Flag Calculator

This Flag calculator works out returns on a Flag bet: a Yankee plus six up-and-down pairs across four moneyline picks, giving twenty-three bets from a single unit stake, in American odds first for NFL and other US sports bettors.

What Is a Flag Bet?

A Flag is a Yankee with up-and-down pairs added: six doubles, four trebles, one four-fold, and six pairs of conditional bets, twenty-three bets in total built from four picks. It is the standard member of the flag family, built on top of the eleven-bet Yankee and roughly doubling that bet’s cost. Every one of the twenty-three bets is drawn from the same four picks, combined either as the Yankee’s pairs and larger combinations, or as the six conditional up-and-down pairs.

The up-and-down pairs are what separate a Flag from a plain Yankee. Each pair links two of the four picks so that if one wins, part of the stake carries onto the other at its own price. This is why a Flag can pay out even when a Yankee on the same four picks returns nothing: the Yankee only pays when two or more selections land together, while a pair only needs one winner.

Because it adds twelve pair bets to the eleven-bet Yankee, a Flag roughly doubles the cost of the Yankee for the same four picks and unit stake. That added cost buys broader coverage across the four selections rather than a bigger prize if all four come in, since the Yankee’s doubles, trebles, and four-fold already capture the full-cover upside.

How a Flag Bet Is Calculated

A Flag is built in two stages. The first stage is the Yankee itself: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 four-fold, which together make 11 bets on the four picks. The second stage adds 6 up-and-down pairs, and because each pair is 2 bets, that stage contributes 12 more bets. Add the 11 Yankee bets to the 12 pair bets and the total comes to 23 bets, the number that defines a Flag. Total outlay is simply 23 multiplied by the unit stake, since every one of the 23 lines is staked at the same unit amount, regardless of which picks make up the four selections.

Each of the four picks carries its own American odds, which convert to decimal for use in the doubles, trebles, four-fold, and pairs. Steelers to win at -200 converts to 1.50, and Chargers to win at -125 converts to 1.80; both are favorites, so the conversion divides 100 by the odds figure and adds 1. Vikings to win at +110 converts to 2.10, and Saints to win at +130 converts to 2.30; both are underdogs, so the conversion multiplies the odds figure by 100 and adds 1, then divides by 100. The calculator multiplies these four decimal prices together across the doubles, trebles, and four-fold, and applies them individually within each pair, to build the 23 returns that sum into the total payout.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you enter the four prices, your unit stake, and the result of each pick, the calculator separates the Flag into its two components. It shows the Yankee portion on its own, covering the 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 four-fold, so you can see what the full-cover part of the bet returned. It shows the 6 up-and-down pairs separately, since these behave differently and often return smaller leftover amounts rather than full winning lines. It totals your outlay across all 23 bets, and totals the return across every winning line in both the Yankee and the pairs. Finally, it shows your overall profit, the return across all 23 bets minus what you staked, so you can see which part of the bet actually produced that return.

Worked Example

Take a Flag on four moneyline picks at a $0.50 unit stake: Steelers to win at -200, Chargers to win at -125, Vikings to win at +110, and Saints to win at +130. The Flag from these four picks is built the same way every Flag is built: an 11-bet Yankee (6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 four-fold) plus 6 up-and-down pairs at 2 bets each, 12 bets, for 23 bets in total. Those four picks give the Yankee side its 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and single four-fold, while the same four picks are also paired up six different ways for the up-and-down side. At a $0.50 unit stake across 23 bets, the total outlay is $11.50.

If all four picks win, every line in the Flag pays out: all 6 doubles, all 4 trebles, the four-fold, and all 6 up-and-down pairs return winning amounts, since each pair’s condition is satisfied whenever both of its picks land. Combined across all 23 bets, the return if all four picks win is $48.55. Subtracting the $11.50 total outlay from that $48.55 return leaves a profit of $37.05.

