Goliath Calculator

This calculator works out returns on a Goliath: eight picks combined into 247 lines from doubles to the eight-fold. Enter American odds and a unit stake to see the total outlay and payout across NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL games.

What Is a Goliath Bet?

A Goliath is the largest of the standard full cover bets, built from eight selections and settled across 247 separate lines. It covers every possible combination of those eight picks from doubles up to the eight-fold accumulator, with one exception: a Goliath carries no singles, so a single winning pick among the eight returns nothing on its own.

Broken down, the 247 lines are 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds, and 1 eight-fold. Each combination is its own separate bet, with its own stake and settlement. That is what separates a Goliath from a single eight-fold parlay: instead of needing all eight picks to win before anything pays out, a Goliath spreads the risk across every grouping of two or more winners, so it can pay out in dozens of ways depending on how many picks come in.

The tradeoff for that flexibility is cost. Because the stake is multiplied across all 247 lines, even a small unit stake adds up to a meaningful total outlay, and the bet only really makes sense when the bettor has genuine confidence in all eight selections, not just two or three of them.

How a Goliath Is Calculated

The number of lines in a Goliath comes from combinatorics: with eight selections, there are 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds, and exactly 1 eight-fold. Add those together — 28 + 56 + 70 + 56 + 28 + 8 + 1 — and the total is 247. That is where the Goliath gets both its size and its name: eight picks, 247 bets, nothing smaller.

The total outlay follows directly from that count: total outlay = 247 x unit stake. There is no way to raise or lower the number of lines without changing the number of selections, so the unit stake is the only lever a bettor has over the size of the bet.

Each of the 247 lines is settled the same way any parlay is settled: by multiplying the decimal odds of every pick in that combination together, then multiplying the result by the stake on that line. American odds convert to decimal first — a price of -333 works out to 1.30, and a price of +150 works out to 2.50 — and it is those decimal figures, not the American prices, that get multiplied across each line. Because every combination is settled independently, a loss on one selection only removes the lines that contain it; every combination made up entirely of the remaining winners is still paid in full.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you enter American odds for all eight picks and a unit stake, the calculator returns a handful of figures. The number of bets confirms the full 247 lines, broken into the doubles, trebles, four-folds, five-folds, six-folds, seven-folds, and eight-fold that make it up. The total outlay shows exactly how much the whole bet costs before results are known, based on your unit stake multiplied across all 247 lines. Once you mark each pick as a win, loss, or push, the calculator shows the total return — the sum paid out across every surviving combination — and profit, which is simply that return minus the total outlay. Together, these figures show not just what the Goliath pays if everything wins, but what it still pays if one or more picks let you down.

Worked Example

Take a Goliath on eight moneyline picks at a $0.10 unit stake: Packers to beat Bears at -333 (1.30), Rams to beat Cardinals at -250 (1.40), Jaguars to beat Colts at -200 (1.50), Timberwolves to beat Rockets at -167 (1.60), Red Sox to beat Orioles at -125 (1.80), Blues to beat Predators at +100 (2.00), Broncos to beat Chiefs at +120 (2.20), and Hurricanes to beat Devils at +150 (2.50).

That is 247 bets — 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds, and 1 eight-fold — at $0.10 a line, for a total outlay of $24.70.

If all eight picks win, every one of the 247 lines pays out, for a total return of $336.03 and a profit of $311.33.

Now suppose the Hurricanes lose and the other seven picks — Packers, Rams, Jaguars, Timberwolves, Red Sox, Blues, and Broncos — all win. Every line that did not include the Hurricanes still pays: that is 120 lines, exactly what a Super Heinz on those seven picks would be, returning $95.17 for a profit of $70.47. The lines that included the Hurricanes lose their stake, but the bet is still comfortably profitable, since seven correct picks out of eight is enough to clear the 247-line outlay several times over.

That is the practical shape of a Goliath: a single wrong pick does not wipe out the bet the way it would in a straight eight-fold parlay, because the other seven picks keep generating winning combinations on their own.

What the 247 Bets in a Goliath Actually Are

The 247 lines are not one bet type repeated — they are seven different bet types, one for every way to combine two or more of the eight picks. The table below breaks down how many lines fall into each category, from the 28 doubles at the smallest end up to the single eight-fold that needs every selection to win.

Total Outlay for a Goliath at Different Unit Stakes

Because the number of lines never changes, the only thing that moves the cost of a Goliath is the unit stake. The table below shows the total outlay at a few common stakes, all still built from the same 247 lines. A $0.05 unit stake keeps the bet under $15, while a $0.50 unit stake pushes the outlay past $120 — a reminder of how quickly the 247-line multiplier adds up.

Keeping a 247-Line Bet Under Control

At 247 lines, a Goliath behaves less like a single bet and more like a small portfolio of parlays, and that changes how the unit stake needs to be set. Because the stake is multiplied across every one of the 247 lines, even a modest-looking number gets expensive fast: a $0.10 unit stake already costs $24.70 for the full bet, and stepping up to a $1.00 unit stake turns it into a $247.00 bet. Bettors thinking in terms of a normal parlay stake can badly misjudge what a Goliath actually costs before a single result comes in.

The bigger constraint, though, is not the arithmetic — it is finding eight picks that are all genuinely worth backing. Most Goliaths do not fail because the unit stake was set wrong; they fail because picks five through eight were added just to fill out the card rather than because the bettor actually fancied them. Padding a Goliath with weak selections drags down every combination that includes them, from the doubles up to the eight-fold. Since most of the 247 lines involve four, five, six, seven, or all eight picks, a single weak selection touches far more of the bet than it would in a smaller full cover like a Yankee or a Heinz. Getting the stake right is simple math; getting eight genuinely strong picks is the actual skill the bet demands.

When a Goliath Makes Sense

A Goliath makes the most sense for a bettor who follows enough games across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL to genuinely have a view on eight separate moneyline picks in the same week, and who wants a bet that keeps paying even when one or two of those picks miss. Because the bet is built from 247 separate lines rather than a single eight-fold accumulator, it is far more forgiving than a straight parlay: as the worked example shows, losing just one of the eight picks still leaves 120 winning combinations in play, and the bet can still turn a solid profit.

That resilience is also why the unit stake needs to stay small and disciplined. With 247 lines multiplying every dollar of stake, a Goliath should be sized like the collection of bets it actually is, not like a single wager. Bettors only confident in two or three picks are usually better served by a smaller full cover such as a Yankee or a Heinz, rather than padding out to eight selections just to reach Goliath size.

A Goliath is best treated as a way to spread risk across a genuinely strong set of eight picks — not as a shortcut to a large payout from a small stake. Bettors chasing a big multiplier from long-shot picks will usually find a smaller, more targeted bet a better match for their conviction.

Common Mistakes

A common mistake is reading the unit stake as the total cost of the bet, when a Goliath actually multiplies that stake by 247 lines. Another is filling out all eight picks just to complete the bet, even when only a few are genuinely fancied. Some bettors expect singles to be part of the payout, but a Goliath has none, so a single winning pick among the eight returns nothing. It is also easy to assume that 247 lines makes a big return likely, when most of those lines need several winning picks together before they pay out at all.

Goliath vs the Rest of the Full Cover Ladder

The Goliath sits atop the standard full cover ladder. A Yankee covers 4 selections across 11 lines, a Heinz covers 6 selections across 57 lines, and a Super Heinz covers 7 selections across 120 lines. The Goliath is the largest of the four, covering 8 selections across 247 lines.