Lucky 15 one winner
With a win-only Lucky 15, one winner and three losers means only the winning single pays out. Every double, treble and the fourfold all need two or more of your picks to come in. To ease the blow, some bookies add a bonus to that single.
A £1 Lucky 15 with just one winner
A Lucky 15 covers four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold on four selections. That's 15 bets in total, so £1 per bet means the slip costs £15. Land just one winner and every other bet loses, leaving only that winning single to pay.
What you get back comes down to the winner's odds plus any consolation the bookie gives. Here, a consolation bonus is an extra payment when just one of your four selections wins. William Hill pays double the odds for a single winner, while Betfred pays three times the odds.
| Winner's odds | No bonus | Betfred: triple odds | William Hill: double odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/1 | £3 | £7 | £5 |
| 4/1 | £5 | £13 | £9 |
| 6/1 | £7 | £19 | £13 |
| 10/1 | £11 | £31 | £21 |
These returns include the £1 you put on the winning single, and the whole slip cost £15. In practice, William Hill settles a 4/1 winner as if it were 8/1, and Betfred as if it were 12/1.
How the one-winner bonus works
Both bookies add the bonus to your winnings rather than your stakes. For the slip to qualify, William Hill needs every selection to run. Betfred is much the same: all four must run and just one must win.
With an each way Lucky 15, William Hill puts the consolation on the win side only. Betting in a shop? It's worth asking about the bonus first, since Coral's shop rules note the Lucky consolation rate can differ from shop to shop.
What happens with two winners
Get two winners and three bets pay: the two singles plus the double combining them. The other 12 bets lose.
| Odds of every selection | Evens | 2/1 | 3/1 | 5/1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What two £1 winners pay (slip cost £15) | £8 | £15 | £24 | £48 |
Now for a mixed-price example. Say your £1 slip has picks at 2/1, 3/1, 4/1 and 5/1, and only the 2/1 and 3/1 win. The 2/1 single gives £3.00, the 3/1 single gives £4.00, and the double pays £12.00. You collect £19.00 on a £15 stake, which is £4.00 profit.
What do three or four winners return?
If all four selections win, all 15 bets pay out. The returns climb fast as the odds get bigger.
| Odds of every pick | All four £1 winners pay | Three £1 winners pay |
|---|---|---|
| Evens | £80 | £26 |
| 2/1 | £255 | £63 |
| 3/1 | £624 | £124 |
| 5/1 | £2,400 | £342 |
With four winners, William Hill and Betfred also add a 10% bonus to winnings, excluding stakes. William Hill adds 10% to total winnings for four winners, and Betfred pays a 10% bonus as well. Take that same mixed-price slip with everything winning: you'd receive £839.00 from £15. That 10% bonus comes to £82.40 on the £824.00 winnings.
Cost of a Lucky 15
Whatever you stake per bet, multiply it by 15 for the total cost.
| Bet per line | Win only | Each way |
|---|---|---|
| 10p | £1.50 | – |
| 50p | £7.50 | £15 |
| £1 | £15 | £30 |
| £2 | £30 | – |
Going each way turns the slip into 30 bets. Every one splits into a win element and a place element. That place element returns a fraction of the odds when your selection makes the places. At 1/4 odds, a 4/1 pick pays evens for placing, meaning a £1 place stake brings back £2.00.
Questions people ask
What if a Lucky 15 selection doesn't run?
With a non-runner, your £1 slip still costs £15. You get the £1 back on the non-runner's single. Any bet containing it loses that leg, so the fourfold drops to a treble. And because William Hill and Betfred both require every selection to run, a non-runner rules out their one-winner bonus too.
Lucky 15 versus Yankee
A Yankee uses the same four picks but drops the singles. That's 11 bets, costing £11 at £1 each. A Lucky 15 is £15, and the extra £4 covers the singles. That's the reason a Lucky 15 can still return something when only one selection wins.
Can a winner return less than its odds?
Sometimes, yes. If a horse is withdrawn after you've placed the bet, the bookie can make a Rule 4 deduction from the winnings on the others. For example, if the bookie takes 25p off every pound of winnings, a 4/1 winner's winnings drop from £4.00 to £3.00, so your £1 single returns £4.00 instead of £5.00. With a dead heat, where two horses finish level for first, only half the stake counts at the full price. So if that 4/1 winner dead-heats with another horse, the £1 single pays £2.50.