Draw no bet or refunded if betting strategy



What is a draw no bet or refunded if betting strategy

Draw no bet means you wager on one team to win a match, but your stake is refunded if it ends in a draw. This works as a kind of insurance, or a way to secure your bet, decreasing clearly chance of loss.

A Draw no bet (DNB) or "Refunded if" type bet makes it possible to mathematically secure a bet by betting on two outcomes in such a way that one of the two is a winner and in the other, and worst case, your stake is refunded: no winnings in this second case certainly, but no loss either in the event of a hard blow !
Typically, in a soccer match where you predict a sure winning team you can protect your backs with a refund bet if there is a draw, that is also a draw no bet: if your team wins, you normally earn a profit according to the offered odds and on the other hand if the match ends in a draw you ensure to receive your stake back. On the other hand, one must not forget that a loss case remains, when your team loses purely and simply.
A "Refunded if" bet can of course be adapted to any outcomes, for example betting on the victory of a team and refund if it loses.

In this section, you can find the mathematical proof of the "Refunded if" or DNB method, leading to the exact and optimal bets. An automatic calculator, online and free, is also proposed here to automatically calculate exact and optimal bets.


The Draw no bet, or "Refunded if", formula is not always offered by bookmakers, but it can be implemented quite simply by any bettor who decides to do so. As with surebet (which is unlikely to be offered by any bookmaker !), you can learn here how this betting strategy works. All math calculation are developed in order to a better comprehension of the mathematical mechanism.
Let's begin with the calculator inside which you can fill in both odds and then get back exact bet values.

Refunded if, or Draw no bet, calculator

cg =

cr =
Distribution of stakes
mt =
mg =
mr =


Net profit for winning odds:
Odds obtained:

Details of calculations: math !

We are focusing on an event with more than two outcomes (a 3way event for example, like soccer) in which I will bet two bets on two different outcomes: The total stake on this event is then mt = mg + mr. At the end of the event, I then face the alternative:

Mathematically and manually calculate stakes for a Refunded if bet: an example

One can simply calculate the stakes for a Refunded if bet, using the previous mathematical formulas.

Calculation of the bets distribution according to the odds

For example (default values โ€‹โ€‹of the calculator above), with odds and bet: To get my 100 euros refunded with odds of 4, I have to bet mr = 100/25 = 25.
Among these 100 euros, there remains mg = 100 - 25 = 75 euros to bet with the winning odds of 1,9.

Profit and new winning odds

With these calculated values,

How does the calculator Refunded if, or Draw no bet, work ?

The Refunded if calculator for bets and odds is a very simple tool: you just need to fill in the odds (winning or to be refunded) and/or stakes (total or winning or to be refunded) and all the other fields are calculated and updated automatically .

Increasing the bookmaker's odds

Some websites and bookmakers already offer bets with the Refunded if option, or "Draw no bet" (formula such as "Who will win the match? (refunded if draw)" ). Nothing is free... and in general bookmakers take advantage of this opportunity to undervalue the overall odds obtained and increase some more their margin. Thus, the bookmaker takes a margin on all odds and an additional margin in these ready-made "Refunded if bet" offers.
So many reasons to well understand underlying math formulas and to do the calculations by yourself, by hand or using the calculator on this page, so as to avoid this last odds drop.


See also: