How a Canadian Bet Works and How to Calculate Returns

A Canadian, also called a Super Yankee, combines five selections into 26 win-only bets: doubles, trebles, fourfolds and one fivefold, with no singles. For ordinary cash bets settled only as wins or losses, with no void selections, two winners produce a return—but not necessarily a profit. Gross return includes the winning stakes; net profit is what remains after subtracting the full amount originally staked.

This guide explains the combinations, shows how to reproduce a calculation and compares the main alternatives. “Canadian” names the bet format; it does not mean you need to use a bookmaker in Canada.

What are the 26 bets in a Canadian?

A Canadian includes every combination of two, three, four and five selections from your five picks, with a separate stake on each combination. It is a full-cover bet without singles.

This composition is confirmed by the primary bet-type guides from Sky Bet and William Hill.

Sky Bet help-page extract showing the 26 combinations in a Canadian bet

Sky Bet’s English-language explanation of the Canadian’s composition; the breakdown is shown in the table above.

Label the five selections A–E. The doubles are AB, AC, AD, AE, BC, BD, BE, CD, CE and DE. Longer combinations include ABC, CDE, ABCD and ABCDE. Each original combination has its own funded stake.

If E loses, all 15 combinations containing E lose. That leaves 11 combinations among A–D that can still pay, depending on their results. The 15 losing stakes are not refunded.

How much does a Canadian cost?

The total stake is your stake per combination multiplied by 26. At £1 per combination, a Canadian costs £26—not £1.

The calculator’s “Stake per bet” field takes the stake on each combination, not your overall budget. Entering £26 there would apply £26 to each of the 26 bets.

An each-way Canadian funds both a win part and a place part for every combination. At £1 on each part, the total cost is £52. This is a separate settlement calculation, not an automatic doubling of the return.

How do you calculate returns and net profit?

Add the returns from all winning original combinations, then subtract the cost of all 26 bets. Each winning multiple returns its stake multiplied by the decimal odds of every selection in that combination.

Use this cash, win-only example, with no voids, deductions or bonuses:

At £1 per combination, the total stake is £26. Only AB, AC, BC and ABC pay:

• AB: £1 × 2 × 3 = £6.
• AC: £1 × 2 × 4 = £8.
• BC: £1 × 3 × 4 = £12.
• ABC: £1 × 2 × 3 × 4 = £24.

Gross return: £6 + £8 + £12 + £24 = £50.

Net profit: £50 − £26 = £24.

Scenario ROI: £24 ÷ £26 × 100% = +92.3%, rounded to one decimal place. This describes the specified result, not expected value or a forecast of future returns. The cash returns in this example require no rounding.

Are two winners enough to make a profit?

Two winners produce just one winning double, so profit depends on the product of their odds. With the same five prices and £1 per combination, different winning selections produce different returns.

For C, D and E, the return is £20 from CD, £24 from CE, £30 from DE and £120 from CDE: £194 in total.

With exactly two winners, no voids and an equal stake of s per combination, gross return is s × the product of the two winning odds, while total cost is 26 × s. Therefore:

• an odds product below 26 gives a loss;
• an odds product of exactly 26 breaks even;
• an odds product above 26 gives a net profit.

This threshold applies to an ordinary cash, win-only Canadian. Void selections and place parts need different settlement calculations.

What happens when all five odds are 3.00?

At equal odds of 3.00, the return depends on the number of winners: two return £9, three return £54 and four return £243 at £1 per combination. This is a separate teaching example, not the results table for the mixed prices 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The assumptions here are five selections settled only as wins or losses, £1 per combination and a £26 total stake.

The paying-line count is the number of possible groups of two, three, four and five winners: C(w,2) + C(w,3) + C(w,4) + C(w,5), treating groups larger than w as zero. Three winners, for example, give three doubles and one treble. These counts are not probabilities.

The chart defaults to odds of 3.00 and the same £26 total budget for a Canadian and a single fivefold. With five winners, the Canadian returns £1008; the £26 fivefold returns £6318. If any selection loses, that fivefold returns nothing.

Use the chart’s available controls to compare gross returns conditional on a stated number of winners. It does not show net profit, the probability of those outcomes or expected value, and it does not establish which format is safer.

How do you reproduce the example in the calculator?

Choose the Canadian preset first, then replace its default prices and results. Selecting the preset loads standard values, so enter your own inputs afterwards in the system bet calculator.

The calculator screenshots below were captured in a local test version of ToolsGambling using synthetic example inputs. They demonstrate the interface and arithmetic, not real bookmaker wagers.

1. Select the Canadian preset.
2. Enter the five decimal odds in A–E order: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
3. Set A, B and C to “WIN”, and D and E to “LOSE”.
4. Enter 1 in “Stake per bet”.
5. Select £ as the currency. This changes the currency label only; it does not convert amounts.
6. Check the automatically updated results. There is no separate Calculate button.

Canadian calculator inputs with odds 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, three wins, two losses and £1 per bet

A, B and C are set to WIN; D and E are set to LOSE, with £1 staked on each combination.

You should see 26 combinations, a total stake of £26.00, gross return of £50.00, net profit of £24.00 and ROI of +92.3%. The return includes the winning stakes; it is neither net profit nor a refund for a void selection.

Canadian calculator results showing a £26.00 stake, £50.00 return and £24.00 net profit with three winners

Four paying combinations return £50.00, leaving £24.00 net profit after all stakes.

Now change C to “LOSE”, leaving everything else unchanged. Only A and B remain winners: gross return becomes £6.00, the net loss is £20.00, and ROI is −76.9%.