That gap between the $48.55 return and the $37.05 profit is the plain cost of running 23 bets rather than a smaller number: the outlay has to come back before anything counts as profit, and with 23 lines at even a modest $0.50 unit stake, that outlay is already $11.50. The example also shows why the Yankee and pairs are worth reading separately: the four-fold alone, at decimal prices of 1.50, 1.80, 2.10, and 2.30, accounts for a large share of that $48.55, while the doubles, trebles, and pairs fill in the rest of the total across all 23 winning lines.

What the 23 Bets in a Flag Are Made Of

The 23 bets in a Flag break down into five groups, shown below. The Yankee portion accounts for 11 of the 23: 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 four-fold. The remaining 12 come from the 6 up-and-down pairs, each pair contributing 2 bets. Seeing the breakdown this way makes it clear where the extra cost of a Flag over a plain Yankee comes from, and which group of bets the calculator is showing you at any point.

Total Outlay for a Flag at Different Unit Stakes

Because every Flag runs 23 bets regardless of the unit stake you choose, total outlay scales directly with that stake. This table lays out four common unit stakes, from $0.25 up to $2.00, and what each one costs across the full 23 bets. Check your outlay before committing to a stake, since the number of bets never changes, only the multiplier.

Partial Cover, Not a Safety Net

Going from four picks to six pairs is what makes a Flag expensive relative to its base: eleven Yankee lines become twenty-three, so the same unit stake costs more than twice as much. What you buy with that extra cost is cover at the bottom end of the bet. A Yankee returns nothing on one winner out of four picks, since its smallest component is a double requiring two winners together. A Flag, on the same four picks, returns the leftover from each pair that a single winner opens, since a pair only needs one of its two picks to land.

That difference matters for how you should think about a Flag. It is partial cover, not a safety net: the pairs return leftovers from a single winning pick, not the profit the doubles, trebles, or four-fold produce when picks land together. A Flag with only one winning pick will still show a loss overall, just a smaller one than a Yankee would show, since some pair bets settle as winners while the Yankee bets settle as losers.

The honest way to judge a Flag against its base is to compare it with simply staking more on the Yankee itself, since a Flag roughly doubles the Yankee’s cost for the same four picks.

When a Flag Bet Makes Sense

A Flag makes the most sense when you have genuine conviction in all four picks but still want some return if only one or two come in, rather than betting everything on the full-cover Yankee lines alone. Because the pairs pay out on a single winner, a Flag suits bettors who want partial credit for picks that don’t need company to be worth something, such as a favorite like Steelers to win at -200 sitting alongside a longer-priced pick like Saints to win at +130.

Bankroll discipline matters more with a Flag than a Yankee, since 23 bets at any unit stake costs more than double the same stake on 11 Yankee bets. Before choosing a Flag, work out the total outlay at your intended unit stake and treat that full amount as what you are risking. A Flag is a poor fit for bettors who mainly want the big multiplied return from all four picks landing together, since the four-fold already sits inside the Yankee and the pairs add cost without increasing that top-end payout.

If you want cover on four picks but the cost of 23 bets feels too high, a plain Yankee at a larger unit stake, or a Lucky 15 with its added singles, are the more direct alternatives to weigh against a Flag before you commit to the larger bet.

Common Mistakes

Don’t assume a Flag is a Yankee with a small extra tacked on; it is more than twice the number of bets, not a minor addition. Don’t expect the up-and-down pairs to rescue a bad night, since they return leftovers from single winners rather than real profits. Don’t set a unit stake without multiplying it by twenty-three first, or the total outlay will come as a surprise. And don’t confuse a Flag with a Lucky 15, which adds singles to its four picks rather than the conditional pairs a Flag uses.

Flag vs the Four-Pick Alternatives

On the same four selections, a Yankee runs 11 bets, a Lucky 15 runs 15 by adding singles, and a Flag runs the most at 23 by adding up-and-down pairs instead. Choose based on how much partial cover you want against how much extra outlay you’re willing to carry.