What is a Trixie in Betting? Complete Trixie Betting Guide 2024

By

Joseph Yarnold

Joseph Yarnold Gambling Journalist

Joe Yarnold joined the Basketball Insiders team in October 2021, as a content editor and writer. He obtained his Master’s degree from Framingham State University and has experience writing educational and explanatory articles on all forms of gambling. Although he specializes in casino gaming, NFL, soccer and NBA betting, he has well-rounded knowledge and insight of most sports. His expertise also include researching and analyzing the latest federal and state gambling laws and regulations in the US.

All posts by Joseph Yarnold

Gambling Journalist

Updated 15 Nov 2023

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A Trixie bet is a multi-bet method similar to a parlay but has some key differences. With a parlay bet, you are betting on multiple outcomes all on a single bet which means if one of your choices loses you win nothing. Trixie betting involves outcomes of three events but there are four bets placed meaning if one of your choices was wrong you still win. Four bets make up a Trixie, three doubles, and one triple.

How Does a Trixie Bet Work?

A Trixie bet consists of four bets across three selections. The bets are made up of three doubles and one treble. In order for your Trixie bet to be a winner at least two of your selections must be correct. We have used horse racing as an example in our first table and the four bets that would be in our Trixie across three separate races. It’s important to remember that as a Trixie contains four bets your bet stake is multiplied by four.

Trixies betting can just as easily be used on any sport and the bet types remain the same. Below is an example of a Trixie bet across three NBA games. Our bet involves the three selections; LA Lakers beating the Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks beating the Bulls and Boston Celtics beating the Knicks.

In both our horse racing and basketball Trixie bet examples, we only need two of our selections to be correct to be a winner. For example, if the Bucks and the Celtics both win but the Lakers lose we would win bet number 3 but not bet 1,2, and 4. Obviously, the potential winnings would be much greater were all the selections to be correct as then all four of our bets in the Trixie are winners.

What Are the Advantages of Trixie Bets?

One of the main benefits of a Trixie bet is that you can increase your potential rewards, particularly on selections with short odds.  Let’s say you have three horses that you want to bet on in three separate races. If each one is +100 and you bet a $5 stake ($20 total) on a Trixie you would make $80 profit if all three won. If you were to bet on three singles splitting your $20 evenly of $6.50 ($19.50 total) your profits would be $19.50.

The other option you have is placing a parlay and combing all three choices into one single bet. Were you to place your $20 parlay bet on the three selections above, all of which have +100 odds, then your potential profit is $120, more than the Trixie. however, if one horse failed to win you would lose $20, but with the Trixie you would break even, in some cases should the odds be longer you can still even make a profit.

How to Work Out Your Return From a Trixie

When you fill out your Trixie bet selection, sportsbooks will automatically calculate the odds and display the payout for their bet. You will find some sites do not have an automatic Trixie bet builder tool and you will need to manually make the three doubles and one treble bet of your Trixie, you can simply add up the total payout of each bet to get your potential payout if all selections are correct.

There are times when you might like to work out your own odds for a Trixie. Calculating the odds for a Trixie can appear confusing, especially when using American odds. Converting odds to decimal format make it much simpler and to do this you can either change the display format at your online sportsbook, use a free odds converter online or convert them yourself using the simple formulas below:

For favorites:

(100/American odds) + 1 = decimal odds

For underdogs:

(American odds/100)+ 1 = decimal odds

As a Trixie bet is made up of four bets you will need to calculate the odds of each bet and then add them together to get your total payout if all four are correct. We have laid out an example below using three NBA games.

The first thing we need to do is convert the odds into decimals:

• Bucks win (100/300) + 1 = 1.33
• Celtics win (100/150) + 1 = 1.67
• Grizzlies win (150/100)+ 1 = 2.5

Once you have the decimals you just multiply them together to get the odds. Then you multiply your stake by the odds to see your potential payout remember to minus whatever your stake is out from the total to see the profits.

We have provided an example below using three NBA games to give you a clearer understanding. We will stake $10 on each multiple in our Trixie bet so $40 total.

Bet 1 Double: Bucks and Celtics win

1.33 x 1.67 = 2.21

Potential payout: $10 x 2.221 = $22.21

Potential profit: $22.21 payout  – $10 stake = $12.21 profit

Bet 2 Double: Bucks and Grizzlies win

1.33 x 2.5 = 3.325

Potential payout: $10 x 3.325 = $33.25

Potential profit: $33.25 payout  – $10 stake = $23.25profit

Bet 3 Double: Grizzlies and Celtics win

2.5 x 1.67 = 4.175

Potential payout: $10 x 4.175= $41.75

Potential profit: $41.75 payout  – $10 stake = $31.75

Bet 4 Treble: All three selections win

2.5 x 1.67 x 1.33 = 5.553

Potential payout: $10 x 5.553= $55.53

Potential profit: $55.53 payout  – $10 stake = $45.53

Now you have the odds and potential payouts of each bet in the Trixie you add up all the totals to see what you would make if all three selections were correct

$22.21 + $33.25 + $41.75 + $55.53 = $152.72

So our payout total, if each team wins is $152.72 and we can minus our $40 total stake to give us a profit of $112.72.

