A double chance bet is a twist on the classic 3-way bet (which you can read more about here).  Instead of betting on one of the 3 outcomes (team A/draw/team B) you are betting on at least one of 2 of the outcomes happening.  So in reality you’re betting against one of the 3 outcomes.

Quick tip: Always calculate the double chance odds vs the 3-way odds.  More on this at the bottom of the page.

Example

The best way to explain the double chance bet is to compare the odds to a 3-way bet with the same outcomes.  For this example I’m going to use a 2025 Europa League game between AZ Alkmaar and Tottenham.  I’ve included a screenshot of the Double Chance odds, and also provided the 3-way odds in text form below to compare.  The odds are taken from Sports Interaction:

The 3-way odds (Full Time Result) are as follows:

• AZ Alkmaar 3.20
• Draw 3.60
• Tottenham Hotspur 2.15

While the double chance odds are:

• AZ Alkmaar or Draw 1.66
• Draw or Tottenham Hotspur 1.34
• AZ Alkmaar or Tottenham 1.29

If I thought AZ Alkmaar was being overlooked in this game, but I wasn’t sure they would win in regulation, it might make sense for me to take the ‘AZ Alkmaar or Draw’ double chance bet.

That said, the double chance odds are just the 3-way odds from both the AZ Alkmaar outcome and the Draw outcome combined into one.  It’s important that you perform a quick calculation to figure out if it’s more advantageous to take the ‘AZ Alkmaar or Draw’ double chance bet or to split up your bet between the ‘AZ Alkmaar’ and ‘Draw’ 3-way bet options.

How To Calculate Correct Double Chance Odds

To be a winning sports bettor it’s important to always make sure you’re getting the best possible return on your investment.  For this reason you should always break down the 3-way bet option vs the double chance bet to see which odds give you the best returns.

Let’s continue with the example of wanting to bet against Tottenham winning in regulation.  If I place a $100 double chance bet on ‘AZ Alkmaar or Draw’ I would receive a payout of $166 as long as Tottenham doesn’t win the game in regulation.

Now let’s split up our bet between ‘AZ Alkmaar’ and ‘Draw’ in the normal 3-way betting to make sure the $166 returned from the double chance bet is more than splitting our funds.  The first thing I do is divide the double chance payout ($166) by the odds of AZ Alkmaar winning (3.20) to figure out how much I would have to bet on AZ Alkmaar to get the $166 payout.  ($166/3.20=$51.88).  This leaves me with $48.12 ($100-$51.88) to bet on the draw.  At odds of 3.60 I would receive a payout of $173.23 betting on ‘Draw’ from the 3-way bet.  The $173 is greater than the $166 I would get from a draw if I took the double chance bet.  So in this instance it makes more sense to split your bet between AZ Alkmaar and Draw from the 3-way odds, rather than bet the double chance prop.

Reading that last few paragraphs I found it hard for even me to follow, so here’s it broken down once again.

• $100 on AZ Alkmaar or Draw @ 1.66 – Pays $166 if AZ Alkmaar wins or Draw
• $51.88 on AZ Alkmaar @ 3.20 – Pays $166 if AZ Alkmaar wins
• $48.12 on Draw @ 3.60 – Pays $173.23 if Draw

If AZ Alkmaar wins you win equal in this example, but if it’s a draw you win more from the 3-way bet than the double chance.

The double chance odds won’t always give you a worse payout than the 3-way odds, so it’s important to do some sort of calculation like this when placing these bets.