What Is a Goliath Bet and How Do the 247 Bets Settle?

Updated October 2026

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A Goliath is a full cover bet on eight selections that breaks the stake into 247 separate bets, covering every double, every treble, every four-fold and every larger combination through to one eight-fold accumulator. The bettor picks the unit stake once, and the bookmaker splits it across all 247 lines. A £2 win produces a £2 unit stake on each of those lines, so the total amount at risk on a £2 win Goliath is £494. The payoff depends on how many of the eight selections actually win, and a single losing selection knocks out every combination that contained it. The structure is mechanical rather than complicated once you see the pattern: doubles, trebles, four-folds, five-folds, six-folds, seven-folds and the single eight-fold accumulator, in every possible grouping.

The data on this page was checked against the Gambling Commission’s public register on 27 October 2026.

How a Goliath Is Built From Eight Selections

The anatomy follows a familiar British betting convention. Eight selections; every combination of two or more of them. Skip the singles entirely and you have a Goliath. Include the singles and the same eight selections become a Lucky 63, with 63 bets covering every single and every multiple. The naming is settled: a full cover bet is one that includes all available multiple bets over a given number of selections, and a Goliath is the eight-selection full cover.

Counting the lines gives the headline figure. Start with the doubles: choose 2 from 8 gives 28. Trebles: choose 3 from 8 gives 56. Four-folds: choose 4 from 8 gives 70. Five-folds: choose 5 from 8 gives 56. Six-folds: choose 6 from 8 gives 28. Seven-folds: choose 7 from 8 gives 8. One eight-fold accumulator. The total: 28 + 56 + 70 + 56 + 28 + 8 + 1 = 247 bets.

The pattern is worth seeing once. Each step up in combination size mirrors the step before it. Doubles and six-folds both give 28, because the count of pairs equals the count of what is left when you remove a pair. Trebles and five-folds both give 56. The single eight-fold accumulator sits at the top. Once the symmetry is visible, the figure stops looking arbitrary and starts looking inevitable.

Smaller full covers slot underneath the Goliath on the same logic:

• Lucky 15: 4 selections, 15 bets (4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 four-fold).
• Lucky 31: 5 selections, 31 bets (5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds, 1 five-fold).
• Lucky 63: 6 selections, 63 bets (6 singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds, 1 six-fold).
• Canadian (Super Yankee): 5 selections, 26 bets — every multiple but no singles.
• Heinz: 6 selections, 57 bets — every multiple but no singles.
• Super Heinz: 7 selections, 120 bets — every multiple but no singles.
• Goliath: 8 selections, 247 bets — every multiple but no singles.

The Lucky variants include singles and therefore refund part of the bet on a single winner; the Heinz family does not, and a single loser in a Canadian or Heinz wipes out the singles-free multiples that contained that leg. The Goliath sits at the top of the Heinz family. None of these bets include a single eight-fold accumulator-style “all must win” line as the only bet — every full cover is a bundle.

Why the Structure Matters: How Many Selections Have to Win

The payout logic depends on how many of the eight legs land. A Goliath needs only two winners to return something, because every pair of selections is its own double. Land three winners and you collect on three doubles plus one treble. Land four and the four-fold combinations start paying.

Each additional winning selection unlocks a fresh layer of multiples without disturbing the layers below. Three winners give you doubles and a treble. Four winners give you doubles, trebles and four-folds. Eight winners would light up every combination: 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds and the lone eight-fold accumulator, all paying out together.

A single losing selection is not fatal the way it is on a straight accumulator. Lose one of eight and the doubles, trebles and upwards that contained the loser are dead, but the combinations made from the seven remaining winners still pay. The bet shrinks but it does not zero out unless all eight selections fail. A losing two-leg combination drops everything built on those two; everything else carries on.

