as follows:
- Nottingham Forest (3.00 or 2/1) to beat Manchester United
- Chelsea (1.50 or 1/2) to beat Leeds United
- Brighton & Hove Albion (2.625 or 13/8) to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers
The stake has been set to £5, and the combined odds are 11.81 (or 10.81/1) which means potential returns of £59.06. The site we placed this bet at (bet365) offers a five percent boost on acca, which raises our potential returns to £61.76.
What is a Treble Each Way Bet?
Each way bets are only available for betting on horse racing, greyhounds and some other outrights. An each way bet combines a win bet and a place bet, with half the stake going on the win bet, and half the stake going on the place bet. An each way treble works in much the same way – half of the stake goes on a win treble, and half the stake goes on the place treble.
Here is an example of an each way bet on three horse races at Kempton:
The three horses are Soldiers Design at 2.63 (13/8), Just Rita at 3.25 (9/4) and Condor Pasa at 2.20 (6/5). The ‘E/W’ checkbox has been ticked to make sure this is placed as an each way treble, and the stake has been set at £5. That means £5 would be placed on the win part of the bet, and £5 on the place part meaning an overall stake.
The potential returns are £93.84 from the win part of the bet, and £12.64 from the each way part, making an overall total of £106.48 in potential returns.
Why Make a Trebles Bet?
If you are confident about your three selections winning, then it makes sense to make a treble bet, either instead of three singles or alongside them. Let’s compare three £1 bets on the football teams mentioned previously, to a £3 treble:
Three football singles:
- £1 on Nottingham Forest (3.00) = £3 return
- £1 on Chelsea (1.50) = £1.50 return
- £1 on Brighton (2.63) = £2.63 return = total return of £7.13
Treble football bet:
- £3 on Forest, Chelsea & Brighton (11.81) = total return of £34.24
As you can see, the returns from a treble are considerably higher than from three singles. The downside is that all three singles have to win in a treble else there are no returns. With three singles, just one has to win for some winnings to be returned to you.
How to Place a Treble Bet Online
Different sports betting sites in the UK have different methods by which you can place a treble bet online but it’s roughly the same. Here is how you do it.
- Log on to your favourite sports betting site.
- Hunt through the day’s sporting selections until you find a selection you want to include in your treble.
- Click on the price of the outcome you want to back, which will transfer it to your bet slip.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have three selections
- Head to your bet slip. You should see a ‘multiples’ tab which you might have to expand. Here is a sample bet slip from Betfair:
Our three singles are Everton (draw), Tottenham (win) and Aston Villa (win), however towards the bottom of the slip we have the chance to place a treble instead.
- Set your stake and then hit the ‘Place Bet’ button. This will then successfully place your treble bet!
How to Calculate Your Winnings for a Treble Bet
Calculating winnings from a treble bet depends on several factors – whether you are using decimal (easier) or fractional (harder) odds (see Betting Odds Explained) and whether you are placing a win or each-way bet. We’re going to go through all scenarios using the example bets that we ‘placed’ above.
Calculating Winnings from a Win-only Treble
Decimal Odds
To calculate win-only treble winnings or returns using decimal odds is extremely easy – it’s just a case of multiplying the decimal odds together. In our treble football bet example above the odds were 3.00, 1.50 and 2.625, which, when multiplied together, gives 11.81. So returns from a £5 bet were (11.81 x 5) £59.06. The winnings would be £54.06 (you simply subtract your stake). Bet365 added a five percent boost to make the final returns £61.76.
Fractional Odds
Calculating winnings from fractional odds is a little more complicated as fractional odds only give winnings, not returns. This means you have to add your stake on each time as you perform your calculations.
In our football treble bet the fractional odds were 2/1, 1/2 and 13/8. The calculations are as follows:
5 x 2/1 = 10 + 5 (stake) = £15.
15 x 1/2 = 7.5 + 15 (stake) = £22.50.
22.5 x 13/8 = 36.56 + 22.50 = £59.06.
Calculating Winnings from an Each-Way Treble
The first thing you need to know before calculating the winnings from an each way treble is the each way odds reduction for a place finish. Usually, this is one-quarter the odds but for races with eight or more riders (non-handicap), it’s one-fifth the odds with a place counting as a win, second or third place. For handicap races with 16 or more competitors, it is still one-quarter the odds, but a top-four finish counts as a place.
For our example, the first race paid a quarter the odds for the first race, and one-fifth the odds for the final two races.
Decimal Odds
Just like our win-only treble, for the win part of our each way bet we just need to multiply all the odds, so that’s 2.625 x 3.25 x 2.20 = 18.76875. Therefore our win returns for our £5 stake are 5 x 18.76875 = £93.84.
