A double chance bet is a twist on the classic 3-way bet (which you can read more about here). Instead of betting on one of the 3 outcomes (team A/draw/team B) you are betting on at least one of 2 of the outcomes happening. So in reality you’re betting against one of the 3 outcomes.
Quick tip: Always calculate the double chance odds vs the 3-way odds. More on this at the bottom of the page.
Example
The best way to explain the double chance bet is to compare the odds to a 3-way bet with the same outcomes. For this example I’m going to use a 2023 Champions League game between Inter Milan and FC Porto. I’ve included a screenshot of the Double Chance odds, and also provided the 3-way odds in text form below to compare. The odds are taken from Sports Interaction:
The 3-way odds (Full Time Result) are as follows:
Inter Milan 1.58
Draw 3.81
FC Porto 5.65
While the double chance odds are:
Inter Milan or Draw 1.15
Draw or FC Porto 1.95
Inter Milan or FC Porto 1.29
If I thought FC Porto was being overlooked in this game, but I wasn’t sure they would win in regulation, it might make sense for me to take the ‘FC Porto or Draw’ double chance bet.
That said, the double chance odds are just the 3-way odds from both the FC Porto outcome and the Draw outcome combined into one. It’s important that you perform a quick calculation to figure out if it’s more advantageous to take the ‘FC Porto or Draw’ double chance bet or to split up your bet between the ‘FC Porto’ and ‘Draw’ 3-way bet options.
How To Calculate Correct Double Chance Odds
To be a winning sports bettor it’s important to always make sure you’re getting the best possible return on your investment. For this reason you should always break down the 3-way bet option vs the double chance bet to see which odds give you the best returns.
Let’s continue with the example of wanting to bet against Inter Milan winning in regulation. If I place a $100 double chance bet on ‘FC Porto or Draw’ I would receive a payout of $195 as long as Inter Milan doesn’t win the game in regulation.
Now let’s split up our bet between ‘FC Porto’ and ‘Draw’ in the normal 3-way betting to make sure the $195 returned from the double chance bet is more than splitting our funds. The first thing I do is divide the double chance payout ($195) by the odds of FC Porto winning (5.65) to figure out how much I would have to bet on FC Porto to get the $195 payout. ($195/5.65=$34.51). This leaves me with $65.49 ($100-$34.51) to bet on the draw. At odds of 3.81 I would receive a payout of $249.52 betting on ‘Draw’ from the 3-way bet. The $249 is greater than the $195 I would get from a draw if I took the double chance bet. So in this instance it makes more sense to split your bet between FC Porto and Draw from the 3-way odds, rather than bet the double chance prop.
Reading that last few paragraphs I found it hard for even me to follow, so here’s it broken down once again.
$100 on FC Porto or Draw @ 1.95 – Pays $195 if FC Porto wins or Draw
$34.51 on FC Porto @ 5.65 – Pays $195 if FC Porto wins
$65.49 on Draw @ 3.81 – Pays $249.52 if Draw
If FC Porto wins you win equal in this example, but if it’s a draw you win more from the 3-way bet than the double chance.
The double chance odds won’t always give you a worse payout than the 3-way odds, so it’s important to do some sort of calculation like this when placing these bets.