The bookmaker treats the bet as 247 independent wagers at the same unit stake, each with its own price formed by multiplying the prices of the legs inside it. A treble built from selections priced at 1.50, 2.00 and 2.50 carries odds of 7.50. A double of the 1.50 and 2.00 legs carries 3.00. The bookkeeping is straightforward once you accept that the bettor is placing 247 bets at once.

What a Goliath Costs and What It Pays

The total stake is the unit stake times 247. £1 per line costs £247. £2 per line costs £494. The unit stake is what the bet slip calls “stake per bet”, and the slip also shows the total stake as a separate figure. A bettor who wants to risk £100 on a Goliath sets the unit stake at roughly £0.40.

The return runs from very small on a poor day to spectacular on a good one. Two winners at short prices might return less than the total stake. Six or seven winners at generous prices will return many times it. The eight-out-of-eight outcome pays out the entire structure at once and produces the biggest prize the bet can offer, because the eight-fold accumulator — the longest line — only wins when every leg lands.

The size of any single payout line is the unit stake times the multiplied price of that line. A treble at combined odds of 7.50 with a £2 unit stake returns £15; a four-fold at combined odds of 30 with a £2 unit stake returns £60; the eight-fold at multiplied odds of, say, 600 with a £2 unit stake returns £1,200. A Goliath that lights up everything from 28 doubles to the one eight-fold does not pay one figure but a stack of them. The bet slip shows the full payout only after the last leg settles.

Consider a working example using illustrative odds and a fixed stake. Take eight selections priced at 1.50, 2.00 and 2.50, with the same prices recurring to fill the slip. A £10 accumulator across all eight would multiply those prices into one combined line and return whatever that product is — a one-line bet on a one-line outcome. The same eight selections arranged as a Goliath with a £2 unit stake spread the £494 total across all 247 lines, and the payoff depends on which selections win.

The break-even point for the bet depends on the average margin across the 247 lines. The bookmaker takes a cut from every leg, and the cut compounds through the multiplied prices. A Goliath is an expensive way to back a short-priced favourite, because most of the structure is wasted on combinations that pay almost nothing for the stake they tie up. A Goliath is also a cheap insurance policy against one or two losers in an eight-strong shortlist, because every two-leg combination stands on its own.

A Worked Example With Illustrative Selections

Take four of the eight selections at odds of 1.50 (1/2), two at 2.00 (evens), and two at 2.50 (6/4). The exact prices are illustrative, not quoted; the structure is the point. A £10 single accumulator on the eight-leg line returns £10 multiplied by the combined price of all eight.

Arrange the same selections as a Goliath at a £2 unit stake. The total at risk is £494. If exactly four of the eight selections win, the bet pays out on every double, every treble and every four-fold that contains only winners — but not on the five-folds, six-folds, seven-folds or the eight-fold, because each of those requires at least one more leg to come in. The exact payout depends on which four win, because a four-fold made from 1.50, 1.50, 2.00 and 2.00 pays differently from a four-fold made from 1.50, 1.50, 1.50 and 2.50.

What the structure guarantees is the shape of the payout: more winners, more lines paying; fewer winners, fewer lines. The shape, not the size, is what makes a Goliath a Goliath.

Comparison With a Straight Accumulator

A Goliath is the conservative version of a full-cover bet bundle, and the contrast with a straight accumulator is the easiest way to see what the extra stake is buying.

The accumulator punishes a single loser with a zero return. The Goliath tolerates up to six losers and still pays out on the combinations of winners. The accumulator costs a fraction of the Goliath’s stake but forfeits the insurance the bundle provides.

For an eight-leg shortlist at short average prices, the bettor is paying £494 for the privilege of being paid even if some legs lose. Whether that insurance is worth the price depends on the prices, the margin, and how confident the bettor is that the whole eight will land.

How Goliath Bets Are Settled by UK Bookmakers

The settlement is mechanical. The bookmaker records the bet as 247 independent wagers at the same unit stake. Each wager settles independently once its legs are complete; settled lines pay out at the combined price times the unit stake; losing legs void the lines that depend on them. The bettor sees a running total on the bet slip as each leg settles, and the final return is the sum of every line that wins.