If one of the teams loses then we would lose 3 bets and win one and you would just get the one payout. For example, if the Bucks failed to win we would only win Bet 3 which had a payout of $41.74. We would need to remove our full $40 stake leaving us with a profit of $1.75 which isn’t much, but better than losing $40 which we would have if we had placed a parlay.

What is a Perm in Betting?

Perm or permutations in betting are simply a combination of bets to cover multiple outcomes. There are multiple forms of perms in betting with Trixie being one of them. Other popular Permutation bets are patents, Yankees, and Lucky 15s. All perm bets will involve doubles and triples and some will involve singles, four-folds, and even higher.

Trixie vs. Patent Betting

Patent betting a Trixie betting are incredibly similar as both require you to make multiple bets across three selections. The big difference is that with a patent bet, you place seven bets three singles, three doubles, and one treble. On the other hand, a Trixie is just four bets the three doubles, and one treble.

Patent bets are well-suited to bets if the odds on the singles bets are high enough to warrant making them. If the singles odds are quite low you are often better off saving the money on the singles bets and placing a higher stake on the doubles and the treble bet of a Trixie.

What is the Difference Between a Trixie and a Treble?

A Trixie and a Treble both involve making three selections across three separate events. However, with a treble, you are making one single bet. All your selections must be correct for you to win. With a Trixie, you are placing multiple bets made up of 3 double bets and one treble. This means that if two of your three selections are correct you still win on one of your doubles bets.

Can You Bet On Trixies Each-Way

Yes, you can place each-way bets on certain sports like racing. However, an each-way Trixie bet will double your stake. You can check out our each-way betting guide to find out more information on the topic.

Best Sports For Trixie Betting

While Trixie bets are most popular with horse racing bettors they can be placed on a whole range of sports and provide the same type of benefits. Below we will run through some of the most popular sports for Trixie betting at top sportsbooks.

Horse racing

The Trixie bet is extremely popular with horse racing bettors as there is often an outright favorite and placing a singles bet on them doesn’t provide the best returns, placing a Trixie bet significantly increases your potential profits. In addition, you can make use of each way Trixie bets on longer odds horses thus increasing your profits but having the safety of not needing your horses to win outright.

Football

When NFL betting you will find that as the league has a lot of talented teams, many games are hard to call so the moneyline odds on certain games aren’t always that appealing to bettors. By utilizing a Trixie bet, you can significantly increase your potential winnings.

Basketball

In basketball particularly in the NBA and NCAAB shock results are a fairly common occurrence, even a team sitting bottom of its conference has the potential to beat a team near the top. With an NBA betting Trixie you could place a bet on two favorites and one underdog so that if the underdog loses but the two favored teams you bet on win your losses are reduced or potentially you could even still make a profit.

Soccer

Much like basketball, soccer betting can be risky as it is full of surprising results and Trixie bets add more security than just placing a three-game parlay. Any regular bettor on soccer will have tons of stories where they placed a parlay and lost out by just one selection and you can negate this problem with Trixie betting.

Baseball

With 2430 Major League Baseball games in one season baseball offers up a huge amount of Trixie MLB betting opportunities and like other sports, you can increase your returns while having a bit more safety than just placing a parlay.

Tips For Trixie Bets

While Trixie bets give you more security than placing a straight-up treble because one of your selections can be wrong and your bet is still a winner, there is also more risk as you have to lay out 4 x the stake. We have laid out our five top tips for making a profit with Trixie betting.

1. Do Your Research

This is more general advice for any bets you make but it’s essential before placing any wager to research the horse, player, or team you are betting on. Look at recent form, player injuries, or in horse racing check the ground firmness and how the horse historically runs on that type of ground. It’s also a good idea to utilize expert picks and predictions that you can find on this website and many others for free.

2. Take it Slow

If you are new to Trixie bets don’t jump right in at the deep end and start betting huge amounts. Try placing a few bets at the minimum stakes or much lower than you would usually place. Once you’ve got the hang of it and have worked out the intricacies of Trixies then you can start to up the amount of your wager.

3. Manage your Bankroll

Again this is good advice whatever betting you are taking part in but it’s vitally important when placing multiple bets like Trixies. Remember whatever you stake for a Trixie is multiplied by four so that can add up quickly. You need to work out an amount that you can afford to lose every week or month and set limits and stick diligently to these limits.

Once you have these limits work out how much you can stake on every bet as it’s not good to blow your whole weekly or monthly limit in one go. A good amount to wager on a bet is somewhere between 1-5% of your bankroll.

4. Know When to Make use of Each Way Trixies

This is specifically for when betting on horse racing and other forms of racing. If your selections all have fairly long odds then placing each way Trixies are a good choice as it gives you even more security as your selections don’t have to win outright. However, an each way Trixie bet isn’t a great choice if all your selections are at short odds, if one of your horses fails to place and you still win one double bet you will most likely still lose money.

5. Know When to Use a Patent Bet Instead of a Trixie

We went over the difference between these two bet types earlier and the odds on your selections will determine which one is the better option. If two or three of your selections have long odds it might be a good idea to use a patent bet and include the three singles bets as even if only one of your three selections is correct you can still turn a profit. If the odds of your selections are short you are better served saving your stake to place on the doubles and treble of a Trixie bet.

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