What Is Draw No Bet?

The most common football bet type is the Match Result market (also called the Full-Time Result or 1x2 market). Although punters will sometimes bet on the game ending as a tie, especially if the teams are closely matched, there's arguably more appeal to backing a team to win the game. For many people, cheering on a team to win is probably more exciting than hoping for a draw.

Delving into historical statistics confirms that betting on a team to win will more often than not be the right choice - around 70-80% of Premier League games end with a winner, for example. However, this leaves the remaining 20-30% ending in a tie, and it's these games that can be the downfall of your bet when you're backing a team to win. This is where Draw No Bet comes in. With this bet type, you're still backing a team to win, but your risk is much lower because your stake is refunded if it's a draw.

This article looks into the workings of Draw No Bet, reasons for choosing it, pros and cons, alternative bets, and how to create your own Draw No Bet using a combination of bets placed on the match odds market.

What Is Draw No Bet?

Draw No Bet (DNB) is a two-way market that removes the draw option, allowing you to bet on either team to win. If the game ends as a draw, your stake is returned for no loss.

Most commonly seen in football betting, due to the relatively high likelihood of a draw, Draw No Bet allows you to bet on a team to win a game, without the risk of losing your stake if the game ends in a draw. This stake refund if it's a tie acts as a 'safety net', with the trade-off being lower odds compared to the 3-way Match Result market.

There are three possible oucomes in Draw No Bet betting:

• Your team wins the game and your bet is paid out as a winner.
• The game ends as a draw and your stake is returned for no profit or loss.
  
• Your team loses the game and you lose your stake.
  

The table below compares bets on the 3-way Match Result market to the 2-way Draw No Bet market:

Reasons For Choosing Draw No Bet

More often than not when betting on team sports, there's a favourite and an underdog. Bookmakers set their match odds accordingly, giving higher odds to the underdogs, who they've assessed to be less likely to win. The greater potential returns on these higher odds bets makes betting on outsiders appealing. The downside is that you're more likely to lose your bet due to your team losing or drawing. 

Whether or not you're backing an underdog, Draw No Bet reduces the risk of bets placed on a team to win, by removing the possibility of losing your stake if the game ends as a tie.

There are several other ways to reduce your risk whilst betting on a team to win, which can be particularly useful if they're an underdog. Popular choices are handicap markets (whether that's Asian Handicap or European Handicap) and the Double Chance market, where you can bet on a team to either win or draw.

Draw No Bet Example

First, let's look at the Full Time Result odds on Bet365 for a game between Poland and Scotland. These are Bet365's regular odds, which are eligible for their Early Payout (2UP) offer.

If you're a Matched Bettor, you can find out how to make long-term value with 2UP offers by using Outplayed's 2UP Guide. The advanced 2UP Master is a great way to maximise your success with 2UPs.

If you're happy to forego the Early Payout Offer, you can find better odds in Bet365's Full Time Result - Enhanced Prices market. Bear in mind that if you're betting on the draw on Bet365, there's no point choosing the regular Full Time Market on Bet365. You can't benefit from the Early Payout Offer when betting on the draw, so you should always opt for the Enhanced Prices market, assuming the odds are higher.

Bet365's Draw No Bet odds can be seen below. As you can see, these odds are much lower than the Full Time Result odds for the same team. This is due to the lower-risk nature of Draw No Bet, since you won't lose your stake if it's a draw.

If you're looking for the best odds available, you'll normally find them at a betting exchange like Matchbook.

Draw No Bet and Asian Handicap 0.0 Markets

Asian Handicap markets have several bets that are identical to bets in other markets, even though they sound completely different. Draw No Bet is no exception. In this case, Asian Handicap 0.0 is the same as Draw No Bet. You can use this knowledge to your advantage by checking both markets and picking the best odds.

In theory, since the two bets are identical, the odds should also be the same between the two markets, as they are here on Dafabet:

In contrast, here are Bet365's Draw No Bet odds for a game between Fulham and Wolverhampton:

Here are the Asian Handicap 0.0 odds:

As you can see, the Asian Handicap market's odds are higher for Fulham, but lower for Wolverhampton, so you should choose whichever market has the best odds.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Draw No Bet Betting

As with all bet types, Draw No Bet has its pros and cons. Here's a quick summary:

Advantages

• Bet on an outsider, without risking losing your stake if it's a draw.
• Avoid losing your stake if you think there's a good chance of a draw.
• Bet on a strong favourite in-play if they're losing.

Disadvantages

• Lower odds than the Match Result market.
• Bookmakers tend to take a greater margin with Draw No Bet markets, compared to Match Result markets.

Converting Match Odds to Draw No Bet

Sometimes, a bookmaker or exchange might not have Draw No Bet odds for a certain game. If this is the case, you have a few options:

• Look for the market at other bookmakers or exchanges.
  
• Use the Asian Handicap 0.0 market instead, if available.
  
• Create an equivalent to Draw No Bet by placing one bet on your team to win and another on the draw on the Match Result market.
  

