Our Complete Guide to an Alphabet Bet
This page is dedicated to describing the Alphabet bet. The system is popular with experienced UK punters, and although it might seem tricky at first, by following our guide you’ll be an expert in no time. How does it work? We will find out together in the next few paragraphs with the help of practical examples and theoretical advice.
What is an Alphabet Bet?
Many of you are probably asking, what is an Alphabet bet? Well, it is a mix of two systems, the Patents and a Yankee, on top of which comes a sixfold acca. To play it you must carefully select from six events. It must be said that not all online bookies offer the possibility of placing an already pre-packaged Alphabet bet. If this is the case, you will have to build it by yourself piece by piece – we will explain how to do this later.
| Section | Selected Events (1-6) | Number of Bets |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Patent | 1, 2, 3 | 7 |
| 2. Patent | 4, 5, 6 | 7 |
| Yankee | 2, 3, 4, 5 | 11 |
| Multiple | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | 1 |
As can be seen from the table above, playing an Alphabet system amounts to placing 26 different bets. This equates to the same number of letters in the alphabet, hence the system’s name.
There are many bets that make up this system: 7 from the first Patent (3 singles, 3 doubles and a treble), 7 from the second Patent (3 singles, 3 doubles and a treble), 11 from the Yankee (6 doubles, 4 trebles and a fourfold) and finally the stand-alone sixfold acca. If you deconstruct the bet in this way, you’ll find it is not as complex as it looks.
How Does an Alphabet Bet Work?
So, how does an Alphabet bet work? Below we provide a theoretical example. What is important to note is that, depending on where you place your selections, they will have different weight within the bet – thanks to the Yankee component.
Example
If we have 6 events selected, we combine the first three – A, B and C – in a first Patent and the second three – D, E and F – in a second Patent. We then place the same events B, C, D and E in a Yankee. As you see, B, C, D and E are in both a Patent AND the Yankee, so they hold more weight. It finishes with a Sixfold composed of A, B, C, D, E and F.
When to Use It
The big advantage compared to other system bets is that you’re able to give more value to some predictions than to others – namely those occupying positions B, C, D and E, as they appear in more sub-bets. Thus, you need to study your selections beforehand.
Alphabet Bet and Football
The connection between the Alphabet bet and football only became apparent after it had been developed. Initially this type of play, just like Dutching, was composed for the world of horse racing betting sites. Only later did punters realise its potential when applied to football, and as a result many use it to bet on this sport. Even so, that doesn’t prevent us from using it to bet on other sports such as baseball or basketball – it’s just that they probably won’t be as profitable.
An Alphabet Bet Example
Up until now, we have focused on the theory. Now, the time has come to get into the practical details and provide an Alphabet bet example. To do this we decided to use Premier League matches. Check the table below to see the matches we selected, their corresponding odds and our predictions.
| Selected Matches | Our Prediction | Quote “1” | Quote “X” | Quote “2” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bournemouth – Brighton | X | 2.40 | 2.95 | 3.20 |
| Leicester City – Newcastle | 1 | 2.10 | 3.20 | 3.50 |
| Manchester City – Huddersfield | 1 | 1.10 | 9.00 | 21.00 |
| Watford – West Ham | 2 | 2.55 | 3.20 | 2.80 |
| Chelsea – Fulham | 1 | 1.15 | 6.50 | 7.75 |
| Arsenal – Liverpool | X | 2.45 | 3.50 | 2.65 |
If you remember our ABCDEF structure from earlier, this can be applied here. Thus, the Bournemouth–Brighton match is A, all the way to the Arsenal–Liverpool match which is F. As you can see, we chose two draws for these positions. This is very important, as the position of your selections determines where they will be included in the combinations – so we put our riskier bets there.
We chose to stake £3 on each of the 26 possible bets, for a total £78 stake. Most of the results went our way. The first and last predictions were wrong; however, this only compromised the two Patents and the sixfold. The other four predictions came through. This meant we won a Yankee: 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 fourfold, which yielded a tasty £173.15. If we subtract the amount initially invested, we generated a tidy profit of £95.15.
If one of the two losing predictions had actually won – let’s say the draw of Arsenal–Liverpool – we would have also won a Patent and our winnings would have been equal to £259. If the whole bet had come in, we would have got £546. Don’t worry, that will happen next time! As you can see, this bet provides ample opportunity to win even if a couple of forecasts fall short.
Conclusion
Now we are coming to the end of the Alphabet bet, you can see that some parts of the bet hold more weight than others. This is great when you feel you have some certain results and others that hang in the balance. This is where this system can really succeed and you can make some big bucks. Of course, you need to know what you are doing in order to be successful, especially as most of the time this type of system is not offered automatically on betslips by our trusted bookmakers, and you will have to build the bet yourselves.
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There is plenty to be gained from playing this type of bet, as we deduced from the example above. If you want to check out more than one bookie, visit our main page to find out all the features.
FAQ
Hopefully, the Alphabet bet explained in the paragraphs above has allayed any fears or questions you had about playing this system. If not, we are here to help. Send us a mail at info@bestbettingsites.com and we’ll get back to you.