UK patriots may well argue that the Union Jack (more accurately, the Union Flag) is a super flag. If we’re talking national flags though, for us, the North Macedonian flag has to be the most super of the super flags. But we’re not talking national flags. We’re talking bets. So, “hilarious” intro paragraph aside, what is a Super Flag bet?
What Is a Super Flag?
We have looked previously at a number of bets that are related to a Super Flag, with a Flag being the most similar one. To better understand a Super Flag, reading that article and also our feature on Up & Down betting and a Canadian (also called a Super Yankee), is probably a great place to start.
That said, a Super Flag is a type of multiple that uses five selections to create 46 bets, the 46 viewed together being a Super Flag. Put another way, just as a Flag is like a Yankee with the addition of extra Up & Down bets, so a Super Flag is like a Super Yankee (as said, sometimes also referred to as a Canadian). Alternatively, a Super Flag can also easily be viewed as a Flag bet with an extra leg, creating a total of 23 extra component bets. If all that sounds rather confusing, let’s look at the bets that make up some of these wider multiples:
| Bet | Selections | Bets | Up & Down | Total Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Flag | 5 | 0 Singles 10 Doubles 10 Trebles 5 4-fold 1 5-fold |
10 (20 bets in total) |
46 |
| Flag | 4 | 0 Singles 6 Doubles 4 Trebles 4 4-fold |
6 (12 bets in total) |
23 |
| Super Yankee | 5 | 0 Singles 10 Doubles 10 Trebles 5 4-fold 1 5-fold |
0 | 26 |
| Yankee | 4 | 0 Singles 6 Doubles 4 Trebles 1 4-fold |
0 | 11 |
| Lucky 31 | 5 | 5 Singles 10 Doubles 10 Trebles 5 4-fold 1 5-fold |
0 | 31 |
| Lucky 15 | 4 | 4 Singles 6 Doubles 4 Trebles 1 4-fold |
0 | 15 |
In truth, few punters bet on Flags and Super Flags these days. Indeed, wagers like that, and the Up And Down bets that make them possible, are not even offered by many online bookies. As such, the vast majority of punters, certainly ones who favour the internet, will just not be familiar with them. Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s, Yankees and Super Yankees, however, are wagers that the average punter may well be familiar with. Given that, we will focus our explanation of what a Super Flag is by explaining how it differs from a Super Yankee.
Quite simply, a Super Flag takes the same five selections as a Super Yankee but instead of being made up of 26 individual bets, it comprises 46. The extra 20 bets come thanks to 10 Up And Down bets, each of those 10 being made up of two separate bets. As we have already covered the concept of Up And Down wagers in the dedicated article linked to above, and also in our piece on a Flag bet, we will only offer a brief explanation here. As such, if you need further clarity, check out those two articles.
10 Up and Downs in Super Flag
As we can see from the table above, with the five selections included in a Super Flag it is possible to create 10 different doubles. With a double, both legs must win for you to see any return. A Super Flag uses those same 10 combinations of two legs to create 10 Up And Down bets. With an Up And Down Bet, only one of the two legs must win in order to get anything back from the bookie.
As said, we look at this type of wager in more detail in a dedicated article but in short an Up And Down bet works as follows:
- Wager features two legs, or selections
- Bet consists of two singles, each with two parts
- If one leg wins you will get a return
- Both selections must win for all four parts of the overall wager to be successful
- If the first bet wins, the stake is retained
- Net win over and above that is staked on the second selection as a new single
- The same applies to the second selection
- Such bets are also known as “if cash” or “any-to-come” bets
An Up And Down (UAD) bet requires a separate stake for each component part, so a £10 UAD will cost you £20. A successful UAD will return more than two standard £10 singles but less than a straight-up £20 double. On the other hand, if only one of your picks wins, placing two singles is marginally better than placing the UAD.
Bets Excluded from a Super Flag
As discussed in many of our other multiples and acca features, you can place a Super Flag bet on just about anything. It can be a mix of sports and markets, five selections from the same sport and market (for example both teams to score in five separate Premier League games), and it can also include picks at any odds.
However, as with all bets that include some form of accumulator, any probabilistically related markets cannot be included. The bookies term these related contingencies and often, though not always, it means bets on the same game or race, such as one horse to win and a different horse to place; or a team to win and one of their players to score two or more goals.
Super Flag Conclusion
With apologies to Super Flag fans everywhere, a Super Flag is, most likely, a bet that you will never make. To the best of our knowledge, no online betting sites accept a Super Flag, or at the very least, they cannot be placed solely online in a fully automated way. They have always been a fairly niche wager and with fewer and fewer of us betting on the high street, that has become ever more the case.
If you want to try a Super Flag then heading into a physical shop is almost certainly your best bet. Look for a cashier who seems like they have worked there for at least 20 years or you may well draw a blank! Alternatively, you could get on live chat and see if your preferred online betting site is able to offer such a bet manually, though we suspect this may not be possible.
Net Win Comparisons
Ultimately a Super Flag is not all that different to a Lucky 31 and given you can place the latter easily online, that may be the best avenue to explore. Let us look at how the two bets compare in terms of net win. For ease of comparison, we will look at a bet where all five selections are priced at odds of evens, the total stake is around £46 (so this will be £1 per line on a Super Flag and £1.48 on a Lucky 31 – giving the latter a total stake of £45.88).
We will compare the overall net win based on getting all five legs correct, three right, and also just one. Please also note that the comparison below does not include the bonuses that might be available on either all-right Lucky 31s, or on one-right bets.
| Bet | Winning Selections | Net Win |
|---|---|---|
| Super Flag | 5 | £246 |
| Lucky 31 | 5 | £312.28 |
| Super Flag | 3 | -£2 |
| Lucky 31 | 3 | -£7.40 |
| Super Flag | 1 | -£42 |
| Lucky 31 | 1 | -£42.92 |
As you can see, a Lucky 31 is certainly a pretty good stand-in for a Super Flag. It would pay significantly more should you land all five predictions (and even more, £383.91, if there was a 20% bonus). With just one selection correct there is very little difference and, again, if you did use a bookie with a Lucky 31 offer, a double-odds, one-winner consolation would make the more common better (you would only lose £41.44). The table below shows a similar comparison but this time we have increased the odds of each selection to 10/1.
| Bet | Winning Selections | Net Win |
|---|---|---|
| Super Flag | 5 | £249,150 |
| Lucky 31 | 5 | £368,224 |
| Super Flag | 3 | £1,834 |
| Lucky 31 | 3 | £2,510.08 |
| Super Flag | 1 | -£6 |
| Lucky 31 | 1 | -£29.60 |
Once again, the Super Flag fares better the fewer selections you get right but it is noticeable that here the Lucky 31 delivers substantially more even if you only win three of your five legs. With just two right the Super Flag has the upper hand, just (£177 versus £165.76) but there really isn’t much in it.
Whilst a Super Flag may be something you read about or hear crop up in conversation, the merits of placing it – even if you can find a bookie to accept the bet – are questionable. If you are tempted, we would say the best option is to instead place a Lucky 31 with a bookmaker that offers an all-right bonus, a one-right consolation enhancement or, ideally, both!