Draw No Bet Meaning: How the Bet Works and Pays

Draw no bet is a bet on one team to win in which a draw returns your stake. You win if your team wins, lose if it loses, and get your money back if the game ends level, so it removes the draw from a three-way market at the cost of a shorter price.

It is mostly a soccer bet, and it also appears in hockey and cricket. This guide shows how it is priced, how to build it yourself from the three-way odds, and when it is worth taking.

How draw no bet works

A soccer match has three results, and the standard market, called 1X2, prices all three: home win, draw, away win. Draw no bet takes the draw out. Say a book has these 1X2 prices, in decimal odds:

Result	Price
Team A to win	1.53
Draw	4.50
Team B to win	5.25

A $100 bet on Team A to win returns $153 if it wins and nothing if the game is drawn. A draw no bet on Team A pays less when it wins, but a draw gives you the $100 back.

What draw no bet should cost

A fair draw no bet price comes straight from the 1X2 prices:

• Draw no bet price: win price x (draw price – 1) / draw price

For Team A that is 1.53 x 3.50 / 4.50, or 1.19. For Team B it is 5.25 x 3.50 / 4.50, or 4.08. If a book offers less than those numbers for draw no bet, it is charging you more for the insurance than the 1X2 market does.

You can check it by building the bet yourself. Put $22.22 on the draw at 4.50 and $77.78 on Team A at 1.53, $100 in all. If Team A wins, the $77.78 returns $119, the same as $100 at 1.19. If the game is drawn, the $22.22 returns $100, your stake back. If Team B wins, you lose the $100. The two bets together are a draw no bet at 1.19.

The rule for the split: the stake on the draw is your total stake divided by the draw price, and the rest goes on the team.

When draw no bet makes sense

It suits a bet on an underdog or a slight favorite in a game you expect to be close. A team at 3.60 to win away, with the draw at 3.40, becomes about 2.54 draw no bet. On a $100 bet the return if it wins falls from $360 to $254, and in return a draw gives you the $100 back, which is a trade worth making if you rate a draw as a real chance.

It suits heavy favorites less. At 1.53 to win and 4.50 for the draw, the insurance cuts the profit on a $100 win from $53 to $19. If you rate the draw as unlikely, you are paying $34 of profit for protection you do not expect to need.

Draw no bet and Asian handicap 0

In soccer, draw no bet is the same bet as an Asian handicap of 0, also written as a level handicap: your team wins, you win; a draw, your stake back; a loss, you lose. Books list them under different names, and the price can differ between the two markets, so compare both.

In hockey and cricket

Hockey books offer a three-way market on regulation time, with the draw as a result. A draw no bet in that market settles on 60 minutes: if your team wins in overtime or a shootout, the bet is treated as a draw and your stake is returned. That is different from the moneyline, which counts overtime and the shootout.

In Test cricket, where five days can end in a draw, draw no bet on a team pays only if that team wins, and a drawn match returns the stake.

Draw no bet in an accumulator

How a drawn draw no bet leg settles in an accumulator is set by each book’s rules. Where it is treated as a void leg, the accumulator carries on without it, at the combined price of the legs that are left, so check the rule before you build one.

For the other soccer markets, see our soccer betting guide.