Laying Multiples

Level: Next steps
Updated: September 11, 2023

Laying doubles, trebles and accumulators is much easier than you might think.

There are different ways of laying a multiple, but for most situations, you’ll want to use the ‘Multiples’ feature at Smarkets.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through building your own multiple and laying it as one bet.

Key points to note

Before I take you through a worked example, here are some essential points to bear in mind.

  • When building your multiple bet at Smarkets, you must select the green buy/back button to add each selection to your bet slip.
  • You will then have the option to sell/lay your multiple once you’ve built it.
  • You can only sell/lay the multiple if every selection has sufficient liquidity on the sell-side.
  • There is a maximum of 10 selections when building a multiple.
  • When building a multiple, the selections must all be from different events/matches.
  • You cannot include selections from ante-post horse racing markets or long-running, outright markets (e.g. title winner).

Laying multiples at Smarkets

Let’s say you’ve seen the following sign-up offer.

Place a £10 double at total odds of 4.00 (3/1) or greater and get a £10 free bet.

You check the odds at the bookmaker and find a double on Brighton and Everton to win their next football fixtures at total odds of 4.60.

To build your multiple at Smarkets, you must locate the match markets and select the green buy/back button next to your selections.

Smarkets

So, you would select Brighton’s green 2.48 buy/back button.

Smarkets

You would also select the green 1.98 buy/back button for Everton.

Smarkets

To get your lay option, select the blue ‘SELL‘ button in your bet slip’s ‘MULTIPLE(S)‘ section. As you can see, you can lay the multiple at odds of 5.40.

You need to enter your stake and odds into my Matched Betting Calculator to get your lay stake.

Select bet type

Back Bet (Bookie)

Advanced
%

Lay Bet (Betting Exchange)

%

Min £
Max £
Lay stake required: £
Bookie
Exchange
Cashback
Total
If back (bookie) bet wins
£
£
£
= £
If lay (exchange) bet wins
£
£
£
= £
Total profit: £

Optimal Underlay

Lay stake required: £
Exchange liability: £

If back (bookie) bet wins: £
If lay (exchange) bet wins: £

Optimal Overlay

Lay stake required: £
Exchange liability: £

If back (bookie) bet wins: £
If lay (exchange) bet wins: £

The calculator tells you to lay £8.55 against your ‘Brighton & Everton‘ multiple at Smarkets.

The outcomes section at the bottom of the calculator tells you that you’ll lose a maximum of £1.63 in qualifying for your £10 free bet. You should convert your free bet into 80% cash, so £8, giving you a minimum profit of £6.37!

If you’re looking to lay a treble or accumulator instead of a double, you simply follow the same process. Build your multiple by adding each selection to your bet slip and select the blue ‘SELL‘ button to get your lay option.

Enhanced multiples

In addition to the sign-up offers, the Smarkets ‘Multiples’ feature is also suitable for laying enhanced multiples.

If you’re unfamiliar with them, enhanced multiples are simply doubles, trebles and accumulators that have boosted odds.

They’re the same as regular price boosts, only they contain more selections. If you’ve not done either yet, you should probably start with regular price boosts before moving on to enhanced multiples.

You’ll see enhanced multiples covering many sports, but the most popular ones tend to be those featuring football teams.

William Hill

At the time of writing, William Hill offer a ‘Super Odds Treble’ like the one above most Saturdays.

Sky Bet

Sky Bet run ‘Soccer Special Price Boosts’ like the ones above, pretty much every Saturday too. They’ll also run them midweek if there’s a busy schedule of fixtures.

People often ask if it’s okay to do more than one of Sky Bet’s three selected price boosts. I advise only doing one each time, as placing more may attract unwanted attention to your account.

Not all enhanced multiples are profitable in the long term. If the boosted odds aren’t higher than the lay odds at the exchange, there’s no merit in taking the boost. It can be the case that the odds were too poor to start with, or the boost was only small.

Betfair Exchange accumulators

Betfair may not offer a ‘Multiples’ feature right now, but they usually provide a selection of pre-built accumulators on busy football match days. They’re worth keeping an eye on as the lay odds are sometimes better than those at Smarkets.

You can find the Betfair Exchange acca markets by typing ‘acca‘ into the search field at the top of the page.

You can also find them via the main navigation. Just head to ‘Football‘ and then ‘Specials‘ and you should see the available acca markets.

Betfair

Here is the Betfair Exchange accumulator market for the bookmaker price boosts you saw above.

Betfair

Laying multiples on the Betfair Exchange

So, with lay odds of just 3.60, there’s merit in backingMan Utd, Leicester & Leeds all to win‘ at William Hill at odds of 4.50 (7/2).

Like regular price boosts, enhanced multiples almost always have a maximum stake. The maximum stake for William Hill’s price boosts is usually £10.

So, you enter your stake and odds into my Matched Betting Calculator to get your lay stake.

Select bet type

Back Bet (Bookie)

Advanced
%

Lay Bet (Betting Exchange)

%

Min £
Max £
Lay stake required: £
Bookie
Exchange
Cashback
Total
If back (bookie) bet wins
£
£
£
= £
If lay (exchange) bet wins
£
£
£
= £
Total profit: £

Optimal Underlay

Lay stake required: £
Exchange liability: £

If back (bookie) bet wins: £
If lay (exchange) bet wins: £

Optimal Overlay

Lay stake required: £
Exchange liability: £

If back (bookie) bet wins: £
If lay (exchange) bet wins: £

As you can see, the calculator tells you to lay £12.68 against ‘Man Utd/Leicester/Leeds‘ at Betfair.

The outcomes section at the bottom of the calculator tells you that no matter what happens, you’ll make a fixed profit of £2.04!

The profit may seem small, but that’s a return of 20.4% on your £10 stake, which is pretty good!

If you feel the fixed profit is a little on the small side, you have the option of underlaying. If you underlay, you’ll make a larger profit if your enhanced multiple wins, or you’ll break even if it doesn’t. It’s essentially a free shot at a larger potential profit.

Please see the example on my ‘Price Boosts‘ page for a walkthrough of how to underlay.

I tend to favour the underlay method. Unless, of course, I can make a decent fixed profit via the standard approach. That’s my preference, though, and it’s entirely up to you.

Matchbook Enhanced Specials

Another pre-built option for laying multiples is the ‘Enhanced Specials’ markets at Matchbook.

These are unique markets where Matchbook mirror bookmaker price boosts and enhanced multiples by giving matched bettors the respective lay options.

Matchbook

They’re well worth keeping an eye on as they’re often the only means of laying some of the more obscure price boosts offered by bookmakers.

Be aware that Matchbook charge 5% commission on their ‘Enhanced Specials’ instead of their standard rate of 2%.

Laying a multiple with non-overlapping events

If you’re looking to lay a multiple where the individual events take place at different times and don’t overlap, you also have the option of laying sequentially.

The process involves laying each leg of your multiple in sequence once you know the outcome of each leg. It’s another option to remember, as the odds can sometimes be better. On the flip side, you need to keep an eye on your bets, so it’s more time-consuming.

Final words

You must use the Smarkets ‘Multiples’ feature if you’re serious about maximising your matched betting profits. It opens the door to several offers you otherwise won’t be able to lay.

Bookmakers like to include multiples in their offers, so it’s brilliant that laying them is so straightforward. Lay them off and enjoy the profits!

Learn matched betting the free, easy way.

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Matt Kirman - Matched Betting Blogger

Matt KirmanMatched Betting Blogger

Since 2014, I’ve blogged over £70,000 worth of profit, and made it my mission to make matched betting accessible to everyone.