Round Robin Bet Example: Three Horses, Every Payout Shown

Theory is useful. Numbers are better. A round robin bet example with real fractional odds, named horses, and every payout calculated removes the guesswork and shows exactly how the ten components interact when things go right, half right, and badly wrong.

This walkthrough takes three horses in an afternoon card at Kempton Park, assigns each one its odds, and runs a £1 unit stake round robin from start to finish. You will see how the three doubles pay, what the treble adds when everything clicks, and how the six SSA singles cushion a partial result. By the end, you will know what hits your account in every scenario — numbers, not theory.

Setting the Scene: Horses, Odds, and Stake

Kempton Park, a Saturday afternoon in spring. Three races, three selections, all priced in traditional UK fractional odds. The average field size on British Flat cards in 2025 sat at 8.90 runners per race according to the BHA Racing Report, so these races are typical mid-card affairs — competitive enough to offer value, small enough to study form.

Here are the picks:

• Selection A — Doyen’s Star: 3/1 (decimal 4.00)
• Selection B — Chapel Gate: 5/2 (decimal 3.50)
• Selection C — River Anthem: 4/1 (decimal 5.00)

Unit stake: £1. Total outlay: £10 (three doubles at £1 each, one treble at £1, six SSA singles at £1 each).

These odds sit in the mid-range — none is a red-hot favourite, none is a 20/1 outsider. That matters because the round robin’s SSA component performs best when selections carry enough odds to fund the conditional second leg from the first leg’s winnings. At very short prices, the SSA returns almost nothing above stake; at very long prices, the treble dominates and the SSA becomes background noise.

Calculating Each of the 10 Bets

Let us assume all three horses win, then strip away winners to see how the returns change. First, every component in full.

The Three Doubles

Double 1 (A + B): A wins at 3/1, B wins at 5/2. The return on a £1 double is calculated by multiplying the decimal odds: 4.00 × 3.50 = £14.00 total return (£13.00 profit).

Double 2 (A + C): 4.00 × 5.00 = £20.00 total return (£19.00 profit).

Double 3 (B + C): 3.50 × 5.00 = £17.50 total return (£16.50 profit).

If all three win, the doubles alone return £51.50 from a £3 outlay. If only two of the three win, one double still pays. If only one wins, all three doubles lose.

The Treble

Treble (A + B + C): 4.00 × 3.50 × 5.00 = £70.00 total return (£69.00 profit).

The treble is the high-ceiling component. It requires all three to land, so it is the first thing to disappear when a selection loses. Think of it as a bonus, not a foundation.

The Six SSA Singles

Each SSA pair works like this: if the first leg wins, the profit (not the total return) funds a single bet at £1 on the second leg. The pair costs £1 regardless of whether the first leg triggers the second.

SSA 1 (A→B): Doyen’s Star wins at 3/1. Profit = £3. A £1 single is placed on Chapel Gate at 5/2, leaving £2 in hand. Chapel Gate wins: return = £3.50. Combined SSA return = £2 (leftover profit from A) + £3.50 = £5.50 total return from this pair.

SSA 2 (B→A): Chapel Gate wins at 5/2. Profit = £2.50. A £1 single goes on Doyen’s Star at 3/1, leaving £1.50 in hand. Doyen’s Star wins: return = £4.00. Combined = £1.50 + £4.00 = £5.50.

SSA 3 (A→C): A wins, profit £3. Deduct £1 for the single on C at 4/1, leaving £2 in hand. C wins: £5.00. Combined = £2 + £5 = £7.00.

SSA 4 (C→A): C wins, profit £4. Deduct £1 for the single on A at 3/1, leaving £3 in hand. A wins: £4.00. Combined = £3 + £4 = £7.00.

SSA 5 (B→C): B wins, profit £2.50. Deduct £1 for the single on C at 4/1, leaving £1.50 in hand. C wins: £5.00. Combined = £1.50 + £5 = £6.50.

SSA 6 (C→B): C wins, profit £4. Deduct £1 for the single on B at 5/2, leaving £3 in hand. B wins: £3.50. Combined = £3 + £3.50 = £6.50.

With all three winning, the six SSA pairs return a total of £38.00 from a £6 outlay. This is less dramatic than the treble’s return, but the SSA component is far more resilient to partial results.

All Ten Bets Combined — All Three Win

Doubles: £51.50. Treble: £70.00. SSA: £38.00. Grand total: £159.50 from a £10 stake. Profit: £149.50.

Summary of Returns by Scenario

The all-winners scenario is pleasant to imagine but statistically unlikely. Favourites on British racecourses win around 30 to 35 percent of the time, according to analysis by GrandNational.fans. Our three selections are not even favourites — they are mid-price picks at 3/1, 5/2, and 4/1. The probability of all three winning simultaneously, assuming independent outcomes at implied odds, is roughly 4 to 5 percent. That is why the treble pays so generously and why it fires so rarely.

Here is what each scenario actually delivers.

Three winners (A, B, C all win): Total return £159.50. Profit £149.50. Every component pays.

Two winners — A and B win, C loses: Double 1 (A+B) pays £14.00. Doubles 2 and 3 lose (both include C). Treble loses. SSA 1 (A→B) pays £5.50. SSA 2 (B→A) pays £5.50. SSA 3 (A→C): A wins, triggers £1 single on C, C loses — you keep the £2 leftover from A’s profit. SSA 4 (C→A): C loses, no trigger — lost £1. SSA 5 (B→C): B wins, triggers £1 on C, C loses — you keep the £1.50 leftover from B’s profit. SSA 6 (C→B): C loses, no trigger — lost £1. Total return: approximately £28.50. Profit: approximately £18.50.

One winner — only A wins: All doubles lose. Treble loses. SSA 1 (A→B): A wins, triggers single on B, B loses. You keep £2 leftover from A’s profit. SSA 2 (B→A): B loses, no trigger — lost £1. SSA 3 (A→C): same pattern, A wins, triggers single on C, C loses. You keep £2. SSA 4 (C→A): lost £1. SSA 5 (B→C): lost £1. SSA 6 (C→B): lost £1. Total return from SSA: £4. Total return overall: £4 from a £10 stake. Loss: £6.

Zero winners: Every component loses. Total return: £0. Loss: £10.

Scenario	Total Return	Profit / Loss
3 winners	£159.50	+£149.50
2 winners (A + B)	≈ £28.50	≈ +£18.50
1 winner (A only)	≈ £4.00	≈ –£6.00
0 winners	£0	–£10.00

The two-winner scenario is the round robin’s sweet spot — a meaningful profit even though the treble is dead. That is the structural advantage over a Trixie, which would also return something with two winners but lacks the SSA cushion. The one-winner scenario still hurts, but the SSA pairs recover a portion of the outlay, softening a bad day rather than erasing it.

Summary

Walking through ten bets individually is tedious. It is also the only honest way to understand a round robin. The treble grabs the headlines, the doubles do the heavy lifting, and the SSA pairs work quietly in the background, salvaging something when the card does not go your way.

These numbers are specific to our three horses at these odds. Change the prices and every figure shifts. But the structure — the relationship between components, the way returns cascade from three winners down to one — holds for every three-selection round robin you will ever place. Run the maths once, and every future bet slip makes sense on sight.