What is a straight tricast bet?

  

A straight tricast bet is a step up from the straight forecast bet, where instead of betting on which horses will finish first and second, you place your bet on which horses will finish first, second, and third in the race and in the correct order. 

Straight tricast bets can be incredibly lucrative for punters, but they can also be one of the most difficult types of bets to place. 

Straight tricast betting can be incredibly difficult to get right, especially for those who don’t fully understand how they work. That’s why we here at Bonus Bets have put together the following guide to help you get to grips with straight tricast betting. 

Calculating odds and an example

 

For the most part, straight tricast bets are incredibly easy to place, and every major bookmaker will normally offer them as an option. 

The first thing you need to do is to head on over to your prefered bookmakers, and then choose your sport. Most bookmakers will only offer straight tricast bets on racing based sports, so you will probably want to go to horse or dog racing. 

Once you have done that, choose your race and make your three selections from within that race. 

Most bookmakers will offer straight tricast betting in the same way, which is as an option once you have added all three options to your bet slip. 

Those who don’t do that will probably have it either under the specials or other markets tab on the race’s page. 

It is also worth noting that a straight tricast is a single bet, so your stake will not be multiplied when it is entered in the box. 

Now you know how to place a straight tricast, let’s take a look at what a straight tricast bet looks like using horse racing as an example: 

1) Horse A to win the race, Horse B to finish second, Horse C to finish third. 

The bet is fairly straightforward to follow and will only pay out if that exact result comes up. If the horse you have predicted to finish first finishes second or vice versa, then your bet will not be successful.

In terms of calculating odds, things are not quite as straightforward. While some bookmakers may offer you odds when you place your bet, a lot of bookmakers will not and instead the phrase ‘N/A’ may appear in your payout box on your bet slip. 

This is because the payout for a straight tricast, as it is with a straight forecast, will be calculated during the race, so you won’t know what you have won until the race is finished. While this is not usually a problem, some punters may find it quite frustrating. 

Another thing you should be careful of is bookmakers terms and conditions when it comes to non-runners. Most bookmakers will just either turn the bet into a straight forecast if the horse predicted for third fails to run, or run it as a single if two of the three fail to run, while others may offer to return the stake to you, depending on how soon it is before the start of the race. 

If you are unsure on which bookmakers to place a bet with, you can check out our detailed bookmakers reviews using the link at the top of the page. 

Advantages of placing a straight tricast bet

  

Like any type of betting, straight tricast betting comes with its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages, and they are worth knowing before you consider parting ways with your hard earned cash. 

Straight tricast betting is very much a low stake high reward style of betting and is incredibly popular with punters as a result. 

While it can be incredibly difficult to get correct, winning a straight tricast bet can reap huge rewards if it comes in correctly. 

Picking the three horses who will finish first, second and third in any race is incredibly difficult but if you feel as though you have a clear favourite and then two close runners up, then it can be a worthwhile bet to place, especially as you probably wouldn’t need to place a lot of cash on it. 

It can, arguably, be a more sensible bet to place than say, a six or seven fold accumulator as well, which would be another low stake high reward style bet. 

Disadvantages of placing a straight tricast bet

 

Ask any experienced gambler about just how difficult it is to choose just one winning horse and they will chew your ear off, ask them how difficult it is to choose the top three horses in any given race and they will likely just laugh at you. 

In short, getting the top three horses right in any race is incredibly difficult, and that is the biggest reason most experienced gamblers would advise against placing a straight tricast bet. 

While playing the occasional straight tricast bet is not likely to be too damaging, it is almost definitely not going to work as a long term betting strategy, as you are likely to lose more bets than you win. 

Due to the nature of the bet, the most common types of sports to place straight tricast bets on are racing based bets. 

Horse racing and dog racing are by far the most popular sports to place these bets on, and most bookmakers will only offer tricast bets on these sports, while some of the bigger ones may also offer on it on motor racing as well. 

That being said, you can contact most bookmakers and they will allow you to place straight tricast bets on other sports such as football or Rugby, where you can bet on the final outcomes of league standings. 

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