Lucky 15 sounds like a possible spin-off film from the Ocean’s Eleven series (or is that just us?); but it is in fact a bet said to have been invented by Betfred. It is classed as a “full cover with singles” bet, which means it is a bet that takes a certain number of selections and combines every possible acca you can make from them, as well as the individual components (hence the “with singles”), into one multiples bet.
It is the equivalent of a Yankee, but unlike that bet, which is classed as a full cover (without singles) wager, the Lucky 15 includes the singles. This means it comprises four selections and, unsurprisingly given the name, there are 15 bets in total. For the full lowdown on this popular bet, as well as some inspiring tales of huge Lucky 15 winners, read on.
If you're placing a Lucky Bet, make sure you use a bookie that has a Lucky 15 Bonus for bigger payouts.What Is a Lucky 15?
It may or may not be true that Betfred invented the wager but a Lucky 15 is a bet now offered by all major bookies. You just need to add four unrelated selections to your betting slip and any decent site will present you the option to back them as a Lucky 15. It is a wager that can be placed on any sport, or even across a range of sports (and non-sporting events such as TV, film, music or even weather specials). That said, it is probably most closely associated with horse racing, so let us look to the sport of kings for our example.
Let us imagine you are heading to your local track for a day of live racing (and perhaps a drink or two) and decide to create a Lucky 15 covering the four biggest races of the day. You add the following to your online betting slip on the morning of the races:
- 1.15 – Wineisfine at evens
- 1.45 – Beery Nights at 2/1
- 2.15 – Onefortheroad at 6/1
- 2.45 – Pass Me The Bucket at evens
When you view the slip you may be presented with a number of betting options and one should be “Lucky 15 (x15)”. The number in brackets indicates how many individual bets you will be placing as part of the Lucky 15. As there are 15 bets, you will need to place 15 stakes and so a £1 Lucky 15 will always cost you £15, unless you back it each way, in which case it would be £30.
This covers all four singles, plus all possible combinations of the four horses. As such, you need just one of your four picks to win in order to gain a return. So, for example, if Wineisfine is the only one of your horses to be first past the post, you would win just that single, meaning a £2 total return and a £13 loss overall. Naturally, in order to win all 15 bets you would need all four legs to win and in the example above this would yield a rather handsome return of £287 and a net win of £272.
What Bets Does a Lucky 15 Include?
As said, a Lucky 15 includes all singles and all possible accumulators from a double upwards. This means it consists of four singles, six doubles, four trebles and a single fourfold acca. In the case of our example above, this translates as:
| Bets | Lines |
|---|---|
| Singles x 4 | Wineisfine (W) Beery Nights (B) Onefortheroad (O) Pass Me The Bucket (P) |
| Doubles x 6 | WB WO WP BO BP OP |
| Trebels x 4 | WBO WBP WOP BOP |
| Fourfold x 1 | WBOP |
How much you stand to win depends on how many of your four picks win and which one, or – more accurately – the odds of each of the winners. We have shown the return for all four winners and calculating if just one horse wins is easy enough as it is just a simple £1 single but what about if two, or three horses win?
Let’s assume that both of the first two picks win, Wineisfine at evens and Beery Nights at 2/1. Your two singles on those selections would return £2 and £3 respectively giving a total return of £5 and a net win (on those two bets alone) of £3. The winning “WB” double would return £6, a net win of £5 on the £1 double, giving a total return of £11 and thus a loss overall of £4.
However, had your two winners been in the two middle races (at 2/1 and 6/1), the longest odds selections in your Lucky 15, the outcome would have been much better. You would still have just the three winning bets from 15 but the overall return would have been £31 for a net win of £16, more than doubling your outlay. The bulk of your winnings would come from the 2/1 and 6/1 double, of course, that £1 bet accounting for £21 of the total return.
With three winners things are even better of course. With three winners in a Lucky 15 you will always win three singles, three doubles and one treble, so seven out of 15 bets in total. If we assume your three winners came in the first three races of your bet, you would win the following wagers:
- WBO – treble at evens, 2/1 and 6/1
- WB – double at evens and 2/1
- WO – double at evens and 6/1
- BO – double at 2/1 and 6/1
- W – single bet at evens
- B – 2/1 single
- O – 6/1 single
In this situation, your total return is a massive £95, giving a net win of £80, even though you only managed to find three winners and all were at relatively low odds (for racing at least). To give you an idea of what sort of returns you can expect at longer odds, had the three horses above all been at 8/1 your net win would have been £984. Had you gone one better and completed a perfect Lucky 15 with those three 8/1 winners and a nice favourite at just evens, your net win would be a brilliant £2,984!
Lucky 15 Key Points
Because a Lucky 15 is so much like a Yankee and many of the other full cover bets and accumulators we have already written about, we will not go into too much detail here. For example, if you want to know more about how to physically place a Lucky 15, check out our article on Yankees or Trixies. Equally, for more information on related contingencies, you should check out our doubles feature, although this is something we look at in pretty much all of our multiples/acca articles as it applies to them all.
Signposting aside, here are the key things to be aware of when it comes to a Lucky 15:
- Includes four selections, or legs
- Legs must not be related (for example, one cannot be Rory McIlroy to lead after 18 holes and another for him to lead after 36 holes)
- Four selections used to create 15 bets (four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold acca)
- Total stake is 15 times line bet, so a £1 Lucky 15 with £1 on each of the wagers above costs £15
- Each way Lucky 15 costs double normal stake and backs all selections to win and to place (see our doubles feature or other articles for more info)
- Can use any sports, markets and odds in a Lucky 15 as long as they are not related contingencies
- One winning leg sees a return (though not necessarily a net win), all four needed to land all 15 bets
Lucky 15 Offers & Consolations
Whilst the above very much covers the basics, when it comes to Lucky 15s, some bookies offer two main promotions. Some bookmakers have withdrawn these promotions so not all sites offer one or both of these but an elite band of the best UK bookies do, so if you like Lucky 15s it is definitely worth making sure the site you use does indeed offer them.
The two relevant promotions apply at opposing ends of the success spectrum: one rewards you if you manage to land all four picks, whilst the other offers a consolation boost if you only managed to find one winner.
Typically, if just one of your four picks wins, a bookie will treble the odds of that winner. Sticking with our alcohol-themed quartet of horses, this means that you could actually make a net win from just one winner. If it was the 6/1 shot, Onefortheroad, that delivered the goods, those odds would be boosted to 18/1, meaning a £3 net win overall despite you winning just one of 15 bets and predicting one out of four races correctly.
On the other hand, should you manage to get all your legs right, some bookmakers will boost your winnings. A boost of 10% is common, though some sites may offer less. Given you have probably already taken the bookie for a hefty sum, this extra bonus on your winnings is very generous indeed!
£200k Lucky 15 Win Far from Peanuts!
There have been countless huge wins on Lucky 15s over the years but one of the most impressive in recent times saw a Grimsby native win more than £200,000 from a less than a fiver. The Golden Wonder shift worker scooped in excess of £209,000 from a Lucky 15 that cost just £4.75!
He landed winners at 10/1, 20/1, 25/ and 40/1 to scoop the big win. The very eagle-eyed among you may be wondering how you create a £4.75 Lucky 15 given £4.75 is not divisible for 15. Equally, those with the mathematic ability of Rachel Riley may be questioning how such a bet delivered winnings of £209,000. Full disclosure: we don’t know. However, the win was reported in the gospel that is the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, as well as on Betfred’s own blog, so we are sure it is somehow correct! Whether the exact figures reported were correct or not, this was a serious win and just shows what is possible from even a small-stakes Lucky 15.