A single bet is perhaps the easiest wager you can make at Paddy Power. Whether you’re betting on football, assessing the horse racing odds, and plan to back someone in the 100m final, it’s likely that you will start your betting journey with single bets.
In this guide we’ll take you on a quick run-down of what is a single bet, why they’re popular, and how you can place them.
How many bets in a single
The answer to how many bets in a single is pretty straightforward: it’s one. There is just one wager in a single bet and it can cover practically any outcome in sport.
Examples of single bets include:
- Backing a team to win a football match
- Backing a horse to win a race
- Backing a golfer to finish in the top 10 at the Masters
- Backing a tennis player to lose their first set
- Backing a snooker player to nail a 147
All single bets focus on one outcome. There are no strings attached to single bets and you’re paid out according to the odds and the size of your stake.
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Why place a single bet?
Single bets are popular purely because of their simplicity. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to sports betting or a seasoned punter with acute knowledge of the Paddy Power sportsbook. A single bet is quick, easy to understand and covers the majority of bet options for most people.
They also intrinsically carry less risk compared to multiple bets such as Doubles, Trebles and accumulators because you are only betting on one outcome.
Is Single bet better than Double bet?
In sports like football, NFL, golf and tennis you’re likely to place single bets all the time. So much so, in fact, that we don’t usually use the term ‘single’ for individual fixed odds bets.
Where single bets really make a difference, though, is in horse racing. That’s because it’s far more common for punters to create their own multiples and edge away from a handful of singles.
The next bet up from a Single is a Double. This is where, in horse racing, you bet on two horses, usually to win their individual races. If both horses win, you win your Double at better odds than if you placed two Singles. However, if one horse loses then your bet collapses.
So, what is better, a Single bet or a Double bet? To answer this question you need to think about risk and reward. Singles are less riskier because there’s nothing more attached to the wager. Doubles rely on two singles to win, so there’s more risk here, but in return you get better odds and therefore an improved profit potential.
Trebles, Fourfolds, Fivefolds, Trixies and all the other weird and wonderful bet structures all come with greater profit potential and greater risk than a Single bet.
It all depends on your attitude to risk and your willingness to follow more complex bet options.
How to work out a single bet
The beauty of single bets is that they are very, very easy to calculate. Below are three ways to calculate single bets, depending on which odds type you choose:
- Fractional – You bet £1 on a horse to win a race at 4/1. If it wins, you get £4 profit + your stake back = £5
- Decimal – The horse you backed for £1 is priced at 5.00 here, because decimal odds for singles show you your total return off a £1 stake. You win £5 back overall
- American – American odds for single bets show you how much you’d win off a £100 wager when the odds are positive, and how much you need to bet in order to win £100 when the odds are negative. So, your horse here was priced at +400. Your £1 generates £4 profit and, of course, you get your stake back too
Want to make it really easy? Use the Paddy Power Single Bet Calculator to work out single bet profit for you!
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