Cash out is widely offered on full cover bets, though availability is never guaranteed. A bookmaker will quote a cash-out value based on the legs that have already won and the legs still to run; the cash-out figure changes as each selection settles or as prices move. If the cash-out button disappears, the bet stands on its original terms and the bettor waits for the remaining legs. The bookmaker’s help pages make that point explicitly: cash out is not a right, and a bet that cannot be cashed out settles in the normal way.

Non-runner rules apply to the individual legs as they would on any multiple bet. A Rule 4 deduction on a horse racing leg reduces the price of that leg for the purposes of every combination containing it. A voided selection at the operator’s discretion reduces the bet by one selection: a Goliath with one void leg becomes a Super Heinz on the remaining seven, with 120 bets instead of 247, and the stake on the voided leg is refunded across the affected combinations. Each operator publishes its own non-runner rule and the bettor reads it before staking, particularly on horse racing multiples where the field can change between declaration and the off.

Where a Goliath Sits in the British Betting Market

The bet is a fixture. Every full-service British bookmaker offers it. Most price it the same way; the structure does not vary. The differences between operators lie elsewhere: how the bet is displayed on the slip, how cash-out is handled, how bonuses interact with full covers, and whether the operator offers each-way versions on horse racing.

Each-way Goliaths exist. An each-way bet doubles the stake — one bet to win, one bet to place — and an each-way Goliath therefore costs twice the win Goliath’s total stake. The place terms vary by race, by bookmaker and by the number of runners in the field, and the place portion pays a fraction of the win price. An each-way Goliath on an eight-runner race pays a quarter of the win odds on the place half; on a handicap with sixteen runners the place fraction is a quarter at one quarter the odds, or one fifth at one fifth the odds depending on the house rules. Each-way on full covers is a substantial commitment, and the bettor checks the place terms before staking.

Selection of British Bookmakers That Offer Goliath Bets

The licence figures are quoted from the Gambling Commission’s public register. Brands use .com as well as .co.uk, so the domain is not the test of whether a brand holds a licence. Each brand’s own terms page is the place to confirm the current Goliath offering, the stake limits and the cash-out policy before placing a bet.

Legality and Regulation in Great Britain

Gambling in Great Britain is licensed under the Gambling Act 2005. The Gambling Commission, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, issues operating licences and remote licences to operators and enforces the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. Northern Ireland is outside the 2005 Act, so a Great Britain licence does not regulate the province; the framing of “GB-licensed” is exact.

Since the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, an operator whose remote facilities are used in Great Britain needs a Commission licence wherever it is based. Sections 33 and 36 of the 2005 Act set out the offence of providing unlicensed gambling facilities in Great Britain. A Curaçao, Maltese or Gibraltar licence is not a substitute. The Commission’s public register can be searched by business name, trading name, domain or account number; that register is the whole test of who holds a licence. The remote licences come in five flavours for betting: general betting standard (real events), general betting standard (virtual events), general betting limited, pool betting, and betting intermediary (the licence for betting exchanges).

No statutory list of permitted bets or markets exists. An operator holds a licence for a category and offers markets under its own rules and the LCCP. In-play betting is offered by GB bookmakers and the controls are the operator’s licence conditions and customer-protection duties; no statutory cap on stakes in sports betting has been set, so operators set their own maximum stakes and may restrict customers. Esports are treated like any other event. Virtual events are a separate licence category. Bets on politics, TV shows and novelty markets are offered by GB bookmakers and no statutory prohibition applies.

Credit cards have been banned for gambling in Great Britain since 14 April 2020 under LCCP condition 6.1.2, including credit-card-funded payments through e-wallets; debit cards and bank-based payments are not covered by that ban. Identity verification before the first deposit means no anonymous play at a licensed site. The minimum age is 18.

