Of all the different bets offered by bookmakers I think Lucky ones, such as Lucky 15, Lucky 31 or Lucky 63, are the most difficult to get your head around. On the other hand, once you do understand what they’re all about they’re also a really good way to try something different. It’s also a little bit like riding a bike: Once you’ve figured it out you’ll know what you’re doing in the future.
Here, then, I’ll explain what Lucky bets are, also known as full cover bets, are and how they work. I’ll tell you about some of the variations on that theme that you can find and hopefully by the end of it you’ll have a better idea of how to take advantage of any offers that appear via online bookies. Speaking of which, I’ll also tell you about any decent offers that are available at the moment.
Best Lucky Promotions and Bookmakers
If you want to understand what a Lucky bet is then you can find this out further down, we will start with which bookies tend to offer the best deals. Bookmakers tend to have three types of offers on their full-cover bets. One of them is a bonus if you have just one winner, one is if you have one loser and one is if you win everything.
Fitzdares - Up To 25% On Winning Lucky's
Placing your Lucky bets with Fitzdares will entitle you to a bonus up to 25% if all selections win along with double the odds if only one selection wins.
The bonus is 10% for an all winning Lucky 15, 20% for an all winning Lucky 31 and 25% for an all winning Lucky 63.
- Lucky 15 (4 selections) comprises: 4 Singles, 6 Doubles, 4 Trebles and 1 Fourfold. A 10% bonus on profit will be added to your winnings if all 4 selections win.
- Lucky 31 (5 selections) comprises: 5 Singles, 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 Fourfolds and 1 Fivefold. A 20% bonus on profit will be added to your winnings if all 5 selections win.
- Lucky 63 (6 selections) comprises: 6 Singles, 15 Doubles, 20 Trebles, 15 Fourfolds, 6 Fivefolds and 1 Sixfold. A 25% bonus on profit will be added to your winnings if all 6 selections win.
Should only one selection win in your lucky you will be paid out double the odds on that single winning selection.
All extra winnings as cash, applies to the daily race winner markets, ante-post does not qualify. For each-way bets, the bonus is only applicable to the win part of the bet. Bets containing non-runners or void selections will not qualify for win bonuses or consolations.
Unibet - Lucky Bet All Correct Bonuses
Unibet have a series of lucky bonuses if you get all selections correct on horse racing (see below). There is no opt-in needed, all qualifying winning all correct lucky bets will receive a cash bonus with no maximum or minimum stake or payout limits.
- Lucky 15 - 4 selections covering 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 four fold. Unibet pay double the odds one winner ( win part ) and 10% bonus added if all 4 selections win.
- Lucky 31 - 5 selections covering 5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four folds and 1 five fold. Unibet pay double the odds one winner ( win part ) and 20% bonus if all 5 selections win.
- Lucky 63 - 6 selections covering 6 singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four folds, 6 five folds and 1 six fold. Unibet pay double the odds one winner ( win part ) and 25% bonus if all 6 selections win.
Offers are available for all UK and Irish Racing.
Betfred - Inventor Of The Lucky Bet
Betfred's founder Fred Done was the man who actually invented the Lucky bet so as you would expect they are one of the best places to find these bets. They have a permanent offer where if you only have one winner in a Lucky 15 then they’ll pay out at 3x the odds for that winner. They’ll pay 4x the odds for one winner in a Lucky 31 and 5x for a solo winner in a Lucky 63.
They also have a reciprocal offer whereby you’ll be paid a 10% bonus if all of your Lucky 15 bets come home, a 20% bonus if all of your Lucky 31 selections win and a 25% bonus on your winnings from a Lucky 63 bet if all your choices win.
Both of those offers are available on UK & Irish horse racing, greyhound racing and virtual horse or greyhound racing. All extra winnings are in cash with no limits on claim amount.
What Are Lucky Bets?
Let’s start with the key thing: An explanation of what exactly lucky bets are and how they work.
Lucky 15
| Bet Type | Selections | Bets | Consisting Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky 15 | 4 | 15 | 4 Singles, 6 Doubles, 4 Trebles, 1 4-Fold |
I’ll begin by talking about the most popular of all full cover bets, the Lucky 15. This bet gets its name from the fact that it is actually fifteen separate bets placed on 4 different selections. Made up of four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold. It is a type of ‘full cover’ bet as it covers every possible combination of outcomes from a given number of picks.
The joy of this type of bet is that one winner means you’re guaranteed a return, but more than one winner and your return will increase exponentially. Let’s break it down a bit more simplistically:
Say you place a Lucky 15 bet on Liverpool, Manchester City, Rangers & Barcelona. If one of those teams wins their game you will get a return as they are one of your four ‘single’ bets. If two win you’ll get three payouts, which are the two single bets and one double bet. Obviously if all four teams win then you’ll get all fifteen bets paid out.
Bookmakers can often tempt people into making Lucky bets by promising them bonuses on the winnings. That is one of the key offers that you’ll want to keep an eye out for when you’re perusing the betting options.
Lucky bets are available on numerous sports but they tend to be most commonly used by punters on horse racing and football bets. It’s handy for horse racing because you can select four different horses in four different races but you’re not dependant on them all winning for you to make a return.
Unlike with an accumulator, where if one leg lets you down the whole bet fails (unless you’ve taken insurance or something similar), a Lucky bet will still see a return as long as one of your selections wins.
The other important thing to mention is the amount you’re going to bet. You’ll be asked for a unit stake and this is the amount you wish to bet on each line. If you bet £1 per line, to use a simple example, your bet will be worth £15.
Another way to think of a Lucky 15 is a convenient bet package, rather than having to find and place 15 separate bets to cover all of the outcomes the full cover bet will do it for you.
Lucky 31 and Lucky 63
| Bet Type | Selections | Bets | Consisting Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky 31 | 5 | 31 | 5 Singles, 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 4-Folds, 1 5-Fold |
| Lucky 63 | 6 | 63 | 6 Singles, 15 Doubles, 20 Trebles, 15 4-Folds, 6 5-Folds, 1 6-Fold |
There are numerous different types of full cover bets of which there are three lucky bets, the Lucky 15, Lucky 31 and Lucky 63. As you might expect from the names, these bets are all similar. It’s the amount of selections you’re choosing and the ways that the bets are broken down that make the difference.
Looking at a Lucky 31 bet, for example, you’ll be choosing five different selections. Your cover will then be five singles, ten doubles, ten trebles, five four-folds and a five-leg accumulator. That adds up to 31 bets (with the accumulator counting as one).
For those of you that are keeping up well you won’t be even slightly surprised when I tell you that a Lucky 63 bet is a wager with six different selections. These breakdown into six singles, fifteen doubles, twenty trebles fifteen four-fold bets, six five-folds and a six-leg acca.
If you want to work out what your winnings are likely to be for any given set of circumstances then don’t panic, it’s not as complicated as it might seem. Well I say that, but what I mean is that bookies normally have ‘calculators’ that will do the job for you if you put in the relevant information.
Just to let you know, you can place any of these bets as each-way wagers too.
Other Full Cover Bets
| Bet Type | Selections | Bets | Consisting Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patent | 3 | 7 | 3 Singles, 2 Doubles, 1 Trebles |
There are lots of different full cover bets that cover various number of selections. If you have three picks for example the bet type that covers all possible outcomes is known as a Patent. If you have 4 it is a Lucky 15, 5 a Lucky 31, 6 a Lucky 63, etc.
You can place full cover bets on as many selections as you like although bear in mind the number of possible outcomes, and therefore the stake, goes up exponential.
Full Cover Bets Without Singles
| Bet Type | Selections | Bets | Consisting Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trixie | 3 | 4 | 3 Doubles, 1 Treble |
| Yankee | 4 | 11 | 6 Doubles, 4 Trebles, 1 4-Fold |
| Super Yankee | 5 | 26 | 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 4-Fold, 1 5-Fold |
| Heinz | 6 | 57 | 15 Doubles, 20 Trebles, 15 4-Folds, 6 5-Folds, 1 6-Fold |
| Super Heinz | 7 | 120 | 25 Doubles, 35 Trebles, 35 4-Folds, 21 5-Folds, 7 6-Fold, 1 7-fold |
| Goliath | 8 | 247 | 28 Doubles, 56 Trebles, 70 4-Folds, 56 5-Folds, 28 6-Fold, 8 7-fold, 1 8-Fold |
There is also a whole suite of full cover bets that are almost identical to those described above except the bets don’t cover singles, stating with doubles instead.
A Yankee for example has four selections, the same as a Lucky 15, but only 11 bets instead of 15. This is because the 4 singles are not included. Likewise a Super Yankee is the same as a Lucky 31 but with only 26 bets and a Heinz the same as a Lucky 63 minus the 6 singles making 57 bets.
Despite many of these bets being similar the most popular are the Lucky 15/31/63 and these are the ones that tend to attract offers. On the whole full cover bets are excluded from other promotions so it is always worth reading the small print first.
How To Get The Best Value From Lucky Bets
I could fill up loads more space on this page telling you about the numerous different bookmakers that offer bonuses for Lucky bets but to be honest they pretty much all do. The key thing to look out for is which sport they offer it on and how much of a percentage of your winnings you’ll get as a bonus. You can place Lucky bets on the likes of the football but you’ll normally find the best offers are for horse racing and greyhound racing bets.
Each bookie has its own draw and you might prefer one to another for reasons of personal choice. I’ve found that Betfred tend to offer the best bonuses and therefore are the best value.
Lucky Bet Bonuses
With a better understanding of how Lucky bets work, it’s easy to see why they are considered to be so complex. Regardless of the type of full cover wager that you opt for, you’re putting yourself in the best possible position to receive a payout on at least part of your bet. The problem is that you can win something but also still end up losing overall, such is the nature of the bet that you’re taking on. That is an important factor to bear in mind, given the manner in which it can feel as if you’re almost guaranteed profit.
Indeed, the fact that these bets are known as ‘full cover’ wagers can lead some to believe that they can’t possibly lose, as long as they pay enough for their bet. This is, obviously, entirely untrue. What you’re getting is full cover for the selections that you’ve made, so as long as one of the selections does something then they’re covered. What you’re not getting is a guaranteed win, which is something that some people might perhaps imagine that they will be on the receiving end if they place this sort of a bet at some point.
Things To Think About
When you’re looking to place a Lucky Bet, the thing that you need to think about is which selections you think are most likely to get you a return. That might seem obvious, but people will often mistakenly use Lucky 15 wagers as a chance to be more casual with their betting choices. After all, if you know that you’ll get a return as long as one of your selections comes home, you can be a little bit more slapdash with your other wagers, can’t you? The answer to that is ‘not if you want to win a decent amount, no’.
It is such a simple thing to say, but Lucky bets are only really useful if you get as many winners as possible. Unlike with accumulators, where the temptation might be to opt for legs that see the odds skyrocket in order to get larger winnings, the truth about Lucky bets is that they’re more about giving yourself some cover than getting massive payouts. As a result, you’re best placed to ignore the size of the possible payout that you’ll receive and instead think purely in terms of ensuring that you choose as many winners as possible.
To make this a little bit clearer, let me say this: if you only have one winner out your selections, your payout won’t be very impressive at all. If you have several winners, the payout you’ll receive will be more and more impressive, up to and including the fact that Lucky bets tend to include accumulators. Resist the temptation to add an outsider bet to your Lucky wager, instead concentrating on picking as many dead certs as you can find. You won’t always win them, of course, but you’ll put yourself in a good position to do so.
Making Use Of Bonuses
The key thing about Lucky bets is that they promise you a bonus payout in situations where all of your selections are winners. This means that you don’t just get the winnings associated with the wager that you’ve placed but you also get more on top of that. Imagine a scenario in which your selections on a Lucky 15 payout £150. On top of that, you get a bonus of 10%, which equates to £15. Whilst the bonus is usually paid in cash and therefore you can withdraw it with your winnings, you might want to consider other options.
It is, however, important to check the odds and not just automatically take a bonus. In the example above you might get a payout of £150 with £15 on top if they are all winners (£165) but there could be another bookie out there that had better odds in the first place that could return, say, £170 without a bonus. Do not assume just because you are getting a bonus that you are getting better value.
One thing that some bettors do is withdraw the winnings of their Lucky bet and add any bonus money to their bankroll. This means that you can keep on betting without having to add more money from your own bank, instead merely pushing the bonus money into your betting account, perhaps alongside the original stake money. Operating in this manner allows punters a degree more flexibility when it comes to what to bet on and when to bet, knowing that they’re not going to have to use their own physical cash for their wagers.
Thinking Outside The Box
There are scores of punters out there that will login to their betting account and make selections for a Lucky 15 wager, believing that they’re putting themselves into a position where a payout is guaranteed no matter what happens. They will put scant thought into their selections, sometimes getting fortunate and receiving a payout and sometimes not. If you want to be better than the average, you need to think outside the box and work harder to ensure that the selections that you add to your Lucky bet are ones that have the best chance of winning.
I will point time and time again to the need to do plenty of research before placing a wager, if for no other reason than those that do the most research will win their bets the most often. That doesn’t mean that they’ll win every time, but they will certainly see more winners come their way than people who go off the colour jersey that the jockey is wearing or the fact that they support one of the football teams playing in a match. Neither colours nor loyalty will help in your pursuit of a payout from a bookmaker, so don’t fall for it.
It seems strange to refer to doing research as ‘thinking outside of the box’, but when most other people placing bets don’t bother to do it, it really is something that can give you an edge. You can make all the plans in the world for what to do without your Lucky bonus money, but if you don’t win your bets then you’re not going to receive any. You need to think about what selections to make in as dispassionate a manner as possible, meaning that you’re not caught up in following a hope but instead following the numbers.
