When and How to Use the Double Chance Bet

The Double Chance bet is a fairly unique betting market that predicts two out of three possible outcomes. This fact alone makes it an outlier among its peers – but it’s not the full story. There’s no shortage of misunderstandings about Double Chance betting out there, and we’re here to dispel some of them.

That said, the market itself isn’t particularly exotic. The standard football betting guidelines still apply. First thing’s first, though – let’s start with the basics.

What is Double Chance betting?

In football betting, The Double Chance betting market allows bettors to predict two out of the three possible outcomes of a typical 1X2 wager.

1X2, otherwise known as Result bets, can end in one of three possible ways. Either the Home team wins, the Away team wins, or the match ends in a Draw. Double Chance allows you to pick any two of these as the winning condition for the bet. Obviously, this comes at a price of dramatically reducing the odds. How the odds are affected depends on which of the three possibilities you chose:

• Option 1: Home Win & Draw
• Option 2: Away Win & Home Win
• Option 3: Away Win & Draw

By and large, option two shortens the odds the most. As such, punters rarely go for it – most of the time the odds are too short to have value. This means that, in practice, Double Chance bets are used to win wagers even if a draw occurs. However, unlike the Draw No Bet market, Double Chance wins fully no matter which of the two outcomes comes true. It’s a fairly versatile market.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Now that you know what is Double Chance in football betting, we can take a look at why you would want such a wager in the first place.

The Good

Statistically, this market can pretty much double your chance of winning. Think of it this way – a Result bet boasts a 33% chance of success before we factor in betting odds. Odds are kind of a big deal, of course, but the base chance is always based on a 1 out of 3 choice. This means that Double Chance effectively doubles your probability of winning. In general, statistics and betting theory are largely in favour of small, low-risk low-reward bets.

If you want to see your bankroll increase steadily over a long period, you may want to consider Double Chance. This is generally seen as the best way of doing things rather than chasing the near-mythical “Big Score.”

The low-risk nature of this market makes it suitable for accumulators. Used in such a way, the intention is to dampen the innately risky nature of accas. Actually, we often feature Double Chance acca tips for this exact reason. Making Double Chance betting predictions is overall a lot less thankless than most other markets.

By the same principles, you can also use these wagers to finally back the underdog for once. Underdog betting in football is often not the best move, but this market can at least give your wager a fighting chance.

The Bad

The downsides should be obvious – low odds translate to low returns. Also, the fact that Double Chance covers two outcomes can make value calculations more complicated. Sometimes, a Draw is not a likely outcome or one you need to protect yourself from. For example, you can habitually find instances on top online bookmakers where two separate 1X2 bets would offer better odds. Be on the lookout for these – you don’t want to lower your returns for no reason at all.

Double Chance Betting Tips

We’ll round this page off with a basic Double Chance betting strategy guide. While these tips are common for a lot of forms of soccer betting, they should still help you get started.

Though we kind of slammed underdog betting above, a Double Chance bet on an underdog win or draw is typically the best option. For one, the odds on favourite bets are short enough as it is. Including the possibility of the favourite playing sub-par gives you some leeway, but it’s rarely good enough. Of course, here we’re just assuming you’re looking for a single Double Chance soccer bet.

Think of it this way: if you’re backing the favourites, you’re already confident that they’re the better team. On the other hand, backing underdogs means that you’re hoping to beat the odds. Betting on Double Chance just extends the possibilities in which the ‘dog can make an upset. Besides, the main reason punters pick weaker teams is for the possible returns. You can afford to shed a few pounds off your bet slip.

With all that in mind, remember that Asian Handicaps and Double Chance go hand-in-hand. Both are designed to make underdog bets more enticing – combine them for the best effect.