Union Jack Trixie Calculator

This Union Jack Trixie calculator works out the returns on a nine-pick, 3x3 grid bet where each of the eight lines is played as a Trixie rather than a single treble, built for NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL moneyline bettors.

What Is a Union Jack Trixie?

A Union Jack Trixie takes the same nine picks arranged in a three-by-three grid as a standard Union Jack, but stakes each of the eight lines as a full Trixie instead of a single treble. A Trixie is three doubles plus a treble, so every line becomes four bets, and the whole wager runs to thirty-two bets from the same nine selections.

The grid doesn’t change: three rows, three columns, and two diagonals still give eight lines. What changes is what a line needs to pay. A treble line needs all three picks to win. A Trixie line only needs two, since two winners are enough to land one of its three doubles even when the treble itself misses.

That’s the whole point of the format. Nine picks across nine different games rarely all land together, and a Trixie line gives a route to a return without a perfect card. The cost is stake size: four times the bets of a plain Union Jack, for four times the ways a line can pay.

How a Union Jack Trixie Is Calculated

The formula is straightforward: eight lines, four bets each (three doubles and one treble), for 8 x 4 = 32 bets. Total outlay is 32 multiplied by the unit stake, since all thirty-two bets carry the same stake. Each line settles as a self-contained Trixie, and the calculator adds the eight lines’ returns together for the final payout.

Odds are handled in decimal form, so a double’s return is the unit stake multiplied by both legs’ odds together, and a treble’s return multiplies all three. Take the top row of the worked example below: Celtics to win at 1.40, Knicks to win at 2.10, and Heat to win at 1.70. The treble multiplies all three prices together, which is how the combