Heinz Bet

What is a Heinz Bet?

Heinz bets are a type of accumulator wager where the gambler chooses the outcomes of six sporting events to back. Using those six outcomes, the sportsbook will craft 57 individual bets featuring various winning combinations.

The name comes from the Heinz steak sauce which has used the “57 pickle varieties” slogan since 1896. Heinz bets are typically used for horse race betting at U.K. sportsbooks, though they can be applied to nearly any sport that allows for round robin wagering.

Understanding the Structure of a Heinz Bet

A Heinz bet consists of 57 total wagers: 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-fold accumulators, six five-fold accumulators, and one six-fold accumulator. By placing a Heinz bet instead of a standard six-leg parlay, you have built-in insurance in case one or more outcomes are unsuccessful.

For example, let’s say you were betting on the winning team in six NFL spread wagers. You could think of those as Teams A, B, C, D, E, and F.

The Heinz bet then creates 57 combinations of those outcomes:

• Doubles: AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, etc.
• Trebles: ABC, ABD, ABE, ABF, ACD, etc.
• Four-folds: ABCD, ABCE, ABCF, ACDE, ACDF, etc.
• Five-folds: ABCDE, ABCDF, ACDEF, BCDEF, etc.
• Six-fold: ABCDEF

Thus, placing a Heinz bet is a safer overall way to play a six-leg parlay, though the overall return would be lower than if you used the same total stake amount for a single six-leg wager.

Let’s say each of your Teams you were taking on the spread had -110 odds. A $1 wager on each combination would result in a $57 stake; we’ll use that same stake amount for a parlay wager:

With the Heinz, there are more scenarios where the player can win, but the increased payout probability leads to a lower maximum payout. In other words, the greater your risk with your bet, the larger the potential payout you can receive.

How to Place a Heinz Bet

You can place a Heinz bet at an online sportsbook/racebook by following these steps:

1. Research the games/events you want to wager on. Make sure they all have outcomes you’re comfortable backing.
2. Open the sportsbook/racebook app or website where you will place the wager.
3. Log in with your account credentials.
4. Add each of the six games/outcomes to your betting slip.
5. Click/tap “Round Robins & Teasers” to access the Heinz format.
6. Add a stake amount to apply to each double, treble, four-fold, five-fold, and six-fold wager. Remember, because a Heinz bet is an accumulator wager, choosing “$50” would result in a $50 bet on EACH COMBINATION of the wager rather than evenly spreading $50 across each wager in that category (so $50 on your doubles would result in a $750 wager at 15 bets X $50).
7. After entering a stake amount for each accumulator type, click “submit.” We recommend using the same stake amount for each type to make your bankroll management easier. You won’t be able to make changes to your slip after the wager is accepted, so please review everything carefully before submitting it!!
8. Watch your bets unfold and collect any winnings once wagers are settled.

Calculating Potential Returns

It can be time-consuming and mentally taxing to calculate all potential payout scenarios for a Heinz bet. Fortunately, sportsbooks will show the total amount each bet type can win once you enter a stake amount.

You can also use a Heinz calculator tool to determine these outcomes. Note that some calculators will only use fractional odds, so you may need to convert the odds ahead of time.

If your odds aren’t identical across each outcome, you can use a standard parlay odds calculator to tabulate the odds and payout for each combination and bet type.

Advantages of a Heinz Bet

Here are a few of the key advantages of a Heinz Bet:

• Built-in Bet Insurance: Because the Heinz bet employs 57 combinations of results rather than the single payout outcome of a six-leg parlay, there are more scenarios that result in a payout. This acts as built-in bet insurance so the total amount of your stake isn’t lost if a leg or two settle as losses, helping to reduce your overall risk.
• Multipliers still allow large profits: Even at a relatively small stake amount with each accumulator type, you’re still able to generate significant profits with Heinz bets by creating a series of parlays. The multiplicative nature of parlays works in your favor with successive correct selections, and you can still earn a profit with a missed leg or two.

