Patent Calculator

This Patent calculator works out the returns on seven bets built from three moneyline picks — three singles, three doubles and a three-pick parlay — so you can see the outlay and the payout in dollars before you commit a single line.

What Is a Patent Bet?

A Patent is a full cover bet on three picks with singles included: three singles, three doubles and one three-pick parlay, seven bets in all. That is the whole structure — every possible combination of the three picks, from betting each one alone up to betting all three together, gets its own line and its own stake.

The singles are what set a Patent apart from a Trixie, which covers the same three picks but skips the singles and only bets the doubles and the parlay. Because a Patent includes them, it gives you something back even when only one of your three picks wins. A Trixie returns nothing on a single winner; a Patent does, because one of its seven lines is a bet on that pick by itself.

That cushion comes at a cost. Seven lines means seven times the unit stake goes out before a single result is known, so a Patent costs more to place than a Trixie on the same three picks. You are paying for extra coverage, not a fourth selection or a bigger prize. That trade-off — more lines and more outlay for a payout on one winner — is the starting point for deciding whether a Patent fits a given set of picks, or whether a Trixie is the better structure for the same three teams.

How a Patent Bet Is Calculated

The bet count is fixed by the structure, not by the picks: 3 singles + 3 doubles + 1 three-pick parlay = 7 bets. Each is a separate wager with its own stake, so the total outlay is 7 x unit stake. There is no shared stake pool and no adjustment for how the picks are priced — the number of lines and the total outlay are the same whether the three picks are heavy favorites or long shots.

Once results are in, every line is settled on its own and the returns are added together. A single pays out only on its own pick. A double pays out only if both of its picks win. The parlay pays out only if all three win. Nothing carries over between lines, and a loss on one line does not reduce what another line returns — it simply returns zero.

To work out what any individual line returns, American odds first convert to decimal. For a favorite like Cowboys to beat Giants at -167, that works out to a decimal price of 1.60. For an underdog like Celtics to beat Knicks at +120, the odds side of the number is divided by 100 and added to 1, giving 2.20; Dodgers to beat Padres at +200 converts the same way to 3.00. Multiplying the relevant decimal prices together, then by the stake, gives the return for a single, a double or the parlay — exactly how the calculator builds the seven-line total.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you enter your three picks and unit stake, the calculator lays out all seven lines — the three singles, three doubles and the parlay — so you can see exactly what each one is betting on. It shows the total outlay across all seven lines, marks each pick as a winner or loser once you set the results, and settles every line individually rather than as one combined bet.

From there it totals the return across all seven lines, and the profit once the outlay is subtracted from that return. Because the lines settle independently, the calculator also shows what happens with fewer than three winners — including the case where only the surviving singles and doubles pay out. Nothing here is estimated or rounded; every figure reflects the exact odds and stake you entered.

Worked Example

Take a Patent on three moneyline picks at a $1.00 unit stake: Cowboys to beat Giants at -167 (1.60), Celtics to beat Knicks at +120 (2.20), and Dodgers to beat Padres at +200 (3.00). With three selections, the breakdown is 3 singles, 3 doubles and 1 treble — seven bets — and at $1.00 a line, the total outlay is $7.00.

If all three picks win, every one of the seven lines pays: the three singles on their own pick, the three doubles when both their picks win, and the parlay on all three. Added together, the return if all three win is $32.28. Subtract the $7.00 outlay and the profit if all three win is $25.28.

Now consider a partial result: the Dodgers lose, but the Cowboys and Celtics both win. The Dodgers single, the two doubles involving Dodgers, and the parlay are all dead. But the two surviving singles — Cowboys and Celtics — still pay, and so does the Cowboys/Celtics double. Added together, those three live lines return $7.32. Subtract the $7.00 outlay and the profit works out to $0.32.

That gap between $25.28 and $0.32 is the whole story of a Patent: the singles guarantee a $7.00 outlay is never a complete write-off when at least one pick wins, but a single winner alone barely gets back to break-even. The Cowboys/Celtics double is what turns a thin single-winner return into a small profit rather than a small loss.

What the 7 Bets in a Patent Actually Are

The seven lines break down the same way on every Patent, regardless of the picks or the stake: three singles, three doubles, one treble. That mix is fixed by having exactly three selections — it is not something you choose or adjust.

Total Outlay for a Patent at Different Unit Stakes

Because the number of bets never changes, the total outlay scales in a straight line with the unit stake — seven times whatever you stake per line, from $0.50 to $5.00 a line below.

When One Winner Isn’t Enough to Turn a Profit

Because it contains singles, a Patent is the smallest full cover bet that can return money on a single winner — but that return is rarely a profit. One winner at a short price pays back less than the seven-line outlay, so a Patent usually needs two winners before you are genuinely ahead. The worked example above shows why: even with two winners and one loser, the Cowboys, Celtics and their double together only returned $7.32 against a $7.00 outlay, a profit of $0.32. A single winner alone, without a surviving double behind it, would have returned even less.

That is the trap in treating the singles as a safety net rather than what they are — damage limitation. They stop a three-pick bet from being a total loss when only one pick comes in, but they were never built to produce a payday alone. The real profit in a Patent lives in the parlay, since it is the only line that multiplies all three prices together. Miss the parlay and miss two of the three doubles, and the singles are mostly handing back a fraction of the $7.00 staked.

Treat a single winner as the bet doing its job of softening a loss, not as a sign the Patent worked. How many picks land before the singles and doubles combine into real profit matters far more than the fact that a Patent technically pays out on one winner.

When a Patent Makes Sense

A Patent fits situations where you like three picks but do not want a total loss if only one of them comes in. The singles buy that protection, and they are worth paying for when your three picks are priced well enough that a lone winner, plus whichever doubles survive alongside it, gets you close to breaking even rather than nowhere near it.

It makes less sense when all three picks are heavy favorites, since short prices mean even a fully winning parlay does not multiply into much, and a single winner among them returns very little against a $7.00 outlay. In that case, the extra four lines a Patent adds over a Trixie are mostly insurance you are unlikely to need — the picks are already fairly safe, so the odds of ending up with just one winner are lower to begin with.

Bankroll matters too. Seven lines at a given unit stake is a bigger commitment than the four lines in a Trixie or a single straight bet on your favorite pick, so the unit stake should be sized with the full $7-per-$1 outlay in mind, not just the price of one line. If you are confident in all three picks and mainly want a parlay’s multiplier, a straight three-pick parlay is cheaper and simpler. A Patent is the right structure when the singles’ payout on a lone winner is worth the extra cost of carrying them.

Common Mistakes

Assuming one winner guarantees a profit is the most common error — it usually just softens the loss rather than producing one. Bettors also forget the outlay is seven times the unit stake, not three, since it is easy to think in terms of picks rather than lines. Choosing a Patent over a Trixie without asking whether the singles are worth the extra cost is another frequent misstep. Finally, backing three short prices undercuts the whole bet, since even all three winners return little once the low decimal prices are multiplied together.

Patent vs Its Nearest Relatives

A Patent sits between the Trixie and the larger four-pick covers: it keeps the Trixie’s three selections but adds the singles a Trixie leaves out, at the cost of three extra lines. Moving up to four selections, a Yankee and a Lucky 15 follow the same logic with more picks and more lines.