Draw no bet and double chance are the two markets that take the draw out of a three way soccer bet: draw no bet refunds your stake if the match ends level, while double chance pays you if your team wins or draws. Most American markets have two outcomes. Soccer has three, and a moneyline loses on two of them, so a moneyline bettor is regularly beaten by a scoreline nobody won. Both markets below are built from the same Home, Draw, Away board, and both charge for the fix the same way: a shorter price in exchange for covering the draw.
What draw no bet means
Draw no bet removes the draw from the equation. Your team wins and you get paid. The match is drawn and your stake comes back in full. Your team loses and the bet loses. You are betting head to head on which side is better with the tie thrown out, so the price is always shorter than that team's moneyline. That gap is what the insurance costs.
What double chance means
Double chance puts two of the three outcomes on one ticket. 1X is home win or draw, X2 is draw or away win, and 12 is home or away, which loses only on a draw. The usual play is 1X or X2, backing a team to avoid defeat. Here a draw is a full winner rather than a refund, and since getting paid beats getting your money back, double chance is the shorter price of the two.
A worked example: one board, three ways to bet the same team
Take a match where the fair board is a 50% home win, a 25% draw and a 25% away win. Those add to exactly 100%, so there is no margin on top and every price below is honest. The home moneyline is 1 divided by 0.50, or 2.00 in decimal, which is +100. The draw and the away side are each +300.
Draw no bet on the home side wins on 50% of results and is refunded on 25%, so money is only at risk across the other 75%. Divide 50 by 75 and you get 66.67%, or -200. Risk $100 to win $50. Double chance 1X wins on the home win and the draw together, 75% flat, which is -300. Risk $100 to win $33.33.
50%
25%
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Same team, same read on the match. All three prices are fair, so all three return exactly zero over the long run. What changes is how often you get paid and how much.
Run the value on each and all three come to zero. Draw no bet wins $50 on 50% of results and loses $100 on 25%, so $25 against $25. Double chance wins $33.33 on 75% and loses $100 on 25%, again $25 against $25. One board, three tickets, identical value. You are picking a shape, not an edge.
Draw no bet is two bets in a trench coat
Neither market is a special product. Build one by hand and you see where the price comes from. Put $25 of a $100 stake on the draw at 4.00 and $75 on the home win at 2.00. A draw returns $100, so you finish level, which is the refund. A home win returns $150, so you are up $50. That is -200, the draw no bet number to the cent, and double chance is the same trick with the legs sized to return $133.33 either way. When a posted price is worse than the one you can build yourself, that gap is the margin.
Which one to use
Take draw no bet when your team is better but you doubt they can break down a stubborn opponent. Take double chance when avoiding defeat is the whole thesis: a road underdog at a strong home side, or a team happy to leave with a point. Take neither when you are simply nervous. Buying insurance you do not need is the quietest way these tickets bleed a bankroll. If your own estimate beats the moneyline, bet the moneyline.
Where the margin hides
Whatever margin sits in the three way board is inside the derived price too, often with extra on top. The check takes ten seconds: convert the posted price back to a percentage and compare it against the board. The fair draw no bet number above is 66.67%. Posted at -250, it implies 250 divided by 350, or 71.43%. That gap of 4.76 percentage points is the fee, not a different opinion about the match. Build your own board with the Poisson calculator and you have something to measure the posted one against, the habit at the center of soccer betting strategy.
The short version
Draw no bet refunds you on a level scoreline. Double chance pays you on it. Both trade payout for coverage, and neither creates value on its own. That comes from your estimate of the three outcomes and the price you get for it. For another angle on the same match, both teams to score ignores the result entirely.
Draw no bet and double chance FAQ
What does draw no bet mean?
Draw no bet means you back one team to win and get your full stake refunded if the match ends in a draw, so only a loss by your team costs you money. It turns a three outcome soccer market into a two outcome bet by removing the tie, which is why it always pays less than that team's moneyline. On a fair board of a 50% home win and a 25% draw, draw no bet on the home side is worth 66.67%, or -200.
What is the difference between draw no bet and double chance?
The difference is how a draw settles: draw no bet refunds your stake on a draw, while double chance treats the draw as a full winner and pays you. Getting paid beats getting your money back, so double chance is always the shorter price of the two on the same side. On a fair 50% home, 25% draw, 25% away board, draw no bet on the home side prices at -200 and double chance 1X at -300.
Is double chance a good bet?
Double chance is a good bet only when your own estimate of the two outcomes it covers beats what the price implies, because the market gives away no value on its own. A 1X ticket at -300 needs the home side to avoid defeat 75% of the time just to break even, and it loses the full stake on every away win. Use it when avoiding defeat is your actual read, not when you are only nervous about a side you already think is better.
Both markets are the three way board with a fee folded in, and that fee is usually bigger on the derived price than on the plain one. On BettorEdge community odds you set your own number against another real bettor instead of paying a house cut to cover the draw. Open BettorEdge and get this price for real, peer-to-peer.
Read the line, then beat it.
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