What is a Yankee bet and how does it work?

Betting terminology can be confusing, especially when you are gambling on multiple outcomes from different events.

If you are unfamiliar with bet types, heads can start to spin when confronted with words like accumulator, Patent, Trixie or Lucky 15, so we are here to clear up the meaning of one of them; the Yankee.

A Yankee bet is traditionally associated with horse racing, but it can be applied to multiple sports as we explain below. 

Yankee bet explained 

The Yankee bet meaning has nothing to do with placing a stake on American sports and everything to do with a particular kind of wager involving four selections.

A punter may feel confident that A, B, C and D are all going to win their respective races or matches, but instead of backing them in singles the returns are higher if they are permed in combinations. 

We will go through how to place a Yankee bet later in the article but for now all you need to know is that it involves covering four picks in doubles, trebles and one four-fold.

These three elements come to 11 bets overall in the following permutations:

• x6 Doubles
• x4 Trebles
• x1 Four-fold or accumulator

Notice that singles are excluded from a Yankee bet, so if just one of the legs placed on a betting site is successful, unfortunately you will not receive any kind of return.

However, if at least two selections win then a return is guaranteed, although not necessarily a profit because it depends on the size of the odds.

For example, let’s say A, B, C and D are all 2/1 to win their respective football matches and after weighing up your options you decide to go with a £1 Yankee on all four teams which involves 11 bets, covering doubles, trebles and a four-fold at a cost of £11.

In our Yankee bet example, only Team A and Team B win, so the next stage is to figure out the returns. 

You may wish to use an odds calculator to help work out how much you would win - the best accumulator betting sites will provide this for you - but this example is fairly straightforward. 

Two winners at 2/1 would return £9 for which the calculation would be as follows:

•  (Odds + 1) x (Odds + 1) = Return.

The return is (2 + 1) x (2 +1) = £9.

In this example you would have made a loss of £2 from your £11 outlay, but if the odds on the two winning teams had been higher at, say, 3/1 then you would have ensured a return of £16 and thus a profit of £5. 

The calculation in this example would be (3 + 1) x (3 + 1) = £16 return from £11 outlay.

Obviously, the more teams that win, the bigger the return and working out your winnings becomes more complicated, but betting apps calculate it for you so your brain doesn’t have to work overtime.

If you want to know how many doubles and trebles would pay out if teams A, B and D won, for example, check out those in bold below which highlight four successful legs:

• x6 Doubles: AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD
• x4 Trebles: ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD
• x1 Four-fold: ABCD

In the above example, where A, B, C and D are all 2/1, the returns from a £1 unit stake would be as follows: 

• Treble: (2 +1) x (2 +1) x (2 + 1) = £27
• Doubles: AB £9 + AD £9 + BD £9 = £27
• Total return from the Yankee bet is £27 + £27 = £54
• Profit = £43 from an £11 outlay (£54 - £11 = £43)

However, placing a £1 Yankee on a football betting site in which all four teams win at 2/1 would pay out on all 11 bets - a return of £243 for a £232 profit.

We have provided a Yankee bet football as our example, but of course you can go with any sport you like such as tennis, basketball or darts, although the most popular is horse racing.

That’s probably because the returns on horse racing are more likely to be higher than on sports which only have two or three outcomes if placing a wager on the match result.

Finding four winners can be a difficult task and a glance at horse racing betting sites show that fields can have up to 14 runners or more, so with a greater number of potential winners, the odds will necessarily be higher.

How to place a Yankee bet

Even new betting sites have developed the technology to place a Yankee with minimal fuss, so whether you like football, horse racing or enjoying mixing different bet types across various sports, the process is simple.

Once you have made your selections, the bet slip usually displays an accumulator/four-fold box in which all your picks must win, but there will also be a ‘multiples’ option with a mixture of bet types, one of which will be a Yankee.

Some gambling sites display only the cost of your total stake for the unit you have chosen, but others also show the potential pay-out before you decide to place a bet, which is really useful.

For those who like picking outsiders in horse racing in the hope of landing a big pay-out for low unit stakes, there is also an each-way option, although it’s worth bearing in mind this type of Yankee comes to 22 bets.

The principle remains the same with an each-way Yankee bet, so you would still need at least two legs to win or be placed to guarantee a return.

How to get free bets for Cheltenham Festival 2024

This BetMGM Cheltenham welcome offer is one of the best available for Cheltenham 2024.

Open to new BetMGM players only, the offer can be claimed after opening an account and placing a £10 bet on their Cheltenham odds at 1/1 (2.0) or greater.

Once this bet is settled you will receive £60 credit in the form of six £10 free bets. Four of these are specifically horse racing free bets while the other two can only be used on accumulators with minimum odds of 3/1.

Meanwhile, BetMGM offer Best Odds Guaranteed betting and this feature extends to the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.