Lucky 15 calculator
Answer three short questions about your slip to see what all 15 bets pay back.
How the return is worked out
Each selection gets a multiplier from its result. A winner counts at its decimal price (5/2 is 3.5). A loser counts as nothing. A non-runner counts as 1, so the stake rides on: its single hands the stake back and a double with it becomes a single.
Each of the 15 bets pays its stake times the multipliers of the selections in it. The return is the total of all 15.
Each way, the place part works the same way at the place price: the winnings part of the price times the place terms, so 5/1 at 1/4 the odds pays 5/4. A selection that wins also places.
Rule 4 takes its pence in the pound off the winnings part of the price. A dead heat divides that selection's stake by the number of horses that tied, then pays full odds, as the Tattersalls rules set out.
Type in your four prices (5/2, 3.5 or 'evens' all work) and your stake, and the Lucky 15 calculator shows what your slip pays back however many of your picks win. It keeps your last slip on your own device so you can come back to it. A Lucky 15 is 15 bets on four picks: four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold, as Sky Bet sets out. Each double, treble and fourfold pays only if every horse in it wins. Every bet carries an equal stake, so the payout depends on how many win and at what prices.
Betting words in plain English
- Selection or pick: one horse you have chosen.
- Odds or price: what a winner pays. At 5/2 you win £5 for every £2 you put on; at evens, or even money, you win the same amount you put on.
- Stake and slip: your stake is the money on each bet, and your slip is the betting slip that lists your four horses.
- Return: everything paid back to you, your stake included. Your winnings are the return without the stake.
- Single, double, treble, fourfold: a bet on one, two, three or all four of your horses.
- Each way: a second bet on each horse to finish in the first few places, which is called placing.
- Rule 4 and dead heat: a small cut from the winnings when a horse is pulled out late, and the rule for horses that finish level.
Cost of a Lucky 15
You pay 15 times whatever stake you pick per bet, since a Lucky 15 counts as 15 bets. So a £1 stake per bet costs £15 in total.
| Stake per bet | Win only |
|---|---|
| 10p | £1.50 |
| 50p | £7.50 |
| £1 | £15 |
| £2 | £30 |
Going each way doubles the bill: £1 each way costs £30 and 50p each way costs £15.
A Yankee covers the same four picks with just 11 bets, so a £1 stake costs £11. The extra £4 you pay on a Lucky 15 goes on the four singles.
How a Lucky 15 pays by winners
With one winner you only get its single back, which often falls short of your £15 stake unless the odds are large. Two winners bring in two singles plus the double between them. Three winners cover three singles, three doubles and one treble, and when all four win, all 15 bets pay out.
The table gives total returns for a £1 win Lucky 15, £15 staked, where all four picks carry the same odds. No betting firm bonus, Rule 4 or dead heat is included.
| Odds | One winner | Two winners | Three winners | Four winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evens | £2 | £8 | £26 | £80 |
| 2/1 | £3 | £15 | £63 | £255 |
| 3/1 | £4 | £24 | £124 | £624 |
| 5/1 | £6 | £48 | £342 | £2,400 |
Working through a real slip
Say you place a £1 Lucky 15 on four picks priced at 5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1. If just the 2/1 and 3/1 win, the slip pays £19 back, £4 more than the £15 it cost, and if all four win it pays £839.
That £1 slip, worked out
When just the 2/1 and 3/1 win, you get £3.00 from the 2/1 single, £4.00 from the 3/1 single and £12.00 from the double that links them. You get £19.00 from a £15 stake, which is £4.00 profit.
If every selection wins, the singles pay £18.00, the doubles pay £119.00, the trebles pay £342.00 and the fourfold pays £360.00. In total that's £839.00 returned on £15 staked.
Each way Lucky 15 payouts
An each way bet is 2 bets in one: one on the selection winning and one on it placing. Placing means finishing in one of the first few places, usually the first two, three or four, depending on the race. Each part has the full stake on it, so each way costs twice the stake per bet. Going each way turns a Lucky 15 into 30 bets: the win parts pay on horses that win, and the place parts pay on horses that place.
