Swinger Bet Calculator: Lines, Cost & Returns

Your swinger

Stake per line (£)

Horses in your perm

Of those, finished in the first three

Dividend or fixed odds per £1 (incl. stake)For decimal odds, enter them as they are. Leave at 0 until the result.

Lines and returns

Total cost–

Lines (pairs)–

Winning lines–

Your return–

Profit–

Lines = number of pairs from your horses = n × (n − 1) ÷ 2. Winning lines = pairs among your horses that finished first, second or third: 1 pair with two, 3 pairs with three. Return = winning lines × dividend × stake per line.

Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
Tested by Diana Westfield

Updated 10 Nov 2026How we calculate →

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A swinger bet is for the race where you like two horses but wouldn’t bet your house on either winning. You only need both of them in the first three, in any order. Back Cobalt Lad and Midnight Rose and you’re paid if they finish first and third, second and third, whatever, so long as neither misses the frame. The free CasinoCalcs swinger bet calculator works out what a perm costs and what it returns. Three horses make three pairs, four make six, five make ten, and every pair is its own line.

Swinger bet calculator: lines and payouts

Three horses at £2 a line costs £6. If two of them place you’ve got one winning pair. If all three fill the places, all three pairs win. Suppose the pair pays 6.4 including your stake: one line comes back as £12.80, all three as £38.40. It gets fiddly with bigger perms, which is what the calculator is for. A five-horse swinger at £1 is ten lines, £10 in total.

Two versions exist. Pool swingers pay a dividend announced after the race, which depends on how many others picked the same pair. Fixed-odds swingers pay the price you took. Either way, type in the return per £1 with stake included and the sums work the same.

Swinger, forecast or each way?

Think of the swinger as halfway between a forecast and a pair of each way bets. A forecast wants the exact one-two and pays a lot more for it. Two each way bets pay separately, so if one horse places and the other doesn’t, you still get something back. The swinger wants both placed and pays one combined price. It’s at its best when you’ve found two that should run well but you can’t see either beating the favourite.

It isn’t always on offer. Pool swingers have come and gone over the years, and not every bookie prices a fixed-odds one. When yours doesn’t, a reverse forecast or two each way singles are the closest thing.

Small perms, small stakes. BeGambleAware.org has free support if racing stops being fun.

Frequently asked questions

What is a swinger bet?

A bet that two horses both finish in the first three places of a race, in any order. It started as a tote pool bet and some bookmakers offer a fixed-odds version.

How many lines is a swinger perm?

Every pair of the horses you pick. Three horses make 3 lines, four make 6, five make 10.

How is a swinger paid?

In a pool, by the declared dividend per £1 stake on each winning pair. At fixed odds, by the price you took for the pair.

Is a swinger easier than a forecast?

Yes. A forecast needs the first two in the right order; a swinger only needs both horses somewhere in the first three. The payout is smaller for the same reason.