Type in six selections at decimal odds and set your unit stake. The calculator prices all 57 bets, from the 15 doubles up to the six-fold, and shows the return at each number of winners. A Heinz contains no singles, so one winning selection out of six pays nothing back on a £57 outlay at a £1 unit.
Why 57 Bets, and Why Heinz
Six selections combine into 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds and 1 six-fold. Fifty-seven bets, which is where the name comes from: the bet borrowed the 57 varieties Heinz put on its labels.
Every one of those 57 needs at least two winners. Drop the singles from the structure and you drop the safety net with them, which is the whole distinction between a Heinz and a Lucky 63 on identical selections.
A Worked Example
A £1 unit stake across six selections priced 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.8 and 2.2 in decimals.
- Outlay: 57 bets × £1.00 = £57.00, because every bet in the structure is funded separately.
- All six win: return £1,114.46, profit £1,057.46.
- The six-fold on its own: 2.0 × 2.5 × 3.0 × 2.0 × 1.8 × 2.2 = 118.8, worth £118.80 of that total.
- One loser: 26 of the 57 bets stay live – 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds and 1 five-fold.
- Two losers: 11 bets stay live, made up of 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 four-fold.
Two losers is where the bet usually dies. Say the 3.0 and the 2.5 both go down. The 11 survivors are built from the four shortest prices on the card, and the biggest of them is the four-fold at 2.0 × 2.0 × 1.8 × 2.2 = 15.84, returning £15.84 on its £1 stake. Ten smaller bets sit underneath it, against £57.00 already staked.
How to Read the Results
Start at the bottom of the winners column rather than the top. Six-from-six pays £1,114.46 here, and reading that figure first tends to make the other rows invisible.
The four-winners row is the one that decides whether a Heinz suits your card. It leaves 11 live bets out of 57, so the surviving prices have to be long enough to rebuild the outlay from scratch.
Bet count and outlay move together. At a £2 unit the same six selections cost 57 × £2.00 = £114.00, and at 25p they cost £14.25. The structure is fixed at 57; the unit stake is the only part you control.
Two Losers Usually Wipe the Return
Football cards rarely deliver six from six. The honest reading of a Heinz is that it needs five or six winners to clear its own outlay at typical prices, and that the doubles surviving a bad afternoon are usually the short ones you included to steady the card.
Margin makes it harder. A three-leg parlay at 2.00, 1.80 and 1.60 combines to 5.76, and if each price were fair the treble would land 17.4% of the time. Every leg carries the bookmaker’s cut, and combining prices multiplies it. The Parlay Calculator shows the compounding across a chain, and the Hold / Vig Calculator measures the cut inside a single market before you start chaining.
Settlement arithmetic is the whole of what this page provides. Whether the six names deserve the prices attached to them is a separate judgement, and the returns above hold only for the odds you enter.
Further Reading
- All betting calculators: the full library of 34 free tools
- Staking and bankroll: how should you stake?
- Losing runs and variance: what to expect
Why is a Heinz bet called a Heinz?
The bet contains 57 individual wagers built from six selections, and the name comes from the “57 varieties” slogan Heinz used on its labels. The name describes the bet count and carries no meaning for the sport, the market or the odds. Any six selections priced at any odds produce the same 57-bet structure: 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds and the six-fold.
How many selections need to win for a Heinz to pay?
At least two, because the smallest bet in the structure is a double. Four winners out of six leaves 11 live bets from 57, and five winners leaves 26. Whether those returns beat the outlay depends on the prices: at 2.0 and 1.8 they usually will not, at 4.0 and above they can. Run the numbers before placing it.
What does a Heinz cost at a £2 unit stake?
£114.00. The unit stake applies to each of the 57 bets, so the outlay is 57 × £2.00. At £1 it is £57.00, at 50p it is £28.50 and at 10p it is £5.70. The most common mistake with this bet type is reading the unit stake as the total, then finding a figure 57 times larger at confirmation.
Is a Heinz better than a six-fold accumulator?
They carry different risk. A £1 six-fold on selections at 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.8 and 2.2 costs £1 and returns £118.80 if all six land, and nothing otherwise. The £57 Heinz returns £1,114.46 on the same six winners and keeps paying with four or five. You are buying partial-win coverage with the extra £56.