What is a Goliath Bet in Horse Racing? – Goliath Bets Explained
The Goliath bet is one of the more ambitious multiple wagers you can bet on in horse racing. Getting all your selections right can lead to serious returns from this mammoth-sized wager.
What is a Goliath Bet?
A Goliath is a full cover bet based on eight selections and comprised of 247 individual wagers. In the bet, you get 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, eight seven-folds and one eight-fold accumulator. You can combine eight of our horse racing tips to place a Goliath or select your own.
Your Goliath unit stake is multiplied by 247 to accommodate all bets. While traditional accumulator bets require all selections to win, a Goliath bet does not. You will see returns from as few as two winning horses, with sums increasing substantially with the number of winners.
How Does a Goliath Bet Work in Horse Racing?
This bet type works by creating a series of betting combinations based on your eight selected horses. As you must place a unit stake across all 247 bets, your initial outlay can add up very quickly. For example, a 10p bet stake would cost £24.70 in total.
All the following bets combine to make the Goliath full cover wager.
- 28 doubles
- 56 trebles
- 70 four-folds
- 56 five-folds
- 28 six-folds
- 8 seven-folds
- 1 eight-fold accumulator
Goliath bets are flexible in the sense that you can just add bets on favourites. As you get something back if just two of your eight selections win, there is also scope to be creative in adding less-fancied horses. But sticking to fancies you are reasonably confident in is generally the smarter approach.
The bet, named after the infamous biblical giant slayed by David, is also more conservative than traditional accumulators. While straight accumulators fall apart with just one loss, the Goliath does not. But just like accas for horse racing, every additional winning selection exponentially increases your potential returns.
Goliath Bet Example
This example of a Goliath wager is based on eight horses from different races at the Cheltenham Festival. We’ve added the horse racing odds for each runner, as these are crucial to understanding how much one can expect to win from this wager.
- Ballyburn 1/2
- Fact To File 8/13
- Langer Dan 13/2
- Captain Guinness 17/2
- Unexpected Party 12/1
- Jasmin De Vaux 9/2
- Grey Dawning 5/2
- Teahupoo 5/4
If you place a £1 Goliath, your total bet stakes come in at £247. While this is an expensive bet, we’ll stick with the quid stake per bet for the purpose of example.
Firstly, a £1 stake per bet sees a total return of £776,596.98 with a total profit of 776,349.98. As you may agree, this astronomical sum is indeed life-changing money for most. But still within the maximum payout threshold for major bookmakers like William Hill and Paddy Power Sport.
The obstacle in front of even experienced bettors is, obviously, picking eight winners in Goliath bets. The chances of getting two, however, are far less slim. Let’s say Ballyburn and Captain Guinness both win. If that’s the case, you will see returns of £14.25, with a total profit of -232.75 from your £247 investment.
However, if you get half of those range of bets right – such as numbers 1 to 4 – things start to look better for your original stake and initial outlay. Your total returns for the first four as winners come in at £562.44, with a total profit of £315.44 from this gigantic wager.
How to Place a Goliath Bet
You can place Goliaths at most major horse racing betting sites online. Although easy enough to understand, we recommend making your betting selections online as the automated software does all the heavy lifting.
Follow these instructions to get started.
- Find a safe and secure betting site and complete the online registration form to open an account.
- Visit the horse racing betting section to find the racecards for meetings you want to bet on.
- Select 8 horses and add them to your online betting slip.
- Select the Goliath option from inside the bet slip.
- Enter your stake per line and press bet – you can see the total estimated returns based on your unit stake.
We recommend establishing that a bookie has the facility for betting on Goliaths before you sign up. You can also check if any of bonuses, free bets, or promotions can be used at the site when you bet.
When you’re done, keep an eye on the latest horse racing results and settlement of bets to track your winners and losers.
Where to Place a Goliath Bet
You’ll find that most major online bookmakers allow Goliaths. These are the sites with the most comprehensive horse racing markets and, for the most part, competitive odds. You may also find betting offers that can be used for cover bets and a whole range of other combination betting types.
Bookies like Paddy Power also provide Goliath bet calculators that make the process easier. For example, Spreadex and other sites let you see how much you stand to win from this bet type by changing your unit stakes.
Pros and Cons of Goliath Betting
Goliaths are ambitious types of bets that come with upsides and downsides. Here are the good and bad of this full coverage multiple wager
- Gigantic potential returns for a clean sweep
- Some form of return for just two winners
- 247 bets cover all possible combos
- Exciting bet type with plenty of diversity
- 247 x unit stake outlay can be costly
- Complex betting structure can be difficult to follow
- High risk-to-reward ratio
- May require 3 or more winners to generate a profit
How Goliath Bet Calculators Work
Our free bet calculator is your best friend when working out potential winnings from a Goliath. As there are 247 possible combinations at play, any manual calculations will eat into your time and are just not worth it in the long run.
A goliath calculator cuts through this by simplifying the process. Moreover, all you need to know is your base stake and the prices (whether ante post or SP odds) for each selection.
- Input your selections and the odds taken
- Enter your stake per bet, such as 10p
- You can calculate potential returns based on winners and losers
- The number of winners factor into your potential profits
You can certainly apply any Rule 4 deductions from inside the calculator. Furthermore, you don’t need to wait for race results if you simply want to play around with possible returns. Also, if you’re placing an each-way Goliath, select the E/W option from the calculator.
Alternatives to Goliath Betting
Goliaths may be more complex than some of the other bets out there. They can also be expensive to place.
Here are some viable alternatives to Goliath bets meaning even more options to sample.
- Single – A bet on one selection to win or place
- Each Way – Combination of a win and a place bet on a single selection
- Double – One bet on two selections with both wins required for a return
- Treble – Three selections which all need to win for a return
- Accumulator – Four or more selections that all need to win
- Trixie – Four bets covering three selections (three doubles and one treble)
- Patent – 7 bets across three selections (three singles, three doubles, and one treble)
- Yankee – 11 bets covering four selections (six doubles, four trebles, one fourfold)
- Lucky 15 – 15 bets covering four selections (includes singles plus a Yankee)
- Canadian/Super Yankee – 26 bets covering five selections
- Lucky 31 – 31 bets covering five selections (includes singles plus a Canadian)
- Heinz – 57 bets spanning six selections
- Super Heinz – 120 bets covering seven selections
FAQs
What's a Goliath bet?
A Goliath is a full cover type of bet you place on eight selections encompassing 247 individual bets. These wagers span various combinations with returns markedly increasing with every winning selection.
How many bets in a Goliath?
A Goliath contains 247 bets in total – 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds, and one eightfold accumulator.
Is a Goliath bet worth it?
This depends on your betting approach, appetite for risk, and overall betting strategy. Still, Goliaths can be extremely lucrative if all your selections win but come with a very high risk. You have 247 bets to cover, multiplying your stake by x247 and this can add up. While you receive something back for just two winners, it’s generally not enough to pay for the bet.
How many Goliath bet winners do I need?
You could see decent returns with just two winning selections, but likely need three or four to generate a profit. The more winners you get increases the potential winnings from Goliaths, although the size of odds contribute to how much.
What's the difference between a Super Goliath bet and a Goliath bet?
A Super Goliath features 255 bets across eight selections, while a Goliath comes with 247. The only difference between these bets is that the Super Goliath has eight single bets included with the other doubles, trebles, fourfold accumulators, fivefold accumulators, sixfold accumulators, and eight-fold accumulator bet, etc.