Tax on winnings is the player’s good fortune: there is no tax on betting winnings for a recreational bettor in Great Britain, and the player’s tax position is General Betting Duty, an operator-side tax on gross profits currently at 15%. A remote betting rate of 25% applies from 1 April 2027 within the duty, while remote bets on UK horse racing, bets on self-service betting terminals in licensed premises, pool betting and in-person betting stay at 15%. Spread betting has its own rates. Whether operators pass duty on through odds is not established; the bettor is not charged duty directly.

Off-Shore Brands and What They Cost the Bettor

A brand licensed only in Curaçao, Malta or Gibraltar cannot lawfully target customers in Great Britain without a Commission licence. Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain without the licence the Act requires is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005. The offence is aimed at the operator, not at the customer who simply places the bet. Enforcement is disruption: cease-and-desist notices, search-engine referrals, work with registrars, hosts and payment providers, and the Commission has been given or is about to receive court-order DNS blocking powers. ISP blocking is not in operation.

The cost of using an unlicensed brand is not prosecution. The cost is the loss of the protections a GB licence brings: no GAMSTOP coverage, no Commission complaints route, no approved dispute-resolution body, no British consumer redress if funds are withheld, no 10x bonus cap, no £150 vulnerability check. The bettor’s account can be closed, winnings withheld and disputes left without a UK remedy. Licensed means checks, limits, GAMSTOP and the bonus cap; it also means verification before the first bet. Unlicensed means none of those protections and possible loss of funds. Neither option is “the safe choice” by default, and the bettor makes the call.

Responsible Gambling and Player Protection

The single biggest difference between a licensed and an unlicensed brand in Great Britain is the safety net that surrounds the bet. GAMSTOP is the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme and a mandatory licence condition for online operators since 31 March 2020. Self-exclusion periods are six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal, and after the minimum period the exclusion stays in place for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. GAMSTOP covers online sites and apps; betting shops use a separate service.

A financial vulnerability check applies to licensed remote betting when a customer’s deposits minus withdrawals exceed £150 in a rolling 30 days. The check is a public-record look-up — bankruptcy or county court judgments, for example — not an income check and not a credit reference check. The check is a soft stop on play until the operator can be confident the customer is not in financial distress; it is a pause, not a refusal.

Financial risk assessments — the affordability checks that have featured in the press — were announced in a staged plan published by the Commission, with no start date. Operators are preparing for the framework but the date is not in force. The right framing is “announced, staged, no start date”, not “in force” or “next month”.

Deposit limits are mandatory under the Remote Technical Standards. Operators must offer a gross deposit limit on a fixed time frame; the first changes have applied since 31 October 2025, a second phase was postponed to 30 September 2026. There is no state-set deposit or loss ceiling for betting, and the limits are the customer’s choice. The bettor sets the ceiling, the operator enforces it.

Help is available through GamCare (National Gambling Helpline), GambleAware, NHS gambling clinics and Gamblers Anonymous. A self-excluded customer can also reverse the exclusion only by contacting GAMSTOP directly and only after the minimum period has elapsed; during the exclusion the customer cannot bet online with any GB-licensed operator, and attempting to bypass the exclusion is a breach of the GAMSTOP terms.

Why a Goliath Is a Bet to Watch Closely

A Goliath costs £247 at a £1 unit stake and £494 at a £2 unit stake. That is a substantial total commitment for an eight-selection bundle. The bettor needs to know in advance how much is at risk, how many legs have to land for a return, and which bookmaker rules govern non-runners, voids and cash out. A Goliath that loses six of eight legs has still cost the unit stake times 247; a Goliath that wins all eight pays every line at once.

The discipline is the same discipline as for any multiple: decide the unit stake before the bet is placed, decide the maximum loss, decide what minimum number of winners makes the bet worthwhile, and stop. A full cover bet that absorbs six losers before paying anything is not a hedge; it is an expensive way to back the eight-leg accumulator you actually wanted.

