What Is Draw No Bet & How To Use It?

Draw no bet

❓What is this type of bet?
💡Draw no Bet example
⚽When to use Draw No Bet?
⚽Sports concerned by this bet

Bookmakers nowadays do an excellent job with their betting market offer, ensuring that punters have enough options to bet on whatever and however, they desire. In this article, we'll look at another tool made for bettors’ convenience - Draw No Bet, a very popular betting market used by sports bettors on three-way markets.

But what is Draw No Bet, how do we use it and are there any alternatives? We have all the answers here.

What Is Draw No Bet?

Draw No Bet (or DNB) is a betting market whose main purpose is to remove the possibility of a draw in three-way betting markets.

In other words, DNB is a bet a punter can place on any sporting event which has three possible outcomes – Team A wins, a draw or Team B wins. By using this type of bet, the match they bet on now only has two outcomes – Team A wins or Team B wins.

So instead of betting on either:

Team A win
Draw
Team B win

A DNB betting market will have just two options:

Team A DNB
Team B DNB

The main idea behind Draw No Bet is that if the game ends in a draw, you won't lose your stake as you would with a 1x2 bet. Instead, your bet is settled as a push and your initial stake will be refunded.

The main advantage of Draw no Bet is that it offers risk-averse bettors an alternative way to bet on their favourite games. Admittedly, DNB is not the ultimate solution to losing your bets to a draw, but it does reduce variability, which can be a positive thing.

This might sound confusing for those unfamiliar with how betting markets work, so let's look at an example of a Premier League football match.

Draw No Bet In Action

To better understand how Draw No Bet works, it's best to look at an example to see how it differs from the 1x2 betting markets.

As we've already established, the 1x2 are "traditional betting markets" where you are betting on three possible outcomes. Those are described in the market's name (1x2):

1 - Team A wins
x - draw
2 - Team B wins

With Draw No Bet, the possibility of betting on a draw is removed, leaving us with just two options – either you back Team A to win or Team B to win.

Let's say we want to bet on a match between Chelsea and Everton. The bookmaker has set the odds on the 1x2 market at:

Everton: 1.53
Draw: 4.50
Chelsea: 5.25

If you bet on either of the two teams to win and the game ends in a draw, your wager will be settled as a loss. However, if you were to bet on either team with DNB, the outcome would look much different.

Since DNB bets remove the possibility of a draw, any games which end in a tie will be settled as a push, i.e. you will get your stake back. In other words, by betting with DNB, you can no longer lose money on draws.

But this luxury comes at a cost.

Because Draw No Bet removes one of the possible outcomes from the equation, the offered odds on Team A with a 1x2 betting market and DNB market will not be the same. You’ll find that the odds are consistently lower on the DNB market.

When To Use Draw No Bet

As noted, DNB markets will usually have worse odds available than the 1x2 market, which makes sense since Draw No Bet significantly reduces variance and leaves you with only one possible scenario where you lose money.

However, sometimes it's wiser to avoid using Draw No Bet and instead place two separate bets on the team you want to bet on and on a draw – essentially making your own DNB bet.

From the example above, where Liverpool is priced at 1.53 to defeat Chelsea on 1x2 betting markets, the bookmakers offer 1.15 on Liverpool DNB and 3.80 on Chelsea DNB. To figure out if that's a fair offer, we can calculate the real DNB odds using the formula:

Team A DNB Odds = (1-(1/1x2 draw odds)) * 1x2 Team A Odds

For Liverpool:

Liverpool DNB Odds = 1(1/4.50) * 1.53 = 1.34

In this case, the DNB market is 0.09 below the accurate odds; therefore, it makes way more sense not to use DNB and instead place separate bets on Liverpool and draw (on 1x2 betting markets). To do so, you need a formula to calculate the stakes.

Stake on a Draw = (total stake/draw odds)
Stake on Team A = (total stake – draw stake)

Assuming you want to bet €100 on the match, your stakes should look as follows:

Stake on a Draw = (100/4.50) = €22.2
Stake on Liverpool = (€100 – €22.2) = €77.8

By placing €22.2 on a draw and €77.8 on Liverpool (on 1x2 betting markets), you would create the same position as if you had placed a DNB bet on Liverpool. But you're getting more for your money since the offered DNB odds were below what they should be.

Draw No Bet is a very efficient tool for sports bettors, especially those who are looking for a convenient way to remove variance from their betting. However, as we've seen, DNB betting markets can have slightly worse odds than what you would get placing separate bets.

That doesn't mean that Draw No Bet is a bad choice, and it won't always have worse odds than two separate bets on 1x2 betting markets. Ultimately, the DNB market is a convenient way to place lower-risk bets without having to get too in-depth on the mathematics involved.

Which Sports Can Draw No Bet Be Used For?

Football
Cricket
Australian rules
Chess
Boxing
Ice hockey
Horse racing
racing sports
Basketball
American football

There are several sports on which you can use the Draw No Bet wager. As you can see from the examples given above, football is the main one in which it can be utilized. The fact that there are three possible end results allow this to be used.

It is the same situation in many other sports though. We simply need to be betting on a sport that has the capability of finishing in a draw. This criteria rules out for example a tennis match where it is not possible for a draw to occur. However, it is the case for example in many American sports such as basketball, ice-hockey and American Football.

You do need to remember that the bet is applied to the end of the normal playing period unless specified otherwise by the bookmaker.

Draws aren’t very common in rugby but they do occur from time to time. A draw no bet wager is possible for this sport. The same applies to boxing, cricket and handball where it is possible for a bout/match to be drawn. Always check with the bookmaker to see whether or not it is possible to place a Draw No bet wager as it can help you make a profit.

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