Goliath Bet

What is a Goliath Bet?

As you may have guessed from the name, the Goliath bet is one of the largest wager types accepted at sports betting sites. The best way to think of it is as a round-robin wager on steroids, generating 247 individual bets across eight selections of betting outcomes.

Understanding the Structure of a Goliath Bet

Goliath bets are what you get when you cross an eight-leg parlay with a round-robin wager. Your Goliath wager will consist of 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-fold accumulators, 56 five-fold accumulators, 28 six-fold accumulators, eight seven-fold accumulators, and one eight-fold accumulator.

The Goliath is therefore an accumulation of 247 smaller bets rather than one large bet. As a result, you’ll need to use a very small stake, though due to the multiplicative nature of accumulators, this can still result in substantial profits.

For example, even a $1 stake on each outcome would result in $247 as a total stake, if each of your eight outcomes had -110 odds and all hit, your Goliath would yield a profit of $4,866, which is a 1,970% return on your wager.

Goliaths also allow you to earn a profit even if a leg or two fall short. Depending on the lines you’re backing, you could potentially win as few as three of your eight outcomes and still have won enough to cover your losses.

It’s easiest to think of the outcomes by assigning a letter to each scenario (Outcome for Event 1 = A, Event 2 = B, etc.). Thus, your wager coverage would be:

• Doubles: AB, AC, AD, AE, etc…
• Trebles: ABC, ABD, ABE, ABF, etc…
• Four-fold: ABCD, ABCE, ABCF, ABCG, etc…
• Five-fold: ABCDE, ABCDF, ABCDG, ABCDH, etc…
• Six-fold: ABCDEF, ABCDEG, ABCDEH, BCDEFG, etc…
• Seven-fold: ABCDEFG, ABCDEFH, BCDEFGH, ACDEFGH, etc…
• Eight-fold: ABCDEFGH

Goliath bets are most common for horse race wagering, though they can be applied in other scenarios as well.

How to Place a Goliath Bet

Here are the steps that you’ll need to follow to place a Goliath bet:

1. Research the events you want to bet on to find outcomes you’re comfortable backing.
2. Open the sportsbook/racebook app or website where you are making the wager.
3. Add each of the eight outcomes to your betting slip.
4. Click/tap “Round Robins” to open the menu.
5. Add a stake to apply to each double, treble, four-fold, five-fold, six-fold, seven-fold, and eight-fold wager. Remember, because this is an accumulator, choosing “$100” would result in $100 on EACH COMBINATION of the wager rather than evenly spreading $100 across each wager in that category.
6. Once you have entered a stake amount for each accumulator type, click “submit.” Pay close attention to your ticket, as you won’t be able to make any changes once your bet is accepted.
7. Wait for the results to play out and collect your winnings once the bets settle.

Calculating Potential Returns

The process of calculating potential returns on your Goliath bets is rather tedious, as the potential returns of the payouts are tied to the odds multiplier for each wager type. This means each of your various accumulators within the Goliath will carry different odds for each of the 247 potential outcomes. 

Thankfully, sportsbooks and racebooks will display in advance what your potential profits would be before placing your wager so you don’t have to tabulate 247 potential payout scenarios by hand. Additionally, there are Goliath bet calculators you can use while preparing to make your bets. 

In any scenario, you will need at least two of your outcomes to win to receive any sort of payout. The more outcomes you successfully predicted, the more profitable your Goliath bet will be. 

Advantages of a Goliath Bet

The biggest advantage of a Goliath bet is that it offers built-in insurance if several legs of the parlay come up short. Since the Goliath places a wager on every combination of results within your eight games, incorrectly predicting one or two results won’t cause your entire Goliath to settle as a loss. 

Another advantage of Goliath betting is that you can reach massive multipliers even at a relatively low stake amount. You’re effectively placing 247 parlay wagers through one bet slip, so each parlay multiplier impacts your potential profit.

Disadvantages and Risks

While the benefits of Goliath bets are nice, the disadvantages and risks should play a factor in considering whether to place such a wager. 

One big risk you run is the possibility of wagering with a higher total stake than you intended. Remember, when entering $1 as your stake for a Goliath bet that you are placing 247 bets at $1 each for a total stake of $247; up it to a $10 stake per line and you’re up to $2,470. 

Using smaller stakes with Goliath bets can still be profitable and will help you practice responsible bankroll management. 

Another disadvantage is that Goliaths can somewhat limit the benefit of correctly picking eight results. Using the same example as above, placing a Goliath bet at $1 per outcome (for a $247 total stake) saw a profit of $4,866.

