Draw No Bet

In many ways “draw no bet” is self-explanatory; it “does what it says on the tin”. But it’s not quite so simple.

Draw no bet is a relatively recent kind of wager offered by various bookmakers – and it brings a different twist to scoring sports popular with punters, with football being the most obvious example.

Draw no bet relates to sports like football where a draw is one of the possible outcomes (unlike, say, tennis where one player has to emerge victorious). It has become increasingly popular over recent years.

In its simplest form, this is a type of bet which sees your initial stake returned in the event of a draw. In effect, your bet is annulled and you make neither a profit or a loss.

Let’s consider a hypothetical example to understand the process more easily. Let’s imagine a scenario where a lower league side are playing at home against Arsenal and your shrewd judgement tells you the lower league team has a great chance. At the same time, though, you think it could be a tight game and that a draw is entirely possible. In this case, you may elect with your chosen bookie to go for a home win on a “draw no bet” basis.

Obviously, if the home lower league side win, you win, whilst if the match is drawn, the bet is effectively voided and your stake is returned, whilst if Arsenal win, your bet is a losing one.

The beauty of this type of bet is that it makes games effectively two-horse races as opposed to a three horse race where the draw is a possibility and you could, therefore, lose your stake via the draw. At the same time, the odds you will receive are slightly decreased by the bookmaker for good reason as one of the possible outcomes has been taken out of the equation.

There are also various “draw no bet” alternatives that gamblers may wish to consider. Firstly, if your chosen bookmaker isn’t offering a draw no bet option on a particular game, you can still achieve the same thing (albeit very slightly more complicated) in practice:

Let’s presume that, in the same scenario outlined above, the home lower league team are 7-1 to win, the draw is a 3-1 chance and Arsenal are 1/12 hot favourites. Let’s also imagine you have £25 to play with. In this scenario, you should divide your total stake with the odds of the draw (4) which comes to £6.25 and bet that on the draw – with the rest of your money, £18.75, on the home win. If the match is drawn, you would receive £25 (£6.25 x four) whilst if the home team win, you would win £18.75 x eight; £150, but if Arsenal win, you will lose your entire stake. The end result here is the same as betting with a bookmaker on a draw no bet basis.

Another way to bet draw no bet is via the Asian Handicap “0” basis, or “1” basis where drawn matches means all bets are voided.