Lucky 31 Calculator

This Lucky 31 calculator works out the returns on thirty-one bets built from five moneyline picks across the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, singles included, so you can see your outlay and payout before you place a single line.

What Is a Lucky 31?

A Lucky 31 is a full cover bet on five picks with singles included. From those five selections it builds every possible combination: five singles, ten doubles, ten trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold, for thirty-one bets in all. Because every combination is covered, you do not need all five picks to win to get a return — several winning combinations can still pay out even if one or two picks miss.

The Lucky 31 sits in the middle of the Lucky family. The Lucky 15 covers four picks in fifteen bets, and the Lucky 63 goes further still, covering six picks in sixty-three bets. The Lucky 31 is the step between them, built for bettors who want a fifth pick added to the mix without jumping all the way to a Lucky 63.

Because it includes singles, a Lucky 31 behaves differently from a straight five-fold parlay, which pays only if all five picks win. A Lucky 31 still returns something from the singles, doubles, trebles and four-folds even when the five-fold line loses, though that cover comes at a cost, since you are staking on all thirty-one lines rather than just one. As with the rest of the Lucky family, most sportsbooks attach a bonus to a Lucky 31, though the terms vary by book and sit outside the settlement math itself.

How a Lucky 31 Is Calculated

The number of bets in a Lucky 31 is fixed by the combinations of five picks: 5 singles + 10 doubles + 10 trebles + 5 four-folds + 1 five-fold = 31. Every one of those thirty-one lines needs its own stake, so the total outlay is 31 x unit stake.

To work out what each combination pays, the calculator first converts your American odds to decimal. A favorite at -167 converts to 1.60, and one at -125 converts to 1.80: divide 100 by the odds figure and add 1. An underdog at +100 converts to 2.00, at +150 to 2.50, and at +200 to 3.00: divide the odds figure by 100 and add 1. Once every pick has a decimal price, a double multiplies two of those decimals together, a treble multiplies three, a four-fold multiplies four, and the five-fold multiplies all five. Each line’s decimal price is then multiplied by the unit stake to get that line’s return, and the stake is subtracted to get that line’s profit.

The calculator adds up the returns from all thirty-one lines for the total return, and subtracts the total outlay for the total profit. Because singles are included, a losing pick does not wipe out its stake’s worth of returns entirely — it only removes the lines that pick was part of, leaving the rest of the thirty-one bets to settle on their own results.

What the Calculator Shows You

The calculator lays out everything that comes from your five picks and your unit stake. It shows the number of bets in the wager — always thirty-one for a Lucky 31 — along with the bet breakdown across singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds and the five-fold. It shows your total outlay, which is your unit stake multiplied across all thirty-one lines. If you mark every pick as a winner, it shows the return if all five win and the resulting profit. And if you mark one or more picks as a loser, it shows the return and profit from the surviving lines only, so you can see exactly what a partial result still pays before any sportsbook bonus is added.

Worked Example

Take a Lucky 31 on five moneyline picks at a $0.25 unit stake: Ravens to beat Browns at -167, Heat to beat Magic at -125, Padres to beat Rockies at +100, Oilers to beat Flames at +150, and Mets to beat Marlins at +200. With five selections and singles included, that’s 5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds and 1 five-fold, thirty-one bets in all. At $0.25 a line, the total outlay is $7.75.

If all five picks win, the Lucky 31 returns $76.19, for a profit of $68.44. That return comes from all thirty-one lines settling as winners at once — every single, every double, every treble, every four-fold and the five-fold itself all cash. The five-fold alone, carrying the longest combined price across Ravens, Heat, Padres, Oilers and Mets, does the heavy lifting in that total, but it only pays because every other combination is also cashing alongside it.

Now suppose the Mets lose while the other four picks win. The four surviving singles still pay, and so does every double, treble and four-fold made up entirely of the Ravens, Heat, Padres and Oilers picks — it’s only the lines that included the Mets selection that are gone, including the five-fold. On that result, the Lucky 31 returns $18.86, for a profit of $11.11. That is a smaller return than the all-five-win outcome, but it shows the value of the singles and lower-fold combinations included in the bet: one losing leg among five does not reduce the return to zero, it just removes the lines built around that leg.

What the 31 Bets in a Lucky 31 Actually Are

A Lucky 31’s thirty-one lines break down into five bet types, and each type covers a different number of your five picks. The table below shows how many lines fall into each category, from the five singles up through the single five-fold that needs all five picks to win, with the doubles and trebles making up the largest share.

Total Outlay for a Lucky 31 at Different Unit Stakes

The number of bets in a Lucky 31 never changes — it is always thirty-one lines, regardless of your unit stake. What changes is the total outlay, since every one of those thirty-one lines is staked at the same unit amount. The table below shows how the total outlay scales as the unit stake rises, from the smallest stake shown up to the largest.

Why Small Unit Stakes Still Add Up

Because a Lucky 31 includes singles, it is tempting to treat the unit stake as small money — but the multiplication across thirty-one lines catches up fast. Even at a modest $0.25 unit stake, the total outlay is $7.75, and the singles on their own will not recover that outlay if the picks are modest favorites or short-priced. The bet is built to reward a spread of picks you genuinely fancy, not one strong pick padded out to five just to qualify for the bet type.

That distinction matters because the Lucky 31’s structure spreads risk across combinations rather than concentrating it in a single five-fold. A bettor who picks four strong selections and adds a fifth purely to reach five picks is diluting the doubles, trebles and four-folds with a weak leg, which drags down the combinations that would otherwise have carried the bet. The singles exist to give each pick a chance to pay on its own, but they were never designed to make thirty-one lines profitable by themselves. As with the rest of the Lucky family, sportsbook bonus terms for a Lucky 31 differ from book to book, and those terms sit outside the settlement math the calculator works through.

When a Lucky 31 Makes Sense

A Lucky 31 makes the most sense when you have five picks you are genuinely confident in, not four strong picks and a fifth added out of habit. Because the bet’s value comes from doubles, trebles and four-folds combining strong prices, a weak fifth leg drags down every combination it touches, not just the lines built entirely around it.

Bankroll discipline matters more with a Lucky 31 than with a single moneyline bet, since the unit stake gets multiplied by thirty-one before you see a single line settle. Bettors who like the cover a Lucky 31 provides but want to spend less per line should look at the total outlay across unit stakes rather than assuming a small per-line stake keeps the bet small overall — the total outlay table above shows how quickly that adds up.

If you only want to cover four picks, a Lucky 15 is the leaner alternative, and if you want to add a sixth pick, the Lucky 63 extends the same structure further. Bettors who don’t want singles in the mix at all, and are comfortable relying purely on the doubles, trebles, four-fold and five-fold, might prefer a Canadian instead, which covers the same five picks without the five singles. The Lucky 31 is the choice when you specifically want that extra layer of single-leg cover alongside the combinations.

Common Mistakes

Bettors often set a unit stake without multiplying it by thirty-one first, only to be surprised by the total outlay. Some count on the sportsbook bonus without reading the terms, which vary by book and are not part of the settlement math itself. Others treat the singles as a full safety net rather than what they are: partial cover that pays out on their own but won’t rescue a weak overall selection. And padding out to five picks just to qualify for the bet type dilutes the doubles, trebles and four-folds that give the Lucky 31 its value.

Lucky 31 vs Its Lucky Siblings and the Canadian

The Lucky 31 sits between the Lucky 15 and the Lucky 63 in the Lucky family, and alongside the Canadian, which covers the same five picks without singles. The table below compares selections and total lines across all four bets.