What Is A Flag In Betting

Written By: Richard Smith
Last Updated: July 5, 2023

If you are looking for an answer to the question “What Is a Flag Bet?” then you are on the right page, as well explain this advanced bet in thorough detail.

I like to think of the Flag bet as a Yankee bet on steroids, as it combines a total of 23 bets.

11 of those are the same bets you find in a standard Yankee (6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 fourfold) + 6 single stakes about bets which when added brings the total to 23 bets.

It is important to note that a single stakes about bet has two separate combinations (So 6 x 2 = 12 bets)

On this page we’ll answer the questions:

  • How much does a Flag bet cost?
  • How many combinations does a Flag Bet have?
  • How does a Flag bet work?

We’ll explain and show you how many selections the Flag bet has and how the 23 different combinations work for this bet.

See also: Multiple Bet Types Explained.

The information below is explained in a simple format using tables and screenshots to help you understand the Flag bet.

HOW MUCH DOES A £0.20p FLAG COST?

Depending on your betting style and how much your budget is, will decide how much a Flag bet will cost. You can do these bets for small or large stakes depending on if you are a low roller or high roller. Don’t forget that you should only bet with amounts (leisure money) you can afford to lose.

Check out the table below, which shows you how much it costs for a twenty-pence Flag.

FLAG BET STAKETOTAL COST
£0.10p Win£2.30
£0.10p Each Way£4.60
£0.20p Win£4.60
£0.20p Each Way£9.20
£0.25p Win£5.75
£0.25p Each Way£11.50
£0.50p Win£11.50
£0.50p Each Way£23.00
£1.00p Win£23.00
£1.00 Each Way£46.00
£5.00p Win£115.00
£5.00 Each Way£230.00

The Flag is a unique bet as it contains four selections like a traditional Yankee bet, but is a little different as explained below.

This is a great bet for advanced punters. It combines doubles, trebles, a fourfold accumulator, as well as six single stakes about bets.

So you have 23 separate bets that are within a Flag bet, and the great thing is that you only need one selection to be successful to get a return on your initial outlay.

HOW MANY COMBINATIONS DOES A FLAG BET HAVE?

In the table below you can see how many combinations in total the Flag has.

BET TYPENO OF COMBINATIONS
Single Stakes About6 (each SSA has two combinations making 12 bets)
Doubles6
Trebles4
Fourfolds1
Fivefolds0
Sixfolds0
Sevenfolds0
Eightfolds0
Ninefolds0
Tenfolds0

Understanding the different combinations is important with any type of bet, but very much so with the Flag bet.

This is more of an advanced betting strategy but can be used for win and each way bets

Firstly you will want to select your horses, so let’s look at four mythical selections, and for this example, we’ll use a £1.00p win stake, so your total outlay is £23.

  • Selection A – 3/1
  • Selection B – 4/1
  • Selection C – 5/1
  • Selection D – 6/1

Off course, we want to win if possible, but also eliminate as much risk as possible. The table below shows how all of the different forty-six bets work with selections A, B, C, & D.

SINGLE STAKES ABOUTDOUBLESTREBLESFOURFOLDSFIVEFOLDS
ABA BA B CA B C DA B C D E
BAA CA B DA B C E
ACA DA B EA B D E
CAA EA C DA C D E
ADB CA C EB C D E
DAB DA D E
BCB EB C D
CBC DB C E
BDC EB D E
DBD EC D E
CD
DC

HOW DO SINGLE STAKES ABOUT BETS WORK?

In relation to the Flag Bet, we want to show you all of the “Single Stakes About” combinations in a Flag, as we realise this needs to be explained fully.

Remember, we have six Single Stakes About options which give us 12 of our 23 total bets as shown below.

Below you will find an explanation and calculation of all of the single stakes about bets using our example odds of 3/1, 4/1, 5/1 and 6/1.

Bet 1:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • We keep £3 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection 2.
  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £8.

Bet 2:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • We keep £4 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection 1.
  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £8.

Bet 3:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • We keep £3 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection C.
  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £9.

Bet 4:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • We keep £5 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection A.
  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £9.

Bet 5:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • We keep £3 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection D.
  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £10.

Bet 6:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection A at 3/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • We keep £6 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection A.
  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £10.