Disadvantages and Risks

Before deciding to play a Heinz bet, you must consider the pros and cons. Here are a few of the disadvantages and risks of this bet type:

• Heinz bets limit the upside of six correct selections: Correctly picking the results of six sporting events is enough of a challenge, and while Heinz bets offer coverage if you fall short, they also aren’t as beneficial if all selections are correct. In the example above, the Heinz bet yielded $536.64 in profit while a traditional parlay would’ve won $2,702.53.
• Heinz bets can lead to overspending: Bankroll management is a key element of betting success, and if you aren’t careful when placing Heinz bets, you can burn through your bankroll in no time. Remember – your stake is repeated over ALL bets within the parlay type rather than once to cover all within the accumulator.

Heinz Bet vs. Other Multiple Bets

The most basic variation of the Heinz bet is a Lucky 63 wager. In addition to the 57 combinations covered by the Heinz, an additional singles wager is placed on each event, bringing the total number of outcomes to 63.

Another variation of the Heinz bet is the Super Heinz, which adds a seventh leg to your betting slip. Instead of 57 combinations, there are now 120 possible outcomes to cover, leading to even higher potential payouts.

The most extreme variant of a Heinz bet is the Goliath Bet, which adds an eighth game to the array, covering 247 combinations of outcomes. Goliath bets again raise the stakes, but the potential returns are even higher than those of a Heinz.

Strategies for Placing a Heinz Bet

When placing a Heinz bet, we hope you’ll keep these strategies in mind:

• Keep your stakes small: Whatever stake amount you choose for the doubles in your Heinz will be multiplied 15 times to cover each combination; the same applies to the 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, and six five-fold wagers. Even small stakes can yield big results when you’re successful.
• Balance favorites and underdogs: The example we used above was meant to standardize odds, but it’s unlikely that each outcome of your Heinz bet will have the same odds. Balancing betting favorites and underdogs will help to maintain high profitability with a reasonable chance of winning, while relying too heavily on either result will limit the upside of your wagers.
• Shrink your bet if needed: Making successful wagers requires thorough research of the matchups. If six games is too much to cover with the time you have, scaling your wager back to a five-fold, four-fold, or three-fold round robin bet could lead to better successes.

Each-Way Heinz Bet Explained

In horse race betting, a “place bet” returns a payout if the horse finishes first or second in the race. This is different from a “win bet,” which only pays out if the horse you bet on is the first across the line.

This expands to an “each-way” bet, which places two separate wagers on each type (a win bet and a place bet).

In addition to a standard Heinz, you could also place an Each-Way Heinz bet, which doubles your number of combinations to 114 (57 win bets, 57 place bets). As with the traditional Heinz bet, we encourage you to keep your stakes small while knowing that big returns are still possible.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Please be aware of these common mistakes to avoid when Heinz betting:

• Using too many sports in your picks: We typically recommend Heinz bettors limit their research to one sport or one event (such as the NCAA Basketball Tournaments or Wimbledon). Adding too many sports can lead to underresearched selections and result in unnecessarily added risk.
• Underestimating stake requirements: The most important thing we can remind you in this piece is that a Heinz bet is the accumulation of 57 smaller bets. Framing it this way will help you to balance your stake requirements with bankroll capabilities, as it can be easy to lose track of how much money you’ve placed on each combination type.
• Overreliance on favorites or underdogs: As with most things in betting and life, finding a “happy medium” is an important skill. Leaning too heavily on underdogs caps your likelihood of making correct selections, but picking favorites across your slip will limit your profit margins.

Conclusion

We hope this guide to Heinz betting has been informative and helpful in preparing you to make wagers of this type. With well-researched wagers and savvy stake planning, you can enjoy the fun of Heinz wagers and hopefully turn a nice profit along the way!

For more information about other wager types, check out our online sports betting guides pages. We’ve reviewed many bet types, strategies, and online sportsbooks to help you be as informed as possible before making your wagers.

Good luck, have fun, and always gamble responsibly!