Trixie Calculator

Four bets, and you need two winners

A Trixie is three doubles and one treble across three selections. At £1 a bet it costs £4, or £8 each way. There are no singles, which is the single most important thing to understand about it: one winner returns nothing at all.

That is not a flaw. It is the trade. Every penny of your stake sits on combinations, so when two or three selections do come in, a Trixie pays more than a Patent on the same odds for less money staked.

Worked example

Three selections at decimal odds of 2.50, 3.00 and 4.00, £1 per bet, so £4 staked.

• All three win: £59.50 back — £55.50 profit from a £4 stake.
• Two win (the 2.50 and the 3.00): £7.50 back, a £3.50 profit.
• One wins: nothing. The whole £4 is gone.

Compare that with a Patent on the same three selections: £7 staked, £69 back if all three win. The Trixie returns less in absolute terms but you risked £3 less to get it, and its profit on the all-win outcome is proportionally larger.

When a Trixie is the right shape

It suits a slip where you genuinely expect at least two of the three to come in — short-priced favourites, or selections you would have backed in a treble anyway but want some insurance against one letting you down. If you think one might win and the others are long shots, the singles in a Patent are worth the extra £3.

Switch the bet type above between Trixie, Patent and Round Robin with your own odds in place to see which shape suits the slip in front of you.

Non-runners turn a Trixie into something else

Mark a selection void and it settles at odds of 1.00. Two of the doubles collapse into singles on your remaining selections, and the treble becomes a double — so a Trixie with a non-runner suddenly does pay out on one winner. This is the case worth checking in the calculator before you assume a bet is dead.

A Trixie compounds the bookmaker’s margin across every combination. It is an entertainment bet. 18+ only. Please gamble responsibly.