A Goliath bet is the Moby Dick of the gambling world. It’s the biggest combination bet you can place and it consists of an astonishing 247 bets placed over eight different selections. The bet is made up of one eightfold accumulator, eight sevenfold accumulators, twenty-eight sixfold accumulators, fifty-six fourfold accumulators, seventy trebles, and twenty-eight doubles. 

Needless to say, placing a Goliath bet can be incredibly lucrative, but you can also lose some pretty serious money if the bet doesn’t work out for you. 

Placing your first ever Goliath bet can be a nerve-racking and somewhat confusing experience, so we here at Bonus Bets have created the following guide to help talk you through exactly what a Goliath bet would look like. 

Before you even consider tackling a Goliath bet, you should take the time to explore how to place some smaller bets using our types of bets using the link at the top of the page. 

Calculating odds and an example

 

Spending too long trying to work out exactly what a Goliath bet looks like is a guaranteed way to give yourself a headache. As its name suggests, it is a colossal number of bets to be placing and working out exactly what each individual bet looks like would take you days. 

Thankfully, the majority of bookmakers are well aware of this and will build the bet for you, meaning that you don’t have to spend your time working out exactly how to do it. 

The first thing you should do is to head over to your prefered bookmakers and select the sport and events you are looking to place your bets on. 

Once you have done this, you should add your six selections to your betting slips. Most bookmakers will offer the Goliath bet for you on the slip, if they don’t, then you should probably save yourself a lot of time and try and find one that does, as the majority should do. 

Working out the odds for a Goliath bet can also be as equally confusing, so your best option is to head on over to an odds or a Goliath calculator to work out exactly what your returns are likely to be, depending on all of the possible outcomes. 

It is also worth noting that the money you place in the stake will be multiplied by 247, which can be a very nasty surprise if you are not expecting it. 

It is also possible to place an each-way Goliath, which would take the number of bets you are placing up to a staggering 494 bets- 247 bets on your selection to win, and 247 on your selection to place. It is worth noting that if you do this, your stake will be multiplied by 494 and is likely to be incredibly high, regardless of how small the original stake is. 

If you are unsure as to which bookmakers to use to place your bet, then you can check out our detailed bookmakers reviews using the bookmakers reviews link at the top of the page. 

Goliath bets can be incredibly costly bets to place, but due to the incredible returns they often offer, you don’t actually need to stake too much money. 

For example, if you were to stake just 10p, your Goliath bet would then come to £24.70, but the returns would still likely be incredible if all eight of your selections were to come in. 

Goliath betting can prove to be a very smart gambling tactic if it is used during big events such as football tournaments or big race meets, where there are plenty of events and selections available in a short period of time.  

Spreading a Goliath bet over a series of events during Cheltenham week, for example,  can prove to be very fruitful, especially if it is partnered up with a few each-way bets here and there. 

It should be noted however that a Goliath bet is often only really used by more experienced gamblers due to the sheer number of bets that are being placed and the complex nature of working out your winnings. 

Goliaths are perhaps best used when you find you are regularly being let down by a couple of bets on accumulators and you are not seeing any profit, despite often getting five or six results correct on a bet. 

Needless to say, if all eight of your selections come in, then you will also make a very tidy profit, one which would be much higher than if you had just placed a more conventional eightfold accumulator. 

Disadvantages of placing a Goliath bet

 

A Goliath bet can offer some a serious payout for anyone brave enough to place one, but it can also prove to be a very costly bet to lose. 

You need at least two of your eight selections to come in for you to win a bet, and even then, you are more likely to suffer a loss on the stake that you placed. You will probably need at least three of your selections to come in just to break even, while you would probably need four or more to come in to see any sort of profit, which once again demonstrates the risky nature of this bet. 

Types of sports you can place a Goliath bet on

 

A Goliath bet can be placed on any sport that bookmakers will allow you to place a bet on. 

That being said, the bet is better suited to some types of sports than others. Sports which feature a wide range of daily fixtures, most notably football, are definitely better to place this kind of bet on. As with every type of bet, football and horse racing still remain as the most popular types of sport to place this bet on. 

If you are unsure as to how to bet on an individual sport, please check out our detailed how to bet guides using the link at the top of the page.