Lucky 31

A “Lucky 31” is a bet involving five different selections and consisting of 31 bets in total covering all possible combinations from singles to a five-fold accumulator. Specifically, the Lucky 31 consists of five singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold accumulator.

A Lucky 31 can also be placed each way, which means the number of bets doubles to 62.

The Lucky 31 is the same as a Canadian in every regard bar the fact that a Canadian doesn’t include the five single bets and consists, therefore, of 26 bets.

However, the singles bets in a Lucky 31 are important as, of course, they guarantee at least some return if only one selection wins. Also, several major bookmakers make special offers for Lucky 31 bets, from time to time, whereby they will pay a one winner bonus. This usually takes the form of increasing the percentage pay-out if your Lucky 31 has just one winner - or sometimes doubling the odds etc. This is also where the “Lucky” in the name comes from!

The multiple bet nature of a Lucky 31 makes it a popular choice for gamblers looking to generate at least some return from their bets, with the simultaneous potential for large cumulative wins from the five four-fold accumulators and the five-fold accumulator in particular. In these successful cases, the Lucky 31 really comes into its own as punters have the potential to hugely multiply potential games.

However, the Lucky 31 isn’t necessarily a high-risk bet. If, for example, you include one or two selections as “bankers” (lower risk bets on a top Premier League club playing at home for instance) then the likelihood of at least some return is quite high. To illustrate the point, if we presume you had two even money winners in a Lucky 31, and three winners at 4-1, your total return for a £1 stake (a total outlay of £31) would be £1,943.

The Lucky 31’s bigger brother is the Lucky 63 (consisting of 63 bets from six selections: six singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, six five-folds and one six-fold accumulator). And moving the other way, the Lucky 31’s smaller sibling is the Lucky 15 (consisting of 15 bets from four selections: four singles, six doubles, four trebles, and one four-fold).