However, using that same $247 total stake while playing a single eight-leg parlay with each outcome at -110 odds would have a profit of $43,335.58. This goes back to the built-in insurance we discussed above. 

In exchange for being able to miss some of the results while still receiving a payout, the overall profitability of Goliath bets is severely capped relative to a standard parlay. While we highly encourage Goliath bets as opposed to traditional eight-leg parlays because of the safety net, we understand that the capped profitability will be off-putting to some bettors. 

Goliath Bet vs. Other Multiple Bets

The Goliath bet requires eight outcomes to back, but if you aren’t as comfortable choosing that many outcomes, there are ways to scale the wager down. For example, if you only wanted to back six outcomes instead of eight, you could choose to play a Heinz bet. 

Heinz bets function the same as a Goliath, covering all possible outcomes from your six selections. However, there are 57 total outcomes with a Heinz bet (with Heinz 57 ketchup being the inspiration for the name), a noticeable difference from the 247 with a Goliath. 

Variations of the Heinz bet include the Super Heinz (which features 120 bets from seven outcomes) or a Lucky 63 (the same as a Heinz but with six additional single-outcome wagers beyond the 57 multi-outcome scenarios). 

The Heinz, Super Heinz, and Lucky 63 all offer lower maximum returns than a Goliath because they require fewer outcomes to fall your way. However, they all offer lower exposure so less of your bankroll would be at stake. 

Strategies for Placing a Goliath Bet

When placing your Goliath bets, we hope you’ll keep these strategies in mind:

• Balance favorites and underdogs: For the most part, you are welcome to construct your Goliath bets however you like. With that in mind, we recommend mixing in a few underdogs to help increase the maximum profitability of your Goliath. Balance is key though, as too many underdogs can cripple your chances of making any headway. 
• Use a smaller stake: If we haven’t already impressed upon you the importance of keeping your Goliath stakes small, we’ll repeat it again here. Accumulator bets can burn through your bankroll even if you are consistently picking 5/8 outcomes correctly. Practice responsible bankroll management and only gamble what you can afford to lose. 
• Scale down when needed: Doing enough research to feel confident in eight outcomes is a tall task, and sometimes, you won’t be able to commit to that much preparation. It’s better to scale down your wager to a Heinz, Super Heinz, Lucky 63, or even a four-outcome round robin bet rather than place an underresearched Goliath. 

Each-Way Goliath Bet Explained

In horse race betting, an each-way bet functions to cover a horse finishing either first or place by putting a wager on each result. For example, a $10 each-way bet would place $10 on the horse to win and another $10 on the same horse finishing second (or, depending on the bookie, finishing second, third, or fourth). 

Each-way bets apply in other sports as well (such as golf), but horse racing is the main sport where they are used. Bettors will typically choose an each-way bet in events with a larger field instead of in head-to-head competitions. 

It’s possible to place an each-way Goliath bet, covering a win or place outcome in each of the scenarios above. This results in a whopping 494 total bets being placed (247 win, 247 place), so we again advise extreme caution and small stakes in your approach. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

We mentioned a few strategies above for successful Goliath betting, and we should also highlight these common mistakes to avoid:

• Underestimating stake requirements: Covering 297 potential outcomes across your Goliath bet can be a challenge, especially if you don’t adequately prepare your bankroll. Make sure you understand that at each combination level (double, treble, four-fold, etc.) that the stake you choose applies to all accumulators of that type. This can rapidly deplete your bankroll if you aren’t careful in selecting stake size and monitoring it across multiples.
• Insufficiently researching your selections: As with all other bet types, the more research about your Goliath bet you can do ahead of time, the more likely you are to predict a winner. Failing to be well-informed about the matchups gives the advantage back to the bookies. 
• Using too many sports in your selections: Piggybacking off our second point, it’s generally inadvisable to use multiple sports when playing Goliath wagers. The Goliath by nature takes care of casting a wide net; use your knowledge of one or two sports to go deeper in each rather than to cover the very basics of several. 
• Relying too heavily on underdogs or favorites: A smart Goliath bet does a good job of balancing betting favorites with promising underdogs. Relying too heavily on favorites leads to lower maximum returns while overreliance on underdogs reduces your overall chances of winning. 

Conclusion

The Goliath bet may seem intimidating but played appropriately, it can be a fun and profitable option! Following the guidelines we presented above will help you sharpen your betting skills and increase your chances while placing Goliath wagers.

If you’re still not sure if Goliath betting is right for you, check out our list of online sports betting guides. We’ve highlighted many gambling strategies to help you find the styles that best match your betting preferences. 

Good luck, have fun, and always gamble responsibly!!