Lucky 31 vs Lucky 63: Full Side-by-Side Guide (2026)

Lucky 31 vs Lucky 63: Full Side-by-Side Guide (2026)

It's day two at Cheltenham. You've got five horses you'd stake your weekly food budget on, and then a trainer quote on a sixth spooks you into adding it. Do you pay £31 for a Lucky 31 with your original five, or bump it to £63 for a Lucky 63 and squeeze the sixth in?

That one decision changes everything. The six-pick version costs twice as much but pays a bigger consolation if only one wins, a bigger all-win bonus, and unlocks 32 extra sub-bets. The five-pick version is leaner, more forgiving on the wallet, and easier to break even on, at the cost of raw upside.

This guide compares them end to end, cost, bet composition, bonuses, break-even thresholds, and the decision framework I use every Cheltenham week. By the end you'll know exactly which one earns its stake.

TL;DR, Quick Summary

If you want the punchline before the maths:

Key Numbers at a Glance

Going from Lucky 31 to Lucky 63 adds one selection and 32 extra sub-bets, mostly higher-multiplier four-folds, five-folds and a six-fold accumulator. That's where Lucky 63's upside comes from, but it also why a bad day stings more: double the stake, double the potential drawdown. If you want to verify any of the numbers on your own card, calculate system bets with your specific selections and odds before committing.

How Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 Work

Both are "full cover with singles" bets from the Lucky family, meaning every possible combination of your selections is covered, and each selection is also placed as a single win bet. If only one horse comes in, you still get a small return (and most bookies boost it). If the whole concept of a system bet is new to you, start with our what is a system bet explainer, it covers the mechanics before you spend £31 or more.

What's Inside a Lucky 31 (5 Selections, 31 Bets)

A Lucky 31 packages 31 separate bets onto five selections:

• 5 singles, one on each horse
• 10 doubles, every pair of selections
• 10 trebles, every trio
• 5 four-folds, every group of four
• 1 five-fold accumulator, all five together

At a £1 unit stake, you're funding each of those 31 bets with £1, so the total outlay is £31. Every selection must run, a non-runner doesn't void the whole bet, but it reduces the bets it was part of to lower multiples.

What's Inside a Lucky 63 (6 Selections, 63 Bets)

A Lucky 63 does the same trick on six selections, 63 bets total:

• 6 singles
• 15 doubles
• 20 trebles
• 15 four-folds
• 6 five-folds
• 1 six-fold accumulator

The extra selection doesn't just add seven bets, it explodes the combination count. You get 5 more four-folds, all 6 five-folds, and a six-fold acca you couldn't have with a Lucky 31. That's why the potential payout curve is so much steeper.

Why They're Called "Lucky", the Bonus System

The "Lucky" prefix isn't about superstition. It's the bookmaker-added bonuses that turn a decent return into a great one:

• One-winner consolation: most UK bookies boost the single-winner return to roughly 4× odds on a Lucky 31 and 5× odds on a Lucky 63. This is your safety net.
• All-winners bonus: if every selection wins, you get a percentage kicker on the total return, typically +20% for Lucky 31 and +25% for Lucky 63.

These bonuses are why these bets dominate horse racing promotions. A plain 5-fold accumulator pays the same maths as the Lucky 31's five-fold leg, but without singles, without the doubles and trebles, and crucially without the bookie bonus. Side-by-side with a straight accumulator, the Lucky bet is strictly more flexible.

Lucky 31 vs Lucky 63: Side-by-Side Comparison

Numbers out, heart out. Here's how the two stack up across every dimension that actually matters.

Stake Cost Breakdown

At a £1 unit stake, the industry-standard reference, the stake doubles moving from Lucky 31 to Lucky 63:

If £63 on a single race card makes you queasy, the answer is already Lucky 31. No shame in playing within your means.

Bet Composition Side-by-Side

This table tells the real story, a Lucky 63 isn't "two extra singles" bigger, it's 32 extra bets across every combination tier.

Those 32 extra bets are weighted toward higher-multiplier combinations, four-folds and five-folds multiply individual odds into the stratosphere. That's where a Lucky 63's jackpot potential comes from.

Consolation Bonuses Compared

Most major UK bookmakers (Betfred, bet365, William Hill, Unibet) structure Lucky bonuses like this, always check the specific promo terms, as they shift by bookie and sometimes by meeting:

The 5-of-6 partial bonus on a Lucky 63 is a quiet killer feature, even without all six winners, you get extra return. No equivalent exists for Lucky 31 (there's no partial-win bonus tier).

The Break-Even Math (How Many Winners You Need)

This is the section most guides skip and most punters actually want. Let's work through it.

Break-Even on Lucky 31

Assume a £1 unit stake (so £31 total) and every selection priced at evens (2.0 decimal odds). (If you want to plug in real odds from your card, our how to calculate system bet guide walks through the full workflow.)

Break-even point: 4 out of 5 winners at even money. Three winners at evens still leaves you £5 short. Push the average odds to 2.5+ and three winners starts to cover the stake.

