A patent is a part of the full cover bet family and includes a number of different bets to create one large bet. It’s popularity has continued to grow over the years, mainly because it’s a lot easier to track than most full cover bets and can offer some pretty bug returns as a result.
One of the reasons to its success recently has been the inclusion of the Irish Lottery with this bet. We’ve spoken about this in other articles, but picking 3 numbers within a patent bet type, is going to pay considerably more with this than it would the payout from the lottery.
There are variations of the patent bet that include Trixie and round robin type bets, but it’s worth noting at this stage that they work differently and this is something that we will expand on throughout this article.
What is a Patent?
A patent is made up of 7 bets in total, which are also referred to as lines. You need to choose three selections for your patent bet and then they work together with a mixture of different bets. It’s worth noting that you don’t need all your selections to win in order to see a return from your investment.
Once you have made your three selections the bets are then transferred into “lines”. Your stake for the bet is relevant to the number of lines within that bet. So, we know that for a patent there are 7 lines in total, this would mean that if you bet £1 per line, your total stake for this bet would be £7.
We’ve spoken about the 7 lines within a patent, but what are they?
- 1 x treble (A x B x C)
- 3 x doubles (A x B), (A x C), (B X C)
- 3 x singles (A), (B), (C)
Worked Example of a Patent Bet
As ever with full cover bets, if you are new to them then they can be a little confusing, especially with so many bets taking place under essentially 1 bet. The easiest way to do this is run through an example and also break each the bets down individually.
As patents are mostly used for horse racing, this is the sport we will be heading with for this.
So, let’s say that we back three horses to win:
- Arkle @ 5.00
- Denman @ 7.00
- Kauto Star @ 10.00
The next thing to do is to decide what sort of stake we want to place or the bet. Let’s shoot for £10 per line, meaning that we have a total spend of £70 for this bet (7 lines x £10). Also for ease, we are going to assume that all selections win their races.
Singles
We know that we have three single bets as part of the patent. So, for this we have £10 staked on each single:
- £10 on Arkle @ 5.00 = £50
- £10 on Denman @ 7.00 = £70
- £10 on Kauto Star @ 10.00 = £100
- Total return = £220
The single bets have highlighted that we have already made a profit from our original £70 stake, so this is a good start.
Doubles
The next selections include the three double combinations that we can choose. To work out the price of the double all we do is multiply each of the prices take together. Remember, we have £10 staked on each line for the doubles as well.
- Arkle + Denman = 5 x 7 = 35.00 x £10 = £350
- Arkle + Kauto Star = 5 x 10 = 50.00 x £10 = £500
- Denman + Kauto Star = 7 x 10 = 70 x £10 = £700
- Total returns = £1,550
As we can see, the returns from the doubles winners compared to single winner is massive. It’s this part of the bet, probably more than any other part, which really highlights just how lucrative these types of full cover bets can be.
Treble
The final bet of the patent is the treble. As there are only three selections the bet, all we do is multiply the price of all three horses together to get our treble price. Again, we have a £10 bet on this single line treble.
- Arkle + Denman + Kauto Star = 5 x 7 x 10 = 350.00 x £10 = £3,500
Total Returns
Once all said and done, we can now add together the total returns from you bet. So, we have £220 from the singles bets, £1,550 form the doubles and £3,500 from the treble bet. This makes a total return of £5,270.
Whilst in this scenario we showed how it would work and just how profitable it can be if all of your elections win, if one or even two lose, then you just remove the bets that would include that horse.
For example, if Denman had lost and the other two won in the example above, You would remove that bet from the singles, remove two of the doubles bets that included him and remove the treble bet. The adjusted returns would then be £650, which is still good profit, but a vast sum away from the £5,270 if all three selections had won.
Can a Patent be Applied to Other Sports?
Absolutely! As stated, a patent bet is most popular with horse racing, but then so are most full cover bets to be honest. You could essentially include a patent with any sport that you like, just as long as the markets don’t have a conflict of interest.
For example, you might pick out the winners of 3 Premier League football matches that are taking place on a Saturday or pick 3 tennis players to advance from the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in tennis.
Strategy
As with all bet types, there is a certain amount of strategy that you can apply to your bets when using the patent market. It’s worth noting these aren’t specific to sports, more strategy regarding the patent bet itself.
One Short, Two Long
You’ve already heard us refer to the patent bet as full cover bet, but it might not have struck you that the best way to use them is to use them as cover. By this we mean that you are able to pick one short priced bet and two longer priced bets.
The short-priced bet is included to be your banker and the one that is likely going to allow you to break even or at least limit your losses. We need this to win in order offer us a bit of safety net.
The other two selections can be of longer odds though and this is where the money is going to really start to come in. We only need one of these longer odds bets to win for the patent to start and get really interesting. It’s a great way to essentially bet on these horses that you think have a decent chance, whilst also giving you a little bit of security as you do so.
Great Alternative to Accumulator Betting
Whilst there are few more lucrative forms of out and out betting than accumulator betting, the reality is that it can be pretty brutal. The losing streaks can last weeks, if not months and whilst the good times are good, the lows can be heart-breaking.
Bets like the patent and any full cover bet actually is a great alternative to this. You aren’t going to win as big, but you are more likely to be winning more often. If you are looking at building a steady bankroll from betting, these types of bets could be a great addition to your betting strategy.
Other Similar Bets
There are a couple of other bets that are quite similar to the patent. The most common the Trixie. The format is the same for this bet, but the major difference is that they don’t include the single bets. So, a Trixie is actually spread across just 4 lines, in the form of he 3 doubles and the 1 treble. Whilst it limits the amount you can win, the reduced number of lines that you bet on could be beneficial to some punters or even bets where you think that two or more selections are absolute bankers.
The other is the Round Robin bet. The round robin includes 3 selections, but in fact you have 10 bets in total. These bets are made of 3 doubles, 1 treble and 3 single bets that are actually split into two. The two single bets are actually different sections taking part in different events. If any single wins, then any returns up to the stake amount is used to bet on the other selection. The bet is also known as a up/down bet.