Patent, Heinz, Super Heinz: how many bets are in a full-cover bet
A full-cover bet takes a handful of selections and backs every combination of them at once: every double, every treble, and so on up to the accumulator, with singles added in some versions. The name tells you how many selections there are. The number of bets is the part that's easy to miss.
Counting the bets
With n selections there are 2ⁿ − n − 1 combinations of two or more, and 2ⁿ − 1 once the singles are added. Every named system is one of those two counts:
- Trixie: 3 selections, 4 bets (three doubles and a treble)
- Patent: 3 selections, 7 bets (a Trixie plus three singles)
- Yankee: 4 selections, 11 bets
- Lucky 15: 4 selections, 15 bets (a Yankee plus four singles)
- Canadian, or Super Yankee: 5 selections, 26 bets
- Lucky 31: 5 selections, 31 bets
- Heinz: 6 selections, 57 bets
- Lucky 63: 6 selections, 63 bets
- Super Heinz: 7 selections, 120 bets
- Goliath: 8 selections, 247 bets
The stake is per bet, so a 1-unit Heinz costs 57 units and a 1-unit Goliath 247. Each-way versions double that, because every bet is placed twice.
How many winners it takes
Put every selection at evens (1/1, or 2.00 in decimal) and count what comes back, losers returning nothing:
- Patent, 7 units staked: one winner returns 2. Two return 8, one unit up.
- Heinz, 57 units: three winners return 20. Four return 72, fifteen up.
- Super Heinz, 120 units: four winners return 72. Five return 232, 112 up.
- Goliath, 247 units: five winners return 232. Six return 716, 469 up.
The more selections in the system, the more of them must win before it returns the stake. Longer prices lower that bar, which is the appeal. They don't change how many of the combinations lose.
The margin compounds
Every double carries two selections' worth of the book's margin, every treble three. Suppose each selection is priced at 10/11 (−110) on a genuine 50% chance. A single then loses 4.5% of its stake on average. A Patent loses 7.6%, a Heinz 14.0%, a Super Heinz 15.6% and a Goliath 17.3%, because more and more of the stake sits in combinations of several legs.
That's the trade a full-cover bet makes: more ways to collect something, at a higher cost on every unit staked.
Bankroll Guardian is a bet-tracking and analytics tool — not a sportsbook, and none of this is betting advice. Betting carries risk; please bet responsibly.