In the world of sports betting, multiple selection bets are one of the most popular forms of low risk/high reward betting. Every week, countless punters will place accumulator and other multiple selection bets across a wide range of sports in the hope of turning a relatively small stake, into a considerably larger return.
Before we take a look at whether it is possible to enjoy multiple selection betting in Virtual Sports, let’s first acquaint ourselves with the different types of multiple selection bets available.
- Forecast/Tricast bets
Forecast and Tricast bets differ from other multiple selection bets as all the selections you make for this type of bet come from just one race (as opposed to other types of multiple selection bets which require more than one race).
With the Forecast bet, you are aiming to pick the horses that finish first and second in the race, with the tricast bet, this extends to the horses finishing first, second and third.
One nice option is that you can back this bet either as a single line bet (where you must predict which horse finishes 1st and 2nd or 1st, 2nd and 3rd in that stated order alone), or as an Each Way or multiple line option (where you can pick two or three horses and if they finish 1st and 2nd, or 1st, 2nd and 3rd in any order, then you would win).
- Accumulator
An accumulator is when you put together a number of different selections from different races or matches and each of your selections must win in order for your bet to be successful. If they do win, then the odds on each selection will ‘accumulate’ with each successful bet until you receive your payout.
Accumulators comprising of two or three selections are known as Doubles and Trebles, however for accumulators of four or more selections, these are known simply as accumulators (or accas) or as fourfold, fivefold, sixfold accumulators, based on the number of selections made on the bet.
A standard accumulator is a single line bet where all your selections must be winners in order for your bet to be a winner.
- Full Cover Bets
A Full Cover bet is a multiple selection bet over a number of races or matches, where every possible combination of selections is covered by the bet. So, for example, if a punter added three selections to their bet slip and wanted to place a full cover bet they would place a stake on the following.
- Selection A and B winning
- Selection B and C winning
- Selection A and C winning
- Selections A, B and C winning
As you can see, this bet requires a larger number of lines to be covered, so if your unit stake for this bet was £1, then to cover all four lines, your total stake would be £4.
Full cover bets also have names based on the number of selections and lines in the bet. These are outlined the table below:
| Full Cover Bet | No of Selections | Number of Lines | What the bet comprises of |
| Trixie | 3 | 4 | 3 Doubles, 1 Treble |
| Yankee | 4 | 11 | 6 Doubles, 4 Trebles, 1 Fourfold |
| Super Yankee (or Canadian) | 5 | 26 | 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 Fourfolds, 1 Fivefold |
| Heinz | 6 | 57 | 15 Doubles, 20 Trebles, 15 Fourfolds, 6 Fivefolds, 1 Sixfold |
| Super Heinz | 7 | 120 | 21 Doubles, 35 Trebles, 35 Fourfolds, 21 Fivefolds, 7 Sixfolds, 1 Sevenfold |
| Goliath | 8 | 247 | 28 Doubles, 56 Trebles, 70 Fourfolds, 56 Fivefolds, 28 Sixfolds, 8 Sevenfolds, 1 Eightfold |
- Full Cover With Singles Bets
As the name suggests, Full Cover Bets with Singles are the same as Full Cover Bets outlined above, only with each selection also covered by a single bet on that selection winning on its own. Again, this means that there are more lines to cover with this bet, which will increase the overall cost of a bet.
There are generally four types of Full Cover Bets with Singles and these are listed in the table below.
| Full Cover With Singles Bet Name | No of Selections | Number of Lines | What the bet comprises of |
| Patent | 3 | 7 | 3 Singles, 3 Doubles, 1 Treble |
| Lucky 15 | 4 | 15 | 4 Singles, 6 Doubles, 4 Trebles, 1 Fourfold |
| Lucky 31 | 5 | 31 | 5 Singles, 10 Doubles, 10 Trebles, 5 Fourfolds, 1 Fivefold |
| Lucky 63 | 6 | 63 | 6 Singles, 15 Doubles, 20 Trebles, 15 Fourfolds, 6 Fivefolds, 1 Sixfold |
Can I use Multiple Selection bets in Virtual Sports?
First off, we know that Forecast and Tricast bets are available across a range of Virtual Sports as they are one of the main options you can bet on for any race-based Virtual, so there’s a big tick already next to both of these types of multiple selection bets.
To ascertain if you can use other multiple selection bets with Virtual Sports, we checked out what is available at Betway’s extensive Virtual Sports betting service.
To demonstrate this we made four random selections from four consecutive races on the Betway Virtual Horseracing service as shown in the top screen shot.
The good news for punters is that underneath the four options available for Single Bets, there is a section specifically for multiple bets and as you can see from the screenshot, you can make a number of different bets.
Doubles covers all the possible doubles you can make from the four selections, trebles is all the trebles you can make, while the fourfold is a straight up accumulator with all four selections winning. Alternatively you can back the Yankee bet, which covers all the 11 options outlined in the previous three bets.
You will also notice that there is an Each Way box which you can select which will allow you to land a win if your selection(s) finish in the paying places in a race, however this will double the size of your total bet if selected and the amount you could win would be considerably less if your horse places, rather than wins a race.
As you can see from the screenshot above, if you extend your number of selections to eight, then you can still place the Goliath bet, which is good news for any punter that fancies taking on the long odds you can get when multiple selection betting on Virtual Sports.