Bet 7:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • We keep £4 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection C.
  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £10.

Bet 8:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • We keep £5 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection B.
  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £10.

Bet 9:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • We keep £4 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection D.
  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £11.

Bet 10:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection B at 4/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • We keep £6 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection B.
  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £11.

Bet 11:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • We keep £5 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection D.
  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £12.

Bet 12:
Part 1: Bet £1 on selection D at 6/1.
Part 2: Bet £1 on selection C at 5/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • We keep £6 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection C.
  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the Flag bet of £12.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU WIN WITH A FLAG BET?

So how many winners do we need to break even or make a profit with the Flag bet if we were using stakes of £1.00?

Let’s look at a few scenarios. Don’t forget, you only need one winner to get a return with this bet, but of course, one winner is not going to be enough to get you a profit.

Scenario 1

So let’s presume our two shortest-priced selections have won at 3/1 and 4/1.

This would give us a double plus two single stakes about single bets.

Double

The double would net us a return of £20.00

Single Stakes About A&B

Part 1: Bet on selection A at 3/1.
Part 2: Bet on selection B at 4/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • We keep £3 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection B.
  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the bet of £8.

Single Stakes About B&A

Part 1: Bet on selection B at 4/1.
Part 2: Bet on selection A at 3/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection B wins then we have a return of £5.
  • We keep £4 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection A.
  • So if selection A wins then we have a return of £4.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the bet of £8.

This means that with scenario 1, we would have made a return of £36, so a profit of £13 on our original outlay of £23

Scenario 2

So let’s presume our two longest-priced selections have won at 5/1 and 6/1.

This would give us a double plus two single stakes about single bets.

Double

The double would net us a return of £42.00

Single Stakes About C&D

Part 1: Bet on selection C at 5/1.
Part 2: Bet on selection D at 6/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • We keep £5 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection D.
  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the bet of £12.

Single Stakes About D&C

Part 1: Bet on selection D at 6/1.
Part 2: Bet on selection C at 5/1 if sufficient funds are remaining from part 1.

  • So if selection D wins then we have a return of £7.
  • We keep £6 as profit and place the remaining £1 on selection C.
  • So if selection C wins then we have a return of £6.
  • This gives us a total profit on this portion of the bet of £12.

This means that with scenario 2, we would have made a total return of £66, so a profit of £43 on our original outlay of £23.

AND WHAT IF ALL FIVE OF OUR FLAG BET SELECTIONS WIN?

If you are wondering how much the return would be if we had all four horses win in this example, then the total return would be £1777 for an outlay of £23.

In our example we used £1 as our example stake, but you can also place this bet for smaller or larger stakes.

You will need to check with your online bookmaker or local high-street bookmaker, as this is not a common bet nowadays,

CONCLUSION

I had a lot of fun researching the Flag bet and hopefully, you’ll have learned more about what a Flag bet is, and you can now understand exactly how all the combinations work for this bet.

You might also want to check out the other types of flag bets including the Super Flag, the Heinz Flag, the Super Heinz Flag and the Goliath Flag.

If you like placing combination bets then you might wan to follow our horse racing expert Richard Smith here at Ontheballbets and his regular pieces on all the big race meetings including the Cheltenham Festival, The Grand National, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood, Qatar Prix De L’Arc de Triomphe, Breeders Cup, The Melbourne Cup.

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING

The information on this page and across the Ontheballbets website is meant for entertainment purposes and should be viewed as such.

If you are betting on horse racing or any other sport then please make sure to bet responsibly. Only bet an amount that you can comfortably afford to lose.

If you feel you have a friend or relative who has an issue with gambling, then there are groups and organisations that can offer support, such as BeGambleAware, GamStop and The National Gambling Helpline.

Richard Smith
Richard Smith

I am a total sports fan, in particular horse racing, football and golf, and have been writing about these and other sports for a number of years. I have had the chance to attend many of the biggest horse racing events in my time and my sporting claim to fame has to be winning the inaugural RacingTV Tipstar contest back in 2014. When not watching or writing about sports and sports betting I like to take an interest in cryptocurrency, and last but not least spending time and playing with my two young grandchildren.

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