Nobody settles a Goliath by hand, which is exactly why a Goliath bet calculator exists. Eight selections, 247 bets, every double right through to one eight-fold. There are no singles. £1 a bet costs £247, and the free calculator above works out what that slip is worth however the day goes.
It’s preloaded with eight prices from 6/4 to 5/1. Set each one to won, lost, placed or void.
Goliath bet calculator: the 247 bets
| Part of the bet | Bets |
|---|---|
| 28 doubles | 28 |
| 56 trebles | 56 |
| 70 four-folds | 70 |
| 56 five-folds | 56 |
| 28 six-folds | 28 |
| 8 seven-folds | 8 |
| 1 eight-fold | 1 |
| Total | 247 |
Each way it’s 494 bets. At 50p each way you’re still putting £247 on.
Returns from two winners up to eight
With the eight prices loaded above and £1 a bet:
- One winner: nothing. A Goliath has no singles, so one winner can’t pay.
- Two winners (2/1 and 5/2): £10.50 from a single double.
- Three: £78.50, less than a third of the stake.
- Four: £323.25, the first result that beats the £247.
- Five: £2,005.75.
- All eight: £210,822.13.
Look at three winners again. Three of your eight came in at decent prices and you’re still £168.50 down. A Goliath really needs half your picks to win, which is a big ask on a Saturday afternoon. Plenty of people take it at 10p or 20p a line for that reason: 20p a bet is £49.40 and the shape of the returns is exactly the same, just a fifth of the size.
Each way, Rule 4 and non-runners
Each way adds the full 247 again as place bets, so every combination of winners and placed horses pays at the place terms. That makes a mix like three winners and three placed far kinder than three winners on their own.
A non-runner is a void leg. It counts as odds of 1.0 in all 127 bets it appears in, so the eight-fold settles as a seven-fold and so on. Late withdrawals and dead heats go in under the extra options.
Fewer picks? Seven is a Super Heinz, six is a Heinz and six with singles is a Lucky 63. All of them are in the bet calculator.
247 small stakes are still £247. Pick a line stake you’d be fine losing in full. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential if it stops being fun.