Alphabet Betting Explained

How It Works

For an Alphabet to be placed, you must first make six selections. These selections are then split between two Patent bets. The first three of your selections will make up the first Patent, and the remaining three will make up the second.

Of course, a Patent comprises seven separate bets, and three of your six selections will allow you to place three singles, three doubles and a treble. If we had horses A through to F on your betting slip, the first Patent would look as follows:

Then the process is then repeated for the remaining three horses on your betting slip:

Six selections have got the Alphabet underway and 14 of the 26 bets have subsequently been placed. To get to 15, a six-fold accumulator for horses through A to F is also on the betting slip. But what about the remaining 11 wagers?

This is where things begin to get rather interesting, and although there are still 11 bets to be made, only four of the six horses will be of any actual use. This is where we say goodbye to the outsiders and hello to the favourites.

The Betting Slip

To do this, we are going to look at the table of odds for each of the six horses involved:

As you can see, the two horses with the longest odds are Horse A at 5/1 and Horse F at 6/1. Horse A has been placed in the first Patent to provide additional value; Horse B has been placed in the second for the same reason.

This means that Horses B through E have a better chance of doing the business, and these four horses will be placed together in a Yankee. For those unaware of a Yankee bet, it is broken down into the table below.

• Doubles: In a Yankee Bet, six doubles are formed by combining every possible pair of the four selections. These pairs are BC, BD, BE, CD, CE, and DE

• Trebles: Four trebles are created by selecting three of the four choices. The possible trebles are BCD, BCE, BDE, and CDE

• Accumulator: The remaining bet is an accumulator involving all four selections (BCDE). This means that all four selections must win to secure a payout.

The Numbers Game

With 26 bets in place and so many different permutations in place, the Alphabet can be tricky to keep on top of when it comes to winnings. Thankfully, our Alphabet calculator is on hand to help you track your profits (or your losses)

To try and paint a picture of how much profit you can make from an Alphabet, we will once again use the odds table for our six different horses and map out the different combinations when it comes to wins and losses

Patent One

With these six selections, we will use £1 stakes per line – this means a total outlay of £26, and first we will look at the Patent bet for Horses A, B, C.

1. Singles:

• Horse A win: £1 stake * (5/1 odds + 1) = £5 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £6 total
• Horse B win: £1 stake * (1/1 odds + 1) = £1 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £2 total
• Horse C win: £1 stake * (2/1 odds + 1) = £2 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £3 total

2. Three Doubles:

• Horse A and Horse B win: £1 stake * ((5/1 odds + 1) * (1/1 odds + 1)) = £11 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £12 total
• Horse A and Horse C win: £1 stake * ((5/1 odds + 1) * (2/1 odds + 1)) = £17 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £18 total
• Horse B and Horse C win: £1 stake * ((1/1 odds + 1) * (2/1 odds + 1)) = £5 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £6 total

3. One Treble:

• Treble (ABC): £1 stake * ((5/1) * (1/1) * (2/1) + 1) = £35 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £36 total

4. Double Win In Yankee:

• Horse B and Horse C win: £1 stake * ((1/1 odds + 1) * (2/1 odds + 1)) = £5 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £6 total

In this instance, if all three horses won their races, you would win a total of £83 from the breakdown of these bets. However, you would also win an additional £6 from the Horse B and Horse C double, as this would have been placed again within the Yankee.

Therefore, if only Horses A, B and C won out of the six selections, you would return £89 from your £26 outlay. This would give you an overall profit of £63. You can see this play out in our pre-populated betting slip in our Alphabet bet calculator here.

Patent Two

Now, we will look at the Patent for Horses D, E, F.

1. Singles:

• Horse D win: £1 stake * (3/1 odds + 1) = £3 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £4 total
• Horse E win: £1 stake * (4/1 odds + 1) = £4 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £5 total
• Horse F win: £1 stake * (6/1 odds + 1) = £6 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £7 total

2. Three Doubles:

• Horse D and Horse E win: £1 stake * ((3/1 odds + 1) * (4/1 odds + 1)) = £19 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £20 total
• Horse D and Horse F win: £1 stake * ((3/1 odds + 1) * (6/1 odds + 1)) = £27 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £28 total
• Horse E and Horse F win: £1 stake * ((4/1 odds + 1) * (6/1 odds + 1)) = £34 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £35 total

3. One Treble:

• Treble (DEF): £1 stake * ((3/1) * (4/1) * (6/1) + 1) = £139 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £140 total

4. Double Win In Yankee:

• Horse D and Horse E win: £1 stake * ((3/1 odds + 1) * (4/1 odds + 1)) = £19 (profit) + £1 (stake) = £20 total

In this instance, if all three horses won their races, you would win a total of £239 from the breakdown of these bets. However, you would also win an additional £20 from the Horse D and Horse E double, as this would have been placed again within the Yankee.

