A Trixie bet involves four combination bets on three selections: three full-cover doubles and one treble. Two of the selections must win to secure a return.

In this article, we explain how and when to place Trixies at online betting sites.

How Does a Trixie Bet Work?

Because there are four components in a Trixie bet, the total cost is four times your unit stake, so a ￡10 Trixie would cost ￡40.

Here are the four bets that make up a Trixie:

• Three cross-doubles (1&2 + 1&3 + 2&3)
• One treble (1 + 2 + 3)

Example of a Trixie Bet

To fully grasp how a Trixie works, let's take a look at a real-life example from one of our recommended best horse racing betting sites:

• Selection 1: Stolen Silver (2.30 Chepstow) – 4/1
• Selection 2: Universal Folly (2.45 Hexham) – 3/1
• Selection 3: Fair Angellica (4.25 Newmarket) – 15/2

In this example, all three selections won their respective races, meaning a ￡10 Trixie bet costing ￡40 would have returned ￡2,602.

Let's break down how this is calculated:

Cross-Doubles

Note: We've used decimal odds here to simplify the calculations.

• Stolen Silver/Universal Folly - ￡200.00 (￡10 x 5.0 x 4.0)
• Stolen Silver/Fair Angelica - ￡425 (￡10 x 5.0 x 8.5)
• Universal Folly/Fair Angelica - ￡340.00 (￡10 x 4.0 x 8.5)

Doubles Total: ￡965 (￡200 + ￡425 + ￡340)

Treble

• Stolen Silver/Universal Folly/Fair Angelica - ￡1700 (￡10 x 5.0 x 4.0 x 8.5)

Total: ￡2,665.00 (￡965 + ￡1700)

What Sports Can I Place Trixies on?

A Trixie bet is most commonly associated with horse racing, but it can be applied to any sport where there are multiple events taking place.

Trixie bets also allow you to cross sporting lines. They work well for tennis and rugby bets and they can also be a great way to combine shorter-priced selections at top football betting sites.  

You don’t even have to stick to sport – if you want one of your selections to be the winner of Strictly Come Dancing or even the next Prime Minister, you can use a Trixie bet.

Let’s take a look at another Trixie bet example, this time based on three football matches.

• Selection 1: Arsenal to beat Manchester City – 15/8 (WON)
• Selection 2: Lazio to beat Atalanta – 15/8 (WON)
• Selection 3: Barcelona to win at Granada – 2/5 (LOST)

In this example, two of the three selections won, meaning a ￡10 Trixie bet (costing ￡40 in total), would have returned ￡82.94. 

•  Arsenal/Lazio - ￡82.94 (￡10 x 2.88 x 2.88)

How Does Each-Way Trixie Betting Work?

With each-way trixie bets on racing, you can profit without actually backing a winner, as your selections only need to place to get a return.

If you are going to combine each-way selections in a Trixie, then you will double its cost: A ￡5 Trixie on three win-only bets, for example, would cost ￡20. Whereas a ￡5 Trixie bet on three each-way selections would cost ￡40.

When it comes to the place payout of your each-way selection, industry standards dictate that you will generally be paid out at 1/5 of the odds, although you will generally get 1/4 odds on races with 4-7 runners, as well as some of the more prestigious handicap races.

Read More: Get Grand National free bets for this year's race

Trixie Bet v Patent

The main difference between these two bet types is that a Patent includes three singles as well as three doubles and a treble. 

With this in mind, a total Patent stake would be seven times your unit stake, while a Trixie is just four times the unit stake.

The advantage of the Patent is that if you were to have just one winner, you would still bag a return, unlike a Trixie bet, which requires two correct selections to secure any return.