Popular among horse racing and football punters, a Super Flag bet is a combination bet that comprises all possible multiple bets that can be placed on five selections in five different events.
The name Super Flag is derived from the fact that the different bet combinations in a standard Flag bet can be visualized using the the diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines as they appear in the British flag.
While the Super Flag bet may seem complicated, it is fairly easy understand when broken down into separate multiple bets.
And unlike many other large combination bets has the potential to return a profit on just two winning selections without having to place high risk bets.
A Super Flag bet starts in the same place as all other bets – in the betting markets.
To place the bet you will first need to make your selections.
While you can use selections across any five sports, most punters will stick to a particular type of bet in one sport. For example placing five race winner bets on five different horse races.
If you’re betting online, the option to place a Super Flag bet may automatically appear on the betting slip once five eligible selections are made.
If not, you may need to contact the bookie to ask them to place the Super Flag.
Placing the Super Flag yourself by placing each of the component bets is not recommended. For a start you will need to place 46 bets, and to complicate matters you’re unlikely to find the option to place up-and-down bets at an online bookie.
What are up and down bets, you ask?
An up-and-down bet is different to the standard multiple bets that feature in a Super Flag, and each up-and-down bet is comprised of two any-to-come bets.
Any-to-come bets are basically conditional doubles bets – if the first selection in an any-to-come bet wins, the stake is automatically placed on the second selection of the bet.
In an up-and-down bet, two any-to-come bets are placed on the two selections.
If the first selection wins, an equivalent stake is placed on the second selection.
Likewise if the second selection wins, an equivalent stake is placed on the first selection.
With the any-to-come bets working in both directions, the bet is called an up-and-down bet.
And it’s the second bet, the stake on the winning second selection being placed on the first selection, that cannot be placed manually and requires assistance from bookies.
After your Super Flag bet is set up you will need to decide what amount you want to stake on each of the sub-bets, keeping in mind that this number will be multiplied by 46.
Once that is done you can wait for the results from your events to come in.
In order to generate a return from your Super Flag bet at least two selections must win their events, which will trigger payouts on one double bet and one of your any-to-come bets.
Making a profit on your Super Flag bet will typically required at least three of your selections to win with their odds averaging at above Evens.
However, if two selections with higher odds win, you can earn a profit off a Super Flag. Using horse racing as an example, two winning selections backed with £1 at a price of 5/1 will generate a profit on a Super Flag bet.
Super Flag betting strategy
This combination bet type is better suited to a more risky strategy than many other large combination bets.
That’s because making selections at odds that reflect moderate risk can generate a profit even if two picks win.
And if four or five of your picks win, you’re going to be pocketing some serious money when the bet pays out.
Using horse racing as an example, if you were to back five horses to win their respective races at a moderately risky price of 5/1 and a base stake of £1, your Flag Bet returns would look like this:
1 winning selection, all bets lose, forfeit stake
2 winners – £42 profit
3 winners – £374 profit
4 winners – £2482 profit
5 winners – £16,950 profit
As you can see, the returns on a winning bet with a base stake of just £1 can be considerable.
If you’d bet the same stake total across five winning singles at the same prices, you’d have made a total profit of just £230!
While taking some risk is recommended for Super Flag bets, you can also take a more conservative approach and only target strong favourites that have a high probability of winning.
By doing this you can significantly increase the payout you’ll get if all five of these selections win, compared to if you’d backed each of them with single stakes in five separate bets.
As a simple example, you could back five top seed tennis players in the first round of a grand slam tennis open like Wimbledon.
If you set up a Super Flag bet to back five players at odds of 1/5 to win their matches with a base stake of £1 you could generate a total profit of £26.54 against your overall bet stake of £46. This would give you cumulative odds of around 25/14.
By comparison, if you’d split £46 up into five separate single stake bets at odds of 1/5 , all of your bets winning would have generated a return of £9.20 – close to a third of what’d you’ve have made off a winning Super Flag bet.
Even if four selections in a conservative Super Flag win, the single losing selection will usually push the entire bet into losing money.
However, the same is true of placing five singles at very low odds. In that case the slender winnings from the winning single stakes won’t be enough to cover for the cost of the single bet that loses.
Super flag bet calculator
While bookies that offer Super Flag bets on their betting slips will calculate the returns on Super Flags where all bets win, it is helpful to use a specialized Super Flag calculator to calculate your returns across all the different bet types.
This Super Flag calculator allows you to calculate the payout for a different number of selections winning their events and adjust the odds for each selection to see how this influences payouts.
What online bookies accept a Super Flag bet?
At the moment no major bookmakers offer Super Flag bets as a standard option to their customers. In order to place a Super Flag bet you will need to contact your bookie’s customer support team and ask them if they are able to set up the bet for you.
Placing a Super Flag bet can generate exponentially higher cumulative odds and profits than placing single bets on the same five selections using the same total stake.
For example backing five horses at Even odds in a Super Flag with a total stake of £46 will generated a £246 profit. Backing the same five horses at Evens using singles would generate a profit of just £46.
How to calculate Super Flag winnings
While you could calculate Super Flag winnings by working out the return on each individual bet type, this is difficult and unnecessary.
Instead, you can use a Super Flag bet calculator to do the heavy lifting for you. A bet calculator allows you to vary the odds and stakes on five selections, as well as their win status, to determine how much you’ll win for the various permutations of the bet.
What sports work well with a Super Flag bet?
While horse racing and football are both popular options, the best sport for a Super Flag bet is the one you know the most about. As with any form of sports betting, the best way to make a profit is to be able to identify and capitalize on odds that are not an accurate reflection of how likely the bet is to win.
This could mean betting on a horse race where you know an outsider has been underrated, or being able to pick a winning goal-scorer bet in the football betting markets.
Do all picks have to win on a Super Flag bet?
No, you’ll need only two selections to win in order to earn a payout from a Super Flag bet. And if the odds on those two selections are high enough you can even generate a profit!
Are there other types of flag bets?
Yes, a flag bet is a smaller less advanced version of this bet type, featuring four selections and 23 sub-bets. The stake for a Flag bet will therefore cost half of the stake for an equivalent Super Flag with its 46 bets.
