Feed in three decimal prices and the unit stake you want on each bet. The calculator builds all four lines of a Trixie, three doubles and one treble, then returns your total outlay and what comes back under each result. A Trixie carries no singles, so two of the three have to land before anything pays.
What a Trixie Is Made Of
A Trixie takes three selections and turns them into four separate bets: the double on the first and second, the double on the first and third, the double on the second and third, and the treble linking all three.
Your unit stake goes on each of those four lines. A £5 unit means £20 leaves your account, not £5, and that gap between the number you say and the money you commit is the single most common mistake on a betting slip.
There are no singles in a Trixie. Two winners pay one double and nothing else. One winner pays nothing. The bet buys partial cover against one leg letting you down while keeping the outlay below a Patent, which adds the three singles on the same three selections.
A Worked Example
Three selections at decimal 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0, with £5 on each of the four bets.
- Total outlay: 4 bets × £5.00 = £20.00.
- All three win: total return £167.50, profit £147.50.
- The 3.0 shot loses: one double survives, returning £25.00 against the £20.00 staked, profit £5.00.
- Two of the three lose: nothing returns, because no single sits behind the lone winner.
That £5.00 line is the whole argument for a Trixie over a straight treble. Same three prices, same money in play, and a treble hands back an empty slip the moment the 3.0 shot goes down.
How to Read Your Returns
The outlay line matters more than the return line when you are setting stakes. Bookmaker slips ask for the unit stake and multiply by four in the background, which is how a £10 Trixie becomes £40 off your balance.
Each double is priced by multiplying two decimal prices together, and the treble multiplies all three. The 2.5 and 3.0 double therefore carries more of the return than the 2.0 and 2.5 double, so swapping one short price for a longer one changes the shape of your result far more than it changes what you pay.
Run the same three prices through the Patent Calculator to see what the three singles add on top, in both directions.
Where a Trixie Loses Money
The cover a Trixie buys is thinner than the four-bet structure suggests. One loser out of three left you £5.00 in front on a £20.00 outlay in the example above, and that only held because the surviving double paired the 2.0 and 2.5. Lose the 2.0 instead and the surviving double is a different price with a different answer.
Then there is the margin. Bookmakers build a cut into every price, and a double compounds the cut on both legs, exactly as the Parlay Calculator shows for accumulators. The Hold / Vig Calculator puts a figure on it: a 1X2 market priced 2.50 / 3.40 / 2.90 carries an overround of 3.89% and a hold of 3.75% of turnover. Four bets built from three such prices pay that cut several times over.
A Trixie is worth placing when you rate all three selections and want the treble without the all-or-nothing ending. It stops being worth placing the moment you include a third leg you would not back on its own.
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
How many bets are in a Trixie?
Four. Three selections produce three possible doubles plus one treble, and your unit stake goes on each of those four bets. There are no singles in a Trixie, which separates it from a Patent on the same three selections. The bet is settled line by line, so partial returns are normal.
How much does a £5 Trixie cost?
£20.00. The unit stake applies to each of the four bets, so multiply whatever you type by four before you confirm the slip. A £10 unit commits £40, a £2 unit commits £8. Bookmaker slips display the unit stake first and the total further down, which catches people out.
Do all three selections have to win in a Trixie?
No. Two winners leave one double standing. In the worked example above, three selections at 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 with the 3.0 losing returned £25.00 against a £20.00 outlay, a profit of £5.00. One winner alone returns nothing, since a Trixie contains no singles to catch it.
Is a Trixie better than a Patent?
They answer different questions. On the same three selections at 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 with a £5 unit, the Trixie costs £20.00 and returns £167.50 if everything lands, while the Patent costs £35.00 and returns £205.00. The Patent also pays out when only one selection wins. You are buying that extra cover with a bigger outlay.