There are some large, weird, confusing and wonderful combination bets on offer for wagering on sports. The Lucky 15, 31 and 63 offer some great excitement, but are hard to get right and can prove to be very expensive. The simplest of the lot, however, is undoubtedly the ever-popular Patent.
A Patent is a bet requiring only three individual selections. These three selections then turn into 7 different bets, offering punters a way of boosting their potential returns on football teams, race horses and the like. As singles are included in Patent bets, just one winner out of the three will see you get a return. Landing all three legs, however, can turn this bet into a very lucrative one. In most cases, online bookmakers offer bonuses on top of the basic returns for Patents landed successfully with all three legs winning.
How the Patent Bet Works
The Patent bet is a very simple one to understand. The bet involves you picking out three individual selections. These can be horses, football teams, rugby teams, or sometimes a combination of various sports. The bet is then made up of 7 bets in total, namely:
- 3 x Singles
- 3 x Doubles
- 1 x Treble
What you should always keep in mind is that combination bets increase your costs. At £1 per line this bet would only be £7 in total, though each leg wouldn’t pay very much. At £5 per line the bet would cost a total of £35 as all angles need to be covered. The three selections all need to be from different events; three different football games, different horse races, etc.
Patents are very versatile combo bets. At 7 selections, you could use football teams and increase your stakes on strong home favourites at 5/4, etc. For horse racing, you can make this a cheap bet on some 5/1, 7/1 or 10/1 chances, etc. We’ve mixed things up for our Patent, choosing one horse and two football teams:
You’ll see here that we’re given two options with three selections: a Trixie or a Patent. We’ll go through the merits of the Trixie later on. In this example, we’ve gone for two weekend football matches, basic home wins, and a horse in the ante-post market for a major race at York. At £5 per line, our total wager is £35. Here’s what our £35 gets us, with the following seven bets all placed on one bet slip:
- £5 single on Native Trail to win the Juddmonte International
- £5 single on QPR to beat Sunderland
- £5 single on Blackburn to beat West Brom
- £5 double on Native Trail and QPR
- £5 double on Native Trail and Blackburn
- £5 double on QPR and Blackburn
- £5 treble on Native Trail, QPR and Blackburn
In the happy event that we manage to get all three of these selections right, at these odds we would be due a payout of £642.07. Not bad at all for a £35 outlay. Even if we managed just two out of three, and those being the lower paying football teams, we’d still expect a return of £71.13. This is based on:
£5 win on QPR @ 11/5 returns = £16
£5 win on Blackburn @ 13/8 returns = £13.13
£5 double on QPR & Blackburn returns = £42
Always try to keep in mind just how Patent payouts are calculated. This will help you to keep track of whether you think your selections will prove to be successful in such a bet.
Calculating a Patent Payout
When you place a Patent bet online, the amount you can expect to win will be displayed in the bet slip. This may not include any bonuses though and will be based on all three selections winning. You can use a free online bet calculator to check out Patent perms, or use this simple guide:
| Bet Type | Bets | Selection 1 | Selection 2 | Selection 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 x Singles | Bet 1 | x | ||
| Bet 2 | x | |||
| Bet 3 | x | |||
| 3 x Doubles | Bet 4 | x | x | |
| Bet 5 | x | x | ||
| Bet 6 | x | x | ||
| 1 x Treble | Bet 7 | x | x | x |
Using this table, you can see which selections are put together to form each of the seven bets. Simply multiply the odds you’ve been given, or the SP’s if that’s what you’ve taken, in the normal way to find out what each leg of your bet is worth. In the case of multiple winning legs, simply add the returns together.
The Patent allows for these seven bets and its associated cost. As we mentioned earlier however, it isn’t the only 4-leg combination bet you can place as this is also the case with the famous Trixie.
Patent Versus the Trixie
What most of us are looking for when it comes to combination and full cover bets is that big reward. These bets do come with a higher degree of risk, though in the case of the Patent we’re only taking on three selections which helps us to narrow things down. Those three selections also allow you to place a Trixie rather than a Patent.
In the case of the Trixie, there are only four bets in total rather than 7. This is because no single bets are included. The Trixie therefore is made up simply of:
- 3 x Doubles
- 1 x Treble
Having a wager made up of 4 bets instead of 7 can have two major benefits, and one major drawback:
+ The bet is cheaper to place based on the same cost ‘per line’.
+ Each winning line is worth more if using the same overall budget for the bet.
– At least two winners are needed to get a return. No single winner means no return.
If you think you need some insurance in your bet, then you should undoubtedly stick with the Patent. Just when things are going wrong and your first two bets have lost, you can stay in the game with a Patent and the final single may just come in to offer you something back.