Strategy, Tips and the Limits of Forecasting

The strategy section is the one that reads worst when it pretends to more than it has. There is no system that wins at Goliath betting, and no combination of selections that turns a structural disadvantage into a structural edge. The bookmaker’s margin is in every price, and the margin compounds through every multiplied leg of every line. The honest advice is mechanical.

Diversification is the headline argument for a Goliath over a straight accumulator. The bundle pays out on combinations of winners as well as on winners themselves, and the bettor is buying insurance against one or two losers. The cost of that insurance is the gap between a £2 accumulator stake and a £494 Goliath stake.

Form study matters in proportion to how many selections the bettor is making. A bettor who backs eight short-priced favourites in football is paying £494 for a structure whose upside is small because the favourites’ prices are small. A bettor who backs eight outsiders in horse racing is paying £494 for a structure whose upside is large but whose probability of paying anything at all is small. Neither shape is “the right one”.

Marginal selections — legs priced between 2.00 and 3.00 — give a Goliath its balance. Short prices mean the combinations of winners do not pay much even when they hit. Long prices mean most lines do not hit at all. Mid-priced selections let the structure breathe.

Staking discipline is the lever the bettor controls. A Goliath at £0.20 a line costs £49.40; that is a £50 bet on 247 lines, and the bettor treats it as a £50 commitment with a target stake-to-payout ratio in mind. A Goliath at £5 a line costs £1,235; that is a serious commitment that should sit behind a budget the bettor has set aside for betting rather than drawn from the household budget.

Forecast models, tipsters and tipster services do not change the mathematics. A tip is information; the margin is the price of the bet; the structure is the structure. A bettor who uses a tip pays the margin on a price informed by the tip. A tipster service that “guarantees winners” is selling a contradiction. The honest framing of tipsters in this market is that the tip is a starting point for the bettor’s own judgement, not a substitute for it.

What the Bankroll Conversation Looks Like

The bankroll is the pool of money the bettor has set aside for betting. The unit stake on a Goliath should be a small fraction of the bankroll — small enough that a run of losing Goliaths does not exhaust the bankroll. A bettor with a £500 bankroll and a £2 Goliath unit stake (£494 per Goliath) is betting the bankroll on one bet; a £0.40 Goliath unit stake is closer to one per cent of the bankroll, and that is a more honest framing.

The honest measure of success is the long-run return against total stakes, not the headline payout on a single Goliath that lands. A Goliath that returns £5,000 on a £247 stake is a 19-to-1 hit, but a sequence of twenty Goliaths that returns £1,000 on £4,940 of stakes is a long-run loss, and the bettor who judges by the headline number is judging by the wrong number.

Choosing Among UK Bookmakers for Goliath Betting

The structure is identical across the British market; the differences are in the bookmaker around it. The bettor choosing where to place a Goliath looks at the sportsbook depth, the cash-out rules, the each-way terms on horse racing, the bonus interaction with full covers, and the bet builder’s compatibility with the bundle.

Fafabet offers Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing from 9am on race days: if the starting price is bigger than the original price, the bigger odds are paid. That is a structural advantage for a Goliath that includes racing legs, because every combination containing that leg is recalculated upward.

Betway runs a £40 free bet offer for new UK and Ireland customers: four £10 free bet tokens on settlement of a first bet of £10 or more at minimum odds of 2.0, with a seven-day expiry and debit card deposits only. Free bets generally do not stake returned on a win, so the value of a free bet is the winnings, not the original free bet amount.

Bar One Racing rebranded as BAR 1 Betting, an Irish independent bookmaker with shops across Ireland and horse racing sponsorships at Dundalk, Fairyhouse, Navan, The Curragh, Curraheen Park and Cork. The brand’s racing focus makes it a natural home for racing Goliaths.

Unibet states it has operated since 1999 and is run by Platinum Gaming Limited in Gibraltar under Commission account 45322. The sports welcome offer is a deposit and sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0 unlocking £40 in free bets, with seven-day expiry and debit card or instant bank transfer deposits only.