Break-Even on Lucky 63

Same unit stake, same odds, a £63 total outlay with every selection at 2.0.

Break-even point: 4 out of 6 winners at even money, the same absolute threshold as Lucky 31, but from a bigger pool. You can lose two selections and still profit, versus only one on a Lucky 31. That's the structural edge.

Expected Value Comparison

Running EV analysis on both bets at even-money selections with a 50% real win probability per horse (so the book has no edge, a fair game):

• Lucky 31: EV ≈ −£0.20 per £31 stake (breakeven-adjacent, pre-bonus)
• Lucky 63: EV ≈ −£0.35 per £63 stake (slightly worse pre-bonus)

The difference is negligible in a fair market, both are mathematically similar. What tilts Lucky 63 favourable is the 25% all-win bonus vs 20% plus the 5-of-6 partial, which adds real positive EV when your true win rate exceeds implied odds.

Why Singles Matter in Both Bets

The singles tier is the reason to pick a Lucky bet over a pure accumulator or a no-singles full cover. Even with a catastrophic day (one lone winner), you recover something, and with the consolation bonus, you recover 4× to 5× more than a plain single would pay. Skip the singles (Canadian on five selections is 26 bets instead of 31) and you save £5 per unit, but lose that safety net entirely.

When to Pick Lucky 31 (and When Lucky 63 Wins)

Maths aside, the real choice depends on your card, bankroll and confidence level.

Pick Lucky 31 If...

• You have exactly five selections you're genuinely confident in. Adding a sixth just to justify a Lucky 63 is how bankrolls evaporate.
• You're on a fixed budget and £63 is a meaningful chunk of it. The £32 saved is a week of entry fees at your local meeting.
• At least a couple of your picks are short-priced favourites (under 2.0), the returns on Lucky 63's extra combinations are less valuable at low odds, while the singles cushion on Lucky 31 still works.
• You're betting a weekday card or a smaller meeting where six quality picks are hard to find.

Pick Lucky 63 If...

• You have six real contenders, typical at Cheltenham, Royal Ascot, Grand National or Glorious Goodwood.
• Average odds across your selections are 2.5 or higher, this is where the four-fold and five-fold multipliers in a Lucky 63 start to dwarf Lucky 31's.
• You specifically want the 25% all-win bonus or the 5-of-6 partial bonus, both are exclusive to Lucky 63.
• Your bankroll can absorb a £63 loss without emotional damage. If it can't, step down to Lucky 31, or even further to a smaller four-selection Lucky 15 (covered below).

Real-World Festival Example

Cheltenham day one, four big races. You're torn between five solid selections or pushing to a sixth longshot at 4.0. At evens on the first five and 4.0 on the sixth:

• Lucky 31 (5 sels): if four evens winners, return ≈ £80 on £31 → +£49
• Lucky 63 (6 sels, sixth at 4.0 wins too): if all five evens + the 4.0 longshot, return ≈ £1,500 on £63 → +£1,437 (with the 25% bonus)
• Lucky 63 (6 sels, sixth at 4.0 loses): if four evens winners, three correct trebles involving winners, etc. → break-even territory

The sixth selection at a bigger price is exactly where Lucky 63 earns its stake, it punches way above its weight in the four- and five-fold combinations. But if the longshot is a bluff, you're £32 worse off. That's the trade in one sentence.

The Lucky Family: How Lucky 31 and 63 Fit In

These two aren't standalone bets, they're the middle and top of a four-rung ladder.

Lucky 15 → Lucky 31 → Lucky 63 Progression

Every step up adds one selection and roughly doubles the total bets:

Lucky 127 exists but very few bookmakers list it, most punters who want seven selections with full cover step sideways to a Super Heinz (120 bets, no singles). The structural logic is identical: more picks = more bets = more bonus potential, at doubled stake each step.

Comparison with "No Singles" Cousins (Super Yankee, Heinz)

Lucky bets have "naked" cousins without the singles tier:

Drop the singles and you save a few unit stakes, £4 on a Lucky 15, £5 on a Lucky 31, £6 on a Lucky 63. The trade is zero return on a single winner. That's a false economy for casual punters: the consolation bonus on a single winner is usually worth more than the singles you "saved" by dropping to a Canadian or Heinz. See our Canadian vs Lucky 31 breakdown for the full workout.

If you want the universal tool that handles all of these formats side by side, our system bet calculator computes Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Canadian, Heinz and every other full-cover permutation in one place, just plug in selections and odds. For four-selection Lucky 15 specifically, the dedicated smaller Lucky 15 calc is faster.

Interactive Comparison

Play with unit stakes and typical odds to see Lucky 31 vs Lucky 63 returns side by side. For full multi-bet scenario modelling, switch to the universal system bet tool.

Want to scale past 6 picks? The Heinz, Super Heinz & Goliath guide runs the same math on 6-8 selection systems, 57 bets, 120 bets, 247 bets, and shows exactly where adding legs stops paying off.