Internationals / Matthew Walton / 12 November 2009 /

Trixies, trebles and the joys of Betfair's To Qualify market - Matthew Walton explains how you can add up your World Cup play-off bets into a profitable multiple...

Doubles, trebles, accumulators and yankees. For some punters little more than a 'fun bet' employed to add a little extra interest into a set of odds which would otherwise offer very little incentive to get involved. For others, worthwhile methods to boost returns (often for a small outlay) as all manner of individual wagers are combined into a single, big value, multiple bet.

However, whatever your personal view, it's undeniable these bets can make you a profit and a total ignorance of their existence, or disregard of their potential, could prove costly.

Looking ahead to this weekend's World Cup play-offs we have a number of examples which illustrate how these multiple bets can be best utilised on Betfair.

The ties (Eire-France, Greece-Ukraine, Russia-Slovenia, Portugal-Bosnia) will determine the last four European qualifiers for South Africa 2010, first legs played this Saturday.

In the match betting many punters will latch onto the supposed 'good things' playing at home - namely Portugal and Russia. Individually [1.36] and [1.5] they may offer little appeal except to the industry's traditional 'heavy hitters'.

On the other hand, the double pays the better side of evens at [2.04] which will provide peace of mind to those who prefer not to back odds-on or don't like to bet in very large sums in order to make any kind of meaningful return. And, on the form, Portugal and Russia look strong prospects to win at home this weekend.

As for the other two matches, given their potentially close nature, backing the draw in both Ireland and Greece combines to make a payout just shy of [9.50]. Here a small outlay would still produce a substantial profit. Like all these bets, it's a balance of risk and reward but these examples show that bets can be found, or manufactured, to suit every personal betting style.

The use of multiple bets is of course infinite. Any number of scenarios can be combined to produce one payout (should all succeed of course).

The over/under 2.5 goals market offers the opportunity to add further elements to the overall bet.

Here we should remind ourselves that the form surrounding these matches is pretty thin on the ground. Portugal and Bosnia have never met before, Russia and Slovenia have met just three times, Greece and Ukraine on four occasions. France and Eire have met 14 times since 1928.

Irrespective of this fact, tense and hard-fought first legs are to be expected. The under 2.5 goals being very attractive in the Eire/France tie [1.54] and Greece/Ukraine [1.58] but the double would only pay around [2.50]. Add in the over 2.5 goals for Portugal against the free-scoring (and quite free-conceding) Bosnia, at [1.86], and you've got a treble that pays over [4.50].

Go a step further and you can combine the three into a trixie (4 bets - 3 doubles, 1 treble) or a patent (7 bets - 3 singles, 3 doubles, 1 treble). Both showing decent returns if all the selections win and the safety net of the single bets means that some form of return is almost guaranteed.

The natural progression from here is to consider all four matches collectively and the best way to do this is with the 'To Qualify' market.

This example highlights another factor of multiple bets - that backers tend to put more selections into a combined bet when the odds are shorter. Most will probably do so with the four favourites - Russia [1.23], Portugal [1.35], France [1.37] and Ukraine [1.77] - to make total odds of about [4.0].

Variations of the four bet format (yankees, Lucky 15's etc) can also be placed but the very short odds in this scenario may well push backers more towards the 'all in' approach of backing all four sides in just one bigger priced bet.

Overall, multiple bets have their time and place in just the same way as single win, or even lay, bets. Why not explore their worth on Betfair this weekend.

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