DAZN Bet offers Cash Out, Bet Builder, daily bet boosts and in-play betting; cash out availability is not guaranteed and bets stand if it is unavailable. That caveat matters on full covers, because the bettor may want to lock in a partial win before the later legs.

Midnite’s site cites Commission licence 101839, with in-play events, an acca builder, popular accas and price boosts, each with maximum stake limits. The sports welcome offer: new customers betting £5 or more on pre-match odds of 2.0 or greater within fourteen days of sign-up receive £25 in free bets and 50 free spins, valid for seven days.

Sporting Index is a spread betting specialist that also supports fixed-odds full covers. The new-customer offer is a £10 fixed odds bet at minimum odds of 1/2 unlocking three £10 fixed odds free bets, three £5 Total Goals spread bets, three £5 Winning Favourites spread bets and a £1 Race Index spread bet; the qualifying bet cannot be placed in play or cashed out early.

BetMGM’s sports welcome offer for new UK customers who deposit £10 or more and place a sports bet within seven days is four £10 free bets: two football accumulators of four or more selections and two sports multiples of two or more, valid for seven days with minimum odds and opt-in required. The LeoVegas Gaming PLC operator runs the app.

Fitzwilliam Sports bases prices on Oddschecker’s average price for each selection and provides Apple and Google mobile apps. The price benchmark is the distinctive feature for a bettor who wants to know the price they are getting is in line with the market.

Octobet offers Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing up to £150 per customer per race. The cap matters on a Goliath that includes several racing legs at the same meeting.

The bettor picks the bookmaker whose strengths sit on the legs of the bet. A Goliath built around horse racing goes to a bookmaker with Best Odds Guaranteed and a deep racing card; a Goliath built around football goes to a bookmaker with a wide pre-match football offering and acca-friendly cash out. There is no single “best” bookmaker for a Goliath, and there is no ranking in this list beyond what each brand offers the bettor.

Verification, Margins and the Math of the Bet

A Goliath bettor has two routine verifications to perform before staking. The first is the licence: is the brand on the Gambling Commission’s public register, and what categories does the licence cover? The second is the price: what is the bookmaker’s margin in the odds offered on the legs of the bet?

Checking the Gambling Commission Register

The Commission’s public register is searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number. The bettor types the brand name, confirms the licence status, the categories covered, and the licence holder. A remote general betting standard (real events) licence covers sports betting on real events; a remote general betting standard (virtual events) licence covers computer-simulated events; a remote betting intermediary licence covers betting exchanges; pool betting is its own category.

The register is the whole test of whether a brand holds a licence. The licence categories tell the bettor what the brand is licensed to offer; a brand licensed for casino only is not licensed to take sports bets. The bettor checks the categories before assuming the licence covers the bet being placed.

The Margin Inside the Price

The bookmaker’s margin is the cut the bookmaker takes from every unit bet on the market. The odds on a three-way football market (home win, draw, away win) might quote 2.10, 3.40 and 3.50; the payout share — the proportion of every unit bet that the market returns to bettors on average — is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the prices: 1 ÷ (1/2.10 + 1/3.40 + 1/3.50). The margin is one minus the payout share.

The same arithmetic applies to a two-way market. Two selections priced at 1.91 and 1.91 give a payout share of 1 ÷ (1/1.91 + 1/1.91) and an overround of roughly 4.7%. Two selections priced at 1.50 and 2.50 give a payout share of 1 ÷ (1/1.50 + 1/2.50) and an overround of roughly 6.7%. The margin is the difference between the price of a “fair” bet and the price the bookmaker quotes.

A Goliath multiplies the margin through every leg of every line. A Goliath on eight legs each with a 5% margin does not have a 5% margin on the overall bet; it has a compounded margin that depends on how the eight legs correlate and how many combinations pay. The margin on a single combination of two legs each at 5% is higher than 5% but lower than 10%; the margin on the eight-fold accumulator is closer to a multiple of the leg margins. The compounding is the bookmaker’s structural advantage, and it is the reason the bettor’s long-run return is below the headline odds.

