Lucky 31 Explained – What is a Lucky 31 Bet?

If you’re looking to have a Lucky 31 explained, then this is where we do it. In this article we’re going to explore exactly how this type of bet works and where you can place such a wager.

What is a Lucky 31 Bet in Horse Racing?

This is a type of cover combination bet popular in horse racing tips that features five different selections.

As the name suggests, it contains 31 different bets in total, covering all the various combinations from singles, right through to a five-fold accumulator.

How Does a Lucky 31 Work?

Let’s take an in-depth look at how this type of bet works. We’ll start by breaking down the 31 different types of wager in this cover bet. Comprising this wager are the following bets:

• 5 singles
• 10 doubles
• 10 trebles
• 5 four-fold accumulators
• 1 five-fold accumulator

From five selections, a Lucky 31 covers every possible combination. As you might imagine, if four or five of your selections are successful then the potential payouts can be very attractive, while it is also possible to make a smaller profit or break even, with fewer winners.

If all five of your selections are winners, some horse racing betting sites apply a bonus to your potential return. This is typically 20%, but it can be a different figure, depending on the betting site. There is also sometimes a bonus if you pick four winners and/or a consolation bonus for only selecting one winner.

Example Of a Lucky 31

Let’s give you an example. Say we put such a bet on where all five of our selections had a price of Evens (1/1 or 2.00).

As we’ve established, there are 31 bets in a Lucky 31. Therefore, a £1 unit stake would cost you a total of £31.

We calculated below what your return would be for various outcomes. In these instances, we don’t apply any of the bonuses you may receive on top of your potential winnings from a betting site.

• One winner @ 1/1: £2 return (1 single winner) – £31 stake = £29 loss
• Two winners @ 1/1: £8 return (2 single winners, 1 double winner) – £31 stake = £23 loss
• Three winners @ 1/1: £26 return (3 single winners, 3 double winners, 1 treble winner) – £31 stake = £5 loss
• Four winners @ 1/1: £80 return (4 single winners, 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 four-fold)— £31 stake = £49 profit
• Five winners @ 1/1: £242 return (5 single winners, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds, 1 five-fold) — £31 stake = £211 profit

As you can see, with all the horses priced at 1/1, we saw heavy losses for only one or two winners, a small loss with three winners and then fairly big profits from four or five winners.

We’ve purposely kept the odds small in this example to make it simple to understand. Hopefully you can see that if the prices were a bit bigger, then it would be possible to achieve profits with less than four or five winners.

How to Work Out a Lucky 31

It can be tricky to calculate Lucky 31 bets. The more winners you have, the more successful wagers there are to work out the returns on.

For even the most confident mathematicians, it can quickly become complicated, especially if there are bonus payments to add and the original stake is not a round number.

Many punters use a bet calculator to work out their racing returns. With a Lucky 31 calculator, you can enter the relevant details and work out a return in a split second.

Just add the odds of the selections, the result for each pick, any bonus information and the initial stake, before calculating. You can even see an each way version of the bet, or apply Rule 4 to any of the races.

It makes sense to work out what your returns will be, given various outcomes. A betting calculator allows you to play around with different results, odds and stakes, to see what return you will get from different combinations.

The Each Way Lucky 31 Explained

Lucky 31 betting also has the each-way option. This has two parts. One part is a win only and the other covers a place. So, when you go each-way, there are actually 62 bets.

You have the same range of 31 wagers from the various combination bets in a regular Lucky 31, where the selections need to win. Then you also have the place part, where the selections must finish in the frame. This could be two places, three places or even four or five places in large fields.

With this bet type the total stake doubles. A £1 Lucky 31 will cost you £31, while going each-way doubles that to £62.

As the bet is more expensive, it is sensible to use a Lucky 31 bet calculator to make sure that your each-way wager is likely to return a profit. Be cautious about going for selections where the odds are too short and consider the place terms.

Which Bookies are Best for a Lucky 31 Bet?

With the Lucky 31 bet explained, you may now be interested in placing one yourself. Our recommended sports betting websites all allow you to place this type of bet.

This is a very popular horse racing bet, which works for other sports, such as football. For that reason, all British bookmakers, who turnover plenty from horse racing, will make such options available.

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