The place side pays at a fraction of the odds. Which fraction applies is set by the race, as the Tattersalls rules lay out. The Tattersalls Committee writes the standard rules British bookmakers use to pay out bets. Place terms tell you which finishing places pay and what share of the odds they pay. A handicap is a race where the better horses carry extra weight to even things up, and the runners are the horses that start.
| Race | Place fraction | Places that pay |
|---|---|---|
| Five to seven runners | 1/4 | First and second |
| Eight or more runners, including handicaps of eight to eleven | 1/5 | First, second and third |
| Handicaps with twelve to fifteen runners | 1/4 | First, second and third |
| Handicaps with sixteen or more runners | 1/4 | First, second, third and fourth |
Each selection follows the place terms of its own race, even on a shared slip.
A £1 each way slip, worked out
With 1/4 odds, a 4/1 pick pays evens for placing, returning £2.00 on a £1 place stake. With 1/5 odds, a 5/1 pick also pays evens.
Take a £1 each way slip costing £30, on four picks (5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1) settled at 1/4 place odds. The 2/1 wins, the 3/1 finishes placed and the other two lose. The win side pays £3.00 and the place side £5.88, giving £8.88 back. If all four win, the win side pays £839.00 and the place side £66.03, totalling £905.03.
Extra returns when only one selection wins
Some betting firms raise the odds when only one of your picks wins. William Hill pays double the odds while Betfred pays three times the odds. At both firms, all four selections must run for the offer to count.
| Winning price | Normal return | William Hill | Betfred |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/1 | £3 | £5 | £7 |
| 4/1 | £5 | £9 | £13 |
| 6/1 | £7 | £13 | £19 |
| 10/1 | £11 | £21 | £31 |
The amounts are returns on a £1 Lucky 15 with £15 staked. A 4/1 winner is paid at 8/1 at William Hill and 12/1 at Betfred.
For an each way bet, William Hill applies the boost only to the win side. Betfred's bonus works on each way Lucky 15s too, and the calculator adds it to the win part only, the same as for William Hill.
One winner each way at William Hill, worked out
A lone 4/1 winner at £1 each way pays £5.00 on the win single and £2.00 on the place single, with a further £4.00 on top from the doubled odds, so £11.00 back from £30 in all.
Bonus for four winners
William Hill adds 10% to total winnings if all four selections win. Betfred also adds a 10% bonus when all four picks on a Lucky 15 win. In both cases the bonus is calculated on winnings, not on your stake.
If every pick on that £1 slip (5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1) wins, the winnings come to £824.00. A 10% bonus on top adds £82.40.
What if a selection doesn't run?
A non-runner is a selection pulled out before it can take part. Your bet carries on, and a £1 Lucky 15 still comes to £15. Paddy Power explains that the stake on the non-runner's single is returned. Every other bet that includes it simply goes ahead without it, so the fourfold turns into a treble.
As an example, picture a £1 Lucky 15 on which the 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1 picks all win while the fourth selection doesn't run. The slip pays £239.00 from £15.
Rule 4 deductions and dead heats
When a horse is taken out of a race at the last minute, the bookmaker takes a little off the winnings on the others in that race. Rule 4 is a deduction from your winnings. The shorter the odds of the horse taken out, the bigger the cut. A 25p deduction takes a quarter off the winnings. Across a full slip, the deduction follows that selection into every bet containing it.
A dead heat happens when 2 or more horses finish level for a place. A two-way tie pays about half of what a clear win would.
Rule 4 and dead heat rules, worked out
It's counted in pence per pound, and the biggest possible deduction is 90p in the pound. Under Tattersalls Rule 10, in a two-way dead heat half the stake is lost and the other half is settled at the full price.
A 25p deduction on a £1 single at 4/1 brings the winnings down from £4.00 to £3.00, meaning you receive £4.00 rather than £5.00.
Take a £1 Lucky 15 on 5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1, with just the 2/1 and 3/1 winning. If a 25p Rule 4 hits the 3/1, its price is cut in every bet it's part of, so the slip pays £16.00 rather than £19.00.
For example, if a 4/1 winner dead heats two ways, a £1 single on it returns £2.50.
Now take a £1 Lucky 15 on 5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1 with no Rule 4 deduction: if the 2/1 wins, the 3/1 finishes in a two-way dead heat for first and the other two lose, you get £11.00 back from your £15 stake rather than £19.00. Should the 4/1 win too, the return is £71.00.