The honest framing of a Goliath is that it pays well on the days most legs land, that it pays modestly when only the doubles and trebles come in, and that it loses the unit stake times 247 on the days nothing lands. The structure is a bet, and bets have a margin.

The Calculation in Plain Prose

The arithmetic of a Goliath is mechanical rather than subtle. Total stake is unit stake times 247. Each line’s combined price is the product of the legs in that line. Each line’s return is its combined price times the unit stake. The bet’s return is the sum of the returns of the lines that win. The bet’s profit is the bet’s return minus the total stake.

Take the working example: eight selections priced at 1.50, 2.00 and 2.50 with the prices recurring to fill the slip, and a £10 single accumulator on all eight. The accumulator pays £10 multiplied by the product of the eight prices; the structure of the Goliath is the same shape, only spread across 247 lines. A £2 unit stake on the Goliath totals £494, and the return is the sum of every line that wins.

The headline figure to remember is the multiplier. A Goliath at a £2 unit stake is a £494 commitment. A Goliath at a £1 unit stake is a £247 commitment. The bettor chooses the unit stake that matches the bankroll and the risk appetite, not the maximum total stake the slip will accept. The number of bets is fixed at 247; the stake per bet is the variable.

The band to remember is the payoff. Two winners return less than the total stake most of the time. Three or four winners return more than the stake but less than headline odds. Five to seven winners return many times the stake. Eight winners return every line at once, and the headline figure on that outcome is the largest of the bet’s possible payouts. The exact figure varies with the prices; the shape of the band is what makes a Goliath a Goliath.

A Final Word on Framing

The Goliath is a full cover bet on eight selections priced across 247 combinations. It is a bet, with a margin and a house edge, and the bettor treats it as such. The Commission register is open and the bettor checks the licence. The bonus offers are subject to terms and the bettor reads the terms. The cash-out button is conditional on availability and the bet stands if the button is not there.

A Goliath is a way of backing eight selections with a margin of safety against one or two losers. The cost of that safety is the stake times 247 minus the stake of a straight accumulator on the same eight. The bettor chooses the structure that matches the confidence in the shortlist and the budget for the wager, and the bookmaker holds the margin either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Goliath bet?

A Goliath is a full cover bet on eight selections made up of 247 bets: every double, treble, four-fold, five-fold, six-fold, seven-fold and the single eight-fold accumulator built from those selections. There are no singles in the bundle; a Lucky 63 on the same eight selections adds the eight singles for a total of 63 bets.

How many bets are in a Goliath?

There are 247 bets in a Goliath: 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds and 1 eight-fold accumulator. The total stake is the unit stake multiplied by 247; a £1 unit stake totals £247 and a £2 unit stake totals £494.

How does a Goliath bet work?

The bettor picks eight selections and a unit stake. The bookmaker splits the bet into 247 independent wagers at that unit stake, one per combination of two or more of the eight selections. Each combination settles on its own merits; any combination containing a losing leg is void. Two winners return on the doubles; three winners also return on the treble; and so on up to all eight winners, which lights up every combination.

How can it be checked that a bookmaker holds a Gambling Commission licence?

The Commission’s public register is searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number. The bettor confirms the licence status, the categories covered and the licence holder. A remote general betting standard (real events) licence covers sports betting on real events; other categories cover virtual events, pool betting or betting exchange operation.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

The return on a single bet is the stake multiplied by the odds. Net profit is the stake multiplied by the odds minus one. On a combination bet the odds of the legs multiply into a single combined price, and the return is the stake multiplied by that combined price. A Goliath’s total return is the sum of the returns on the combinations that win.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how can it be seen in the odds?

The margin is the cut the bookmaker keeps from every unit bet on a market, calculated as one minus the payout share, where the payout share is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the odds on every outcome. On a market priced at 2.10, 3.40 and 3.50 the payout share is around 92% and the margin is around 8%. The margin is in every price and compounds through every multiplied leg of a Goliath.

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