Flag Bet Calculator
A Flag bet on 4 selections at 2.0, 3.0, 2.5, and 4.0 with a 1 dollar stake per bet returns 254.50 dollars if every pick wins, against a 23 dollar total outlay. That is a 231.50 dollar profit from a 23-bet wager most bettors have never fully priced by hand. This Flag bet calculator settles all 23 bets from 4 selections: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 fourfold accumulator, and 6 Single Stakes About (SSA) pairs, which count as 12 separately settled bets. Enter decimal odds for each of your 4 selections, mark each one won or lost, and set your stake per bet. The calculator runs every 2-selection, 3-selection, and 4-selection combination through the standard accumulator rule (all legs in that combination must win for it to pay), then works through each SSA leg on its own terms. An SSA leg is not just a second copy of a double. Only the original stake, not the full return, carries forward from a winning first selection onto the second selection, and the profit from that first leg is banked immediately no matter what the second selection does. The result breaks down exactly where the money came from: how much the doubles paid, how much the trebles paid, what the fourfold returned, and what the 12 SSA legs contributed. You also get a total stake, total returns, total profit or loss, and a count of how many of the 23 bets actually won. That level of detail matters for a Flag bet because even a single winning selection can trigger a small return through the SSA legs, and a mixed result, say 2 winners and 2 losers, can return money from a handful of the smaller combinations even while the bet as a whole shows a loss.
Quick answer
A Flag bet from 4 selections is 23 separate bets: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 fourfold accumulator, and 6 SSA pairs.
Selection 1
Selection 2
Selection 3
Selection 4
This is the unit stake applied to each of the 23 bets, not your total outlay. Total stake is always 23 times this amount.
Total profit or loss
+$231.50
Total stake
$23
Total returns
$254.5
Winning bets (of 23)
23
Doubles returns
$48.5
Trebles returns
$89
Fourfold return
$60
SSA legs returns
$57
Return on stake
1006.52%
What this tells you
- •A Flag bet from 4 selections is 23 separate bets: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 fourfold accumulator, and 6 SSA pairs.
- •Each SSA pair is actually 2 individually settled bets, so the 6 pairs add up to 12 bets, bringing the total to 23.
- •Doubles, trebles, and the fourfold pay only when every selection inside that specific combination wins.
- •Each SSA leg stakes one selection first. If it wins, the profit is paid immediately and only the original stake rolls onto the second selection, so a single winning selection can still return some money.
- •Because a Flag has so many smaller combinations, even one winner can trigger a partial return, and a mixed result can still return some money even when the bet overall shows a loss.
- •All 23 bets share the same stake per bet, so total outlay is always 23 times whatever stake you enter.
How to Use
- 1Enter the decimal odds for each of your 4 selections. Decimal odds should be greater than 1, matching the format most UK and Irish bookmakers display (for example, 2.50 rather than 6/4).
- 2Mark each selection as won or lost based on the actual result.
- 3Enter your stake per bet. This is the unit stake that applies to every one of the 23 bets, not the total amount you are risking.
- 4Click Calculate to see your total stake, total returns, total profit or loss, and how many of the 23 bets won.
- 5Check the breakdown by bet type (doubles, trebles, fourfold, SSA legs) to see exactly where any returns came from.
How It Works
Formula
Combination return = stake x (product of odds of all selections in that combination), paid only if all selections in it won.
SSA leg return = stake x (odds(first) - 1), banked if the first selection won, plus stake x odds(second) on top if the second selection also won.
Total stake = stake x 23. Total profit = total returns - total stake.A Flag bet from 4 selections (call them A, B, C, D) generates 11 accumulator-style combinations: the 6 doubles (AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD), the 4 trebles (ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD), and the 1 fourfold (ABCD). Each of those pays stake times the product of the decimal odds of every selection inside it, but only if every selection in that combination actually won. If one leg of a treble lost, the whole treble returns nothing, same as any standard multiple bet. The remaining 12 bets come from the 6 SSA pairs. Each pair (say A and B) is really 2 separate bets run in opposite order. The first bet stakes the unit stake on A. If A wins, the profit from that win (stake times odds of A, minus the stake itself) is banked immediately, and only the original unit stake, not the full return, carries forward as the stake on B. If B also wins, that second leg adds stake times odds of B on top. If A loses, the second leg never happens and that bet returns zero. The second bet in the pair mirrors this by staking B first and rolling the original stake onto A. This means a single winning selection can still return money through the SSA legs where it is the first selection, even though the overall bet usually needs 2 or more winners to show a profit. Total stake is always 23 times the stake per bet, since that is the fixed bet count for a Flag no matter which selections you use. Total profit is total returns minus total stake, and it can land anywhere from a full loss (nothing wins) to a very large multiple of the stake (everything wins).