Calculating the each way returns or winnings is not so easy. You might think you divide each set of odds by four (or five), but that’s not the case as decimal odds are designed to calculate returns, not winnings. Each time you have to subtract one from the odds, divide by four or five, and then add one back on, as follows (the number of runners in the second and third race meant we received one-fifth the odds for an each way place):
2.625 – 1 = 1.625 / 4 = 0.40625 + 1 = 1.40625
3.25 -1 = 2.25 / 5 = 0.45 + 1 = 1.45
2.2 – 1 = 1.2 / 5 = 0.24 + 1 = 1.24
This gives combined odds of 1.40625 x 1.45 x 1.24 = 2.5284375 which, when multiplied by our £5 stakes gives 5 x 2.5284375 = £12.64.
Fractional Odds
The calculations from fractional odds and an each way bet are quite involved. The first step is simply from the win part of the bet. The odds were 13/8, 9/4 and 6/5. It’s basically a chain calculation:
5 x 13/8 = 8.125 + 5 = 13.125
13.125 x 9/4 = 29.53125 + 13.125 = 42.65625
42.65625 x 6/5 = 51.1875 + 42.65625 = £93.94
For the each way part we have to divide the winnings by the each way price reduction:
5 x 13/8 = 8.125 / 4 = 2.03125 + 5 = 7.03125
7.03125 x 9/4 = 15.8203125 / 5 = 3.1640625 + 7.03125 = 10.195
10.195 x 6/5 = 12.234 / 5 = 2.4468 + 10.195 = £12.64.
If you think that all those numbers after the decimal point are a bit scary, then you can round up to get an estimate. However, the get the exact amounts you need to include them.
If all these calculations are giving you headaches (and don’t worry, sorting out all those numbers above gave us a migraine), then we have a handy range of bet calculators available to do all the number-crunching work for you.
What is a Treble Multiple Bet?
You can make a treble bet with more than three selections … hold on, that makes no sense! A treble by its very definition is three selections, so how can it be four selections, or five or more?
Yes, you can place a treble bet with more than three selections – your bet will cover all possible trebles, as we will soon see.
Treble Bet with Four Selections
There are four bets with a treble bet with four selections. If we name our selections ABCD, the four trebles we’d have to place are ABC, ABD, ACD and BCD.
Treble Bet with Five Selections
We are not going to work out all the permutations, but take it from us that a treble bet with five selections involves ten separate bets.
When you place a treble bet with more than three selections don’t think that you have to place all the possible treble bets one by one. If you add all your selections to your slip your betting site should give you the option of seeing all possible multiples, including trebles. You can then set a ‘stake per bet’ and place all your trebles in one go.
Treble Chart
Here is a chart outlining all the trebles with any number of separate selections, from three to twelve:
No. of Selections No. of Trebles No. of Selections No. of Trebles 3 1 8 56 4 4 9 84 5 10 10 120 6 20 11 165 7 35 12 220 Treble Betting Tips and Strategies
Don’t Get Greedy
The idea of trebles to gain better returns than you would from just placing singles. However, the risk is greater as all three singles have to win (or place if part of an each way treble) else your entire treble bet fails. Therefore, it’s best to keep the odds tight. Even backing three treble football tips all priced at Evens becomes a 7/1 shot overall.Don’t Bet For The Sake of Betting
Even if you have day after day of successful treble betting, there may just come a day when it’s not a day for a treble bet. Don’t just place a treble bet for the sake of it. If there are simply not enough decent bets to make a treble bet worthwhile, then don’t place one. This seems unlikely, given the amount of available bets every day, but it’s a rule you should always consider, and in general too.Don’t Bet on Trebles if You Only Bet on Trebles
Treble betting should form part of your overall betting strategy, not be your complete strategy. Say you are placing three singles at reasonable odds, then you might want to have a treble bet too but at a much smaller stake. This means that if all three singles come in you can have your cake and eat it, with the winning treble as the icing on top!
Pros and Cons of Treble Betting
Like most things in life, treble betting comes with its advantages and disadvantages. We have summarised the pros and cons of betting trebles below.
Pros:
- Much better odds than placing three singles
- Makes betting on heavy favourites actually worthwhile
- You don’t have to risk big amounts to gain big returns
Cons:
- Your entire bet fails if one of your selections fail
- It is more difficult to successfully define a winning betting strategy via treble bets
- You can become disillusioned with a string of losing trebles
Alternatives to Betting Trebles
If you want to bet on three selections, but you want to look at ways of increasing your odds and potential returns but not via a treble bet then there are a couple of alternative multiple bets you might like to consider.
The Trixie Bet
A Trixie bet also contains three selections, adding three doubles to your treble, making it four bets in total. The advantage of a Trixie bet is that if one of your selections fails, then you still get some return. However, should two or all three of your selections fail then your Trixie bet returns nothing.
The Patent Bet
There is barely any difference between a Patent bet and a Trixie bet except that the Patent adds three singles, making seven bets in total. Only one of your selections has to win in order to return something, and of course, the more selections that win, the more you get in returns.
Conclusion
We hope this page has helped you by having the treble bet explained. Next time you need to ask what is a treble bet with 4 teams, consult this page and it should serve as a decent reminder! As always, we wish you the best of luck with your betting and remind you to always bet responsibly.
FAQs
What is a treble bet? What does trebles mean in betting?
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