- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
A 49s bet calculator earns its keep once you stop backing a single number. Put a pound on three numbers at 600/1 in the lunchtime draw and, sure, three hits pays £601. What the board won’t tell you is that three from 49 comes up about once in 921 tries, so over time the bookie pockets roughly 35p of each pound you hand over. Perms and full cover bets are in this free tool as well, and that’s where it really helps, because one slip can hide 7, 15 or 31 separate bets.
49s bet calculator: what the prices are worth
Twice a day the 49s pulls six balls plus a Booster out of 49. It’s a bet with a bookie rather than a lottery ticket: they fix the odds that your numbers turn up among those balls, and every firm picks its own prices, which is why the ones in the table are only examples. Pop the price off your slip into the advanced fields and the rest follows.
| Numbers | True chance (6 balls) | Fair odds | Example price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 in 8.17 | 7.2/1 | 5/1 |
| 2 | 1 in 78.4 | 77/1 | 55/1 |
| 3 | 1 in 921 | 920/1 | 600/1 |
| 4 | 1 in 14,125 | 14,124/1 | 6,000/1 |
| 5 | 1 in 317,814 | 317,813/1 | 100,000/1 |
Look down the last two columns and you’ll see the gap widen as you add numbers. A single number gives away a little over a quarter of its value at 5/1, while a five-number bet at 100,000/1 hands back less than a third of what it’s really worth. That’s why the bigger shots feel so tempting and cost so much.
With or without the Booster
If the Booster counts, seven balls can find your numbers instead of six, so one number lands one time in seven rather than one in 8.17. Bookmakers shorten the price to match. Switch the Booster on in the calculator, put in the with-Booster prices from your slip, and compare the ‘bookie keeps’ line both ways. Sometimes one version is a fair bit kinder than the other, and you only find out by checking.
Perms and full cover bets on the 49s
A perm takes more numbers than one bet needs and backs every combination. Six numbers in doubles makes 15 two-number bets, £15 at £1 each. If three of your six come out, three of those doubles win, and at 55/1 that’s £168 back.
Full cover bets work like the horse racing ones. Three numbers with singles, doubles and the treble is seven bets, the same shape as a Patent. Four numbers covered from singles up is 15 bets, like a Lucky 15, and five numbers is 31. Drop the singles and three numbers become a Trixie-style four bets, four numbers a Yankee-style 11. Run that seven-bet cover at £1 a bet with the example prices and you’re £7 in. If all three numbers turn up, the singles come back at £6 apiece, the doubles at £56 and the treble at £601, which is £787 in your hand.
Bigger covers hit more often, sure, because a lone number still pays. We’d look hard at the total anyway, since every extra bet drags the same margin along with it. The CasinoCalcs calculator shows both the total stake and the average cut for the whole slip, which keeps that honest.
After the draw
Set how many of your numbers came up and the ‘You get back’ line settles the slip. For the Irish draw rather than the 49s, the Irish Lotto bet calculator does the same job, and the bookmaker margin calculator explains where the ‘bookie keeps’ figure comes from.
Keep it to small stakes. No system tilts a number draw your way. If it stops being fun, BeGambleAware.org will talk to you for free, in confidence.