The third of these options is by far the most complicated, but is worth considering if there's no Draw No Bet market for the game you're betting on, or if you want to try to create more favourable odds.

The first step in creating your 'Draw No Bet' is to work out the effective Draw No Bet odds from the Match Result odds for the game. This is done as follows:

Divide 1 by the Match Result Draw Odds, subtract this from 1, then multiply by the Win Odds.

You also need to work out the appropriate stakes for the Match Result draw bet and win bet, as follows:

Draw Stake = Total Stake / Draw Odds

Win Stake = Total Stake - Draw Stake

This is shown in the graphic below, where the Win Odds are the odds for your team on the Match Result market, and the Win Stake is the stake you'll need to place on this bet. The Draw Odds are also from the Match Result market and the Draw Stake is the stake required when you place this draw bet. Note that the Win Stake and Draw Stake will be the same whether you're betting on the home or away team.

Here's an example of this in practice, for a game between Leicester City and Chelsea on Matchbook. There's already a Draw No Bet market, but you might want to see if you can do better by creating your own equivalent Drawn No Bet, using the Match Result market. First, we'll look at creating a Draw No Bet on Chelsea, using a £100 total stake.

This shows that the 'true odds' for a Draw No Bet on Chelsea (by looking at the Match Odds market) are 1.23. These are very slightly higher than the actual available odds of 1.22. To place your custom Draw No Bet you'll place two bets on the Match Odds market - a £79.59 bet on Chelsea to win and a £20.41 bet on the draw.

Here's a comparison of the overall positions for the regular Draw No Bet market and your own custom bet. First, here's the actual Draw No Bet market:

Matchbook Draw No Bet market

Profit if Chelsea win = £100 x 1.22 - £100 = £22

Profit if it's a draw = £0 (stake returned for no loss)

Loss if Chelsea lose = -£100

Now, let's look at the combination of bets on the Match Result market. With these bets, if Chelsea win the game, your Chelsea Match Odds bet will win and your Draw bet will lose. If it's a draw, your Draw bet will win and your Chelsea bet will lose:

Creating Your Own 'Draw No Bet'

Profit if Chelsea win = (£79.59 x 1.54 - £79.59) - £20.49 = £42.98 - £20.49 = £22.49

Profit if it's a draw = (£20.41 x 4.9 - £20.41) - £79.59 = £79.60 - £79.59 = £0.01

Loss if Chelsea lose = -£20.41 - £79.59 = -£100

The custom-made 'Draw No Bet' gives a profit of £22.49 if Chelsea win, compared to the £22 profit on the actual Draw No Bet market. It's only a small difference, but shows that the idea can work.

Now, let's create a custom 'Draw No Bet' for Leicester. Since the availability is very low for the best back odds of 6.6, we'll use the slightly worse 6.4 odds instead.

Since there's not enough availability to bet on Leicester Draw No Bet at odds of 4.8, we'll use odds of 4.7 here when comparing odds. This time, the effective Draw No Bet odds are 5.09 - significantly better than the actual Leicester Draw No Bet odds of 4.7. Let's see how much difference this makes to your profit if Leicester win.

Matchbook Draw No Bet market

Profit if Leicester win = £100 x 4.7 - £100 = £370

Profit if it's a draw = £0 (stake returned for no loss)

Loss if Leicester lose = -£100

Creating Your Own 'Draw No Bet'

Profit if Leicester win = (£79.59 x 6.4 - £79.59) - £20.49 = £429.79 - £20.49 = £409.30

Profit if it's a draw = (£20.41 x 4.9 - £20.41) - £79.59 = £79.60 - £79.59 = £0.01

Loss if Leicester lose = -£20.41 - £79.59 = -£100

This time, you'll make £39.30 more profit from your custom-made 'Draw No Bet', compared to using the actual Matchbook Draw No Bet market.

Whilst you might not want to go to the trouble of creating your own Draw No Bets in this way, it's useful to know that it's sometimes possible improve your long-term profits by doing so.

To simplify the process of creating your own Draw No Bet odds and place equivalent bets on the Match Result market, there are a few Draw No Bet Calculators available, including this one, which shows the equivalent odds and required stakes.

Here's the calculator filled in for the Leicester Draw No bet example above:

After filling it in and clicking 'Calculate', the calculator shows the equivalent odds, so you can compare these with existing Draw No Bet odds. It also gives the required Win Stake and Draw Stake for the Match Result market.

Conclusion

When betting on a team to win, Draw No Bet is a useful bet type. It sacrifices some potential profit but adds a layer of security by giving you a refund if the game ends as a draw. This can be useful when betting on an outsider or if you want to bet on either team but believe there's a good chance of a draw.

Draw No Bet is identical to an Asian Handicap 0.0 bet, so it's worth comparing odds between these two markets. It's also possible to effectively create your own Draw No Bet by placing a bet on your chosen team to win as well as the draw in the Match Result market.

Other bets to consider when betting on underdogs are Double Chance (Win or Draw) and Asian or European Handicaps.