Canadian calculator results with only A and B winning: £6.00 return, £20.00 loss and −76.9% ROI

The winning double AB does not cover the £26 total stake.

The visible form supports only WIN and LOSE. It does not correctly settle void selections, each-way bets, Rule 4 deductions or dead heats, and it does not estimate probabilities or expected value. For a broader arithmetic walkthrough, see how to calculate a system bet.

How can you explore the effect of changing winners?

The embedded explorer lets you toggle the results of five selections at fixed odds of 3.00 and £1 per combination. Unlike the full calculator, it does not accept custom prices.

By default, A–D win and E loses, giving £243 gross return and £217 net profit. Toggle D to a loss: three winners leave four paying combinations and a £54 return. Then toggle C to a loss: two winners leave one paying double and a £9 return.

This illustrates the structure, not future results. The combinations overlap because each selection appears in several bets. Their wins and losses are not statistically independent, and the extra combinations are not separate protection against risk. Use the full calculator for the mixed prices 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

How does a Canadian compare with other bet formats?

A Canadian funds 26 combinations from five selections; a Lucky 31 adds five singles, while a single fivefold puts all five selections into one bet. A Yankee uses four selections, so it is not a like-for-like format for the same five picks.

Equal unit stakes are not equal budgets. If all five selections at odds of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 win, at £1 per combination:

• Canadian returns £2499, with £2473 net profit from a £26 stake.
• Lucky 31 returns £2519, with £2488 net profit from a £31 stake.

The extra £20 returned by the Lucky 31 comes from its five singles. No bonuses are assumed. Any bonus depends on operator terms, not automatically on the format’s name; William Hill’s bonus rules provide an operator-specific example.

With an equal £26 total budget, the comparison changes. A theoretical Lucky 31 unit stake of exactly £26/31 returns £2112.71 if all five win, compared with £2499 for the Canadian. Only the displayed return is rounded; the fractional unit stake is not rounded to a cash increment. Actual minimum stakes and £0.01 increments can change the total cost and return.

Putting the whole £26 budget on one fivefold at those mixed prices returns 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 × 6 × £26 = £18720 if all five win. That is not “26 Canadian returns”; it is a different bet with a different winning condition. One losing selection makes the fivefold lose.

No format is universally better. See system bets versus accumulators for the structural comparison, or the Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 guide for the Lucky family.

How is an each-way Canadian calculated?

An each-way Canadian has 26 win combinations and 26 place combinations. At £1 on each part, the total cash stake is £52.

Win parts are combined with win parts, and place parts with place parts. They settle separately; you do not mix one selection’s win result with another’s place result in an arbitrary combination. The number of paid places and the place fraction depend on the market and operator, as explained in Sky Bet’s each-way guide and market rules.

The place fraction applies to the profit portion of decimal odds:

Decimal place odds = 1 + (decimal win odds − 1) × place fraction.

At win odds of 3.00 and a 1/4 place fraction:

1 + (3 − 1) / 4 = 1.50, not 0.75.

For a hypothetical place-only example, assume all five selections finish in paid places but none wins. Each has win odds of 3.00, quarter-odds place terms and £1 on each part, with no dead heats or deductions. The win side returns nothing. The place side returns:

10 × 1.5² + 10 × 1.5³ + 5 × 1.5⁴ + 1.5⁵ = £89.15625.

Subtract the full £52 cost: £89.15625 − £52 = £37.15625 net profit. Rounded for display, that is £89.16 gross return and £37.16 net profit.

This calculation retains full precision until the totals are displayed. A bookmaker that rounds each line separately may produce a different total. You cannot simply double a win-only Canadian’s payout, and the current generic calculator does not implement each-way settlement.

What happens when a selection is void?

Where the operator’s rules require a void selection to be settled at odds of 1.00, apply that price inside every original combination containing it. Do not rebuild a smaller system, redistribute stakes or merge combinations that become identical after the void.

Suppose A wins at 3.00, B is void, and C, D and E lose. At £1 per original combination:

• AB returns £1 × 3.00 × 1.00 = £3.
• Every other combination contains at least one losing selection and returns nothing.
• The original total stake remains £26.
• Gross return is £3, giving a net result of −£23.

Do not add a separate refund on top of AB’s return. This is an exception to the ordinary two-winner minimum: a void changes settlement without being a winner.

Sky Bet distinguishes ordinary non-runners from ante-post bets, where a non-runner can be settled as a loser. Check its non-runner rules and relevant market rules. For another operator, use that operator’s terms rather than assuming a universal refund rule.

The current generic calculator is not suitable for these bet slips. It has no visible void control, and its WIN/LOSE settings cannot substitute for the required settlement.

What should you check before placing a Canadian?

Check the full cost and settlement terms before confirming the bet: more combinations do not guarantee profit or prevent you from losing the entire stake.

Confirm:

• the accepted odds and whether the selections can be combined;
• the stake per combination, funded combination count and total budget;
• whether you are using cash or a free bet;
• the place terms for an each-way bet;
• non-runner and ante-post rules;
• any Rule 4 deductions or dead-heat settlement;
• rounding, payout caps and applicable bonus conditions.

A Canadian can still pay when some selections lose, but you fund 26 combinations for that coverage. One loss can eliminate many lines, and two winners can still leave a net loss. An odds range such as 2–4 is not, by itself, a profitable strategy.

Multiplying accepted odds calculates a combination’s payout without assuming that outcomes are independent. Estimating expected value, however, requires defensible probabilities and an assessment of dependencies between selections. These deterministic return calculations do not provide those probabilities.