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
All 4 selections win
The 6 doubles return $48.50, the 4 trebles return $89, the fourfold returns $60, and the 12 SSA legs return $57 combined, for $254.50 in total returns against a $23 total stake.
All 4 selections lose
With no winners, none of the 11 accumulator combinations can complete and none of the 12 SSA legs can get past their first stage, so every one of the 23 bets loses and the full $23 stake is gone.
Exactly 1 selection wins
None of the 11 accumulator bets (doubles, trebles, fourfold) can complete with only 1 correct selection. But the 3 SSA legs that start with the winning selection each bank stake x (odds - 1) = 1 x (2.00 - 1) = $1 immediately, since only the original stake needed to carry onto the losing second leg, not the full return. That is 3 legs x $1 = $3 total, still a $20 loss on the $23 stake but not a total wipeout.
2 winners, 2 losers
Only the double on selections 1 and 2 survives among the 11 accumulator bets, paying $6. The SSA pair on that same 2 selections lands in both directions for $8 more, since both selections won. The remaining SSA legs where selection 1 or 2 is the first pick against a losing selection each still bank their own smaller profit, adding another $6 across 4 legs. Altogether that is $20 in returns against a $23 stake, a $3 net loss despite 7 of the 23 bets winning something.
How the 23 Flag bets break down
The fixed bet count and structure behind every Flag bet, regardless of which 4 selections you use.
| Bet type | Count | Requirement to pay |
|---|---|---|
| Doubles | 6 | Both selections in that pair must win |
| Trebles | 4 | All 3 selections in that combination must win |
| Fourfold accumulator | 1 | All 4 selections must win |
| SSA legs | 12 (6 pairs x 2 legs each) | First selection in that leg's order must win to bank a return, the second adds more on top if it also wins |
| Total bets | 23 | Total stake is always 23 x stake per bet |
This structure never changes. Only the odds, results, and stake per bet change from one Flag to the next.
Why a Flag is not the same as a Yankee
A Yankee is also built from 4 selections, but it only covers the 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 fourfold, for 11 bets total. A Flag takes that same 11-bet core and adds the 6 SSA pairs on top, bringing the total to 23 bets.
That extra layer is what gives a Flag its reputation as a safer multiple bet. The SSA legs create additional paths to a return, including a small payout from just 1 correct selection, on top of the doubles that already cover pairs. In practice this means a Flag with 2 or more winners often returns more than the same 2 winners would inside a Yankee, since the SSA legs on that winning pair add extra payouts the Yankee does not have.
The tradeoff is stake size. A Flag needs 23 units staked instead of 11, so the extra safety net costs roughly double the outlay of a Yankee built from the same 4 selections.
Common mistakes
- Confusing a Flag with a Yankee or a Canadian (Super Yankee). Those bet types use the same doubles, trebles, and fourfold or fivefold combinations but do not include any SSA bets, so they settle differently on a mixed result.
- Assuming a single winning selection always returns nothing. The 11 accumulator bets (doubles, trebles, fourfold) do need 2 or more correct selections, but the SSA legs where that single winner is the first selection still bank a partial return, even though the overall bet almost always shows a net loss on just 1 winner.
- Treating an SSA leg as identical to a plain double and only counting it once. Each SSA pair is 2 separately settled bets (one in each direction), which is part of why the Flag has 23 bets instead of the 11 a Yankee has.
- Entering fractional odds (like 6/4) instead of decimal odds (like 2.50). This calculator expects decimal odds throughout, matching how most UK and Irish bookmaker calculators present a Flag.
- Reading total profit or loss as the outcome for a single selection, rather than the net result across all 23 bets combined. A Flag can show individual winning bets inside an overall loss, and the total profit figure is what matters for the bet as a whole.
Limitations
This calculator assumes standard bookmaker rules for a Flag bet: decimal odds, a fixed stake per bet across all 23 bets, and settlement purely on win or lose outcomes. It does not account for each-way betting, Rule 4 deductions for a withdrawn runner, dead heat reductions, non-runners (which would normally reduce a Flag to a smaller bet type), or any bookmaker-specific maximum payout caps. Treat the result as a planning estimate and confirm the exact settlement rules with your bookmaker before relying on it for a real wager.
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