Therefore, if only Horses D, E and F won out of the six selections, you would return £259 from your £26 outlay. This would give you an overall profit of £233.

The Yankee Section

However, we should also remember that we have split the two outsiders into two different Patents, and our main focus is the four horses with the shortest prices – those horses being B through to E.

Here's how the winnings would be calculated, assuming a £1 stake per bet (total stake of £11 since there are 11 bets):

Six Doubles:

• If Horse B and C win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) = £6
• If Horse B and D win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £8
• If Horse B and E win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £10
• If Horse C and D win, your return is £1 * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £12
• If Horse C and E win, your return is £1 * (2 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £15
• If Horse D and E win, your return is £1 * (3 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £20

Four Trebles:

• If Horse B, C, and D win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £24
• If Horse B, C, and E win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £30
• If Horse B, D, and E win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (3 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £40
• If Horse C, D, and E win, your return is £1 * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £60

One Fourfold:

• If Horse B, C, D and E all win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) * (4 + 1) = £120

Four Singles:

• Four Singles wins for Horses B, C, D and E - £2, £3, £4, £5 = £14

If you placed your favourites within the 11 bet Yankee and were all winners in the examples above, an outlay of £26 (remember you have still wagered on Horses A and F elsewhere) would mean a win of £385 – a profit of £359.

Three From Four

Within the same Yankee bet, even if Horse E failed to do the business, the three other favourites would have done enough legwork to get you over the profit line.

Six Doubles: Three Winners

• If Horse B and C win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) = £6
• If Horse B and D win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £8
• If Horse C and D win, your return is £1 * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £12

Four Trebles: One Winner

• If Horse B, C, and D win, your return is £1 * (1 + 1) * (2 + 1) * (3 + 1) = £24

Four Singles:

• Three Singles wins for Horses B, C, and D - £2, £3, £4 = £9

Even with only three from six, the combination above would still be enough to return £65 and give you a profit of £29 once all 26 separate bets have been accounted for.

As you can see, placing the horses more likely to win together can also pay dividends. The outsiders are undoubtedly helpful if they can win a race, but they should not necessarily be given equal focus. In this instance, it pays to have your preferences.

The Clean Sweep

Of course, there is always the option of winning it big, and this is where all six horses are declared winners. All your 26 bets have been ticked off, and this means the road to riches is not far away – not only that, but an All Winners Bonus can usually be unlocked as well.

As always, the bonus will depend on the bookmaker, but you can usually expect a 10% bonus for a perfect Alphabet. If we first break the winnings per betting segment:

Patent 1:

• Horses A to C would deliver £83 – all seven winning bets

Patent 2:

• Horses D to F would deliver £239 – all seven winning bets

Yankee:

• Horses B to E would deliver £345 – all eleven winning bets

Accumulator:

• Horses A to F would deliver £5,040

(Also, remember that any duplicate winning lines that would have been found in the Patent or winning singles added to the Yankee would be removed for this overall total.)

This means there would be winnings of £5,707 overall – a total profit of £5,681.

If we were to add a 10% All Winners Bonus – the total return would be £6,277.70 – the total profit would be £6,251.70).
Again, click here to check out our pre-populated bet calculator for this exact example to see how each outcome impacts the overall return and profit.

A far greater return on investment when compared to the £26 outlay that would have been made and one of the reasons why the Alphabet can be a trusted way to get the better of the bookmakers.

How To Place An AlphaBet with Bet365

1. Select the relevant sport you want to bet on. For this example, we have selected MMA.

2. Then, select the six football outcomes for your betting slip. Once they are selected, the bet will first be set up as a six-fold accumulator. Press the ‘Show More Multiples’ arrow to unlock all the other available bets.

3. Then select the Alphabet option before adding your stake amount. Now, you are ready to place your Alphabet.

Conclusion

The Alphabet is a popular wager for experienced punters, and when you see the mathematics above, you can begin to understand why. Like with all combination bet styles, getting your head around can take some time; therefore, it is not one for the faint-hearted.

However, if you understand odds well and like to combine selections with an element of insurance attached to it, the Alphabet can also be as easy as A, B, or C. Therefore, if you have a decent appetite for risk, this is a bet worth considering.