A Yankee is the Lucky 15’s tighter cousin. Same four picks, but no singles, so it’s 11 bets instead of 15. The Yankee calculator above shows you what that difference does to your returns, because it’s not always what people expect.
Try it with evens, 6/4, 2/1 and 3/1, £1 a line, £11 in total. All four win: £197.50. Three win (the 3/1 loses): £33.50. Two win, the evens and the 2/1: just £6, so you’re £5 down even though half your picks came in.
Put the same picks in a Lucky 15 and those two winners return £11 for £15. Still a loss, just a smaller one. The singles cost you £4 and they’re there for exactly this kind of afternoon.
What the Yankee calculator counts
- 6 doubles
- 4 trebles
- 1 four-fold
With one winner, you get nothing. Two winners land one double. Three winners land three doubles and a treble. That jump is why Yankees feel all-or-nothing: the money is in the third and fourth winners.
Each way Yankee
Tick each way and you’re on 22 bets, £22 at £1 a line. The place lines use the place terms you choose, normally 1/4 or 1/5 of the odds. Two horses placing pays one place double, which rarely covers the stake. Each way Yankees make most sense on bigger prices, roughly 5/1 and up, where the place part still has a bit of value.
The formula
Yankee return = stake × ((1 + a)(1 + b)(1 + c)(1 + d) − 1 − a − b − c − d)
Decimal odds for winners, 0 for losers, 1 for non-runners. It’s the Lucky 15 sum with the four singles taken back out.
So which one? If you genuinely fancy all four, the Yankee is cheaper for the same top-end payout. If you’re hoping, rather than expecting, the Lucky 15 is kinder to you. With three picks, it’s a Trixie.
Only bet what you’d be fine losing on the day. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential if it stops being fun.