Lucky 15 explained

This bet brings together four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold covering your four picks. A double links two horses and needs both to win, with the returns from the first rolling onto the second. A treble works the same way across three horses, and the fourfold across all four.

Every one of the 15 bets stands or falls by itself. A single pays out when its horse wins, while a double or anything larger only pays if all its horses win. Each of the four selections has to be in a different race.

Your stake goes on each of the 15 bets, so a £1 Lucky 15 costs £15 in total, not £1. It's worth checking the total before you confirm the slip.

Picture four horses priced at 5/1, 4/1, 3/1 and 2/1. You pay £15 in total. The 2/1 and 3/1 both win, while the other two are beaten.

That leaves you £4.00 in profit. Each of the other 12 bets contains a losing horse, so none of them pay. Had all four won, the slip would have paid £839.00.

A £1 Lucky 15 returns the following amounts when the four horses all share the same odds (evens means you win the same as your stake). Each slip comes to £15.

When the odds are short, you will often need three winners just to get back more than the £15 you staked.

The Yankee covers the same four selections but drops the singles. It is 11 bets made up of six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold. Here is how the two compare.

A Lucky 15 costs £4 more, and that buys the four singles. A Yankee without them needs two winners at minimum before it returns anything.

Going each way splits every bet into two parts. One part backs the horse to win, the other backs it to reach the places, for example 1st to 3rd. That gives you 30 bets and doubles the total stake. That means £1 each way comes to £30, while 50p each way comes to £15.

The place part pays at a fraction of the win odds. If the place part pays a quarter of the win odds, a horse priced at 4/1 pays £2 back on a £1 place bet, including that £1 stake. Each horse is paid on its own race's place terms, so they can differ across one slip. For example, a handicap with 8 to 11 runners pays 1/5 of the odds for 1st, 2nd or 3rd. A handicap with 12 or more runners pays 1/4 of the odds, for the first three, or the first four once there are 16 or more runners.

Here is an example. You stake £1 each way with place terms of a quarter of the odds, paying £30. The 2/1 horse wins, the 3/1 horse places, and the other two lose. You receive £3.00 from the win side and £5.88 from the place side, £8.88 altogether. Had all four won, the return would be £905.03.

Certain bookies add a bonus when just one of your four picks comes first. William Hill rewards that single at double the odds, while Betfred pays 3 times the odds. The numbers here use a £1 Lucky 15, £15 in all.

William Hill applies its each-way bonus to the win part only. Betfred says each-way Lucky 15s qualify too, and the calculator counts its bonus on the win part. One winner at 4/1 with William Hill, at £1 each way, turns your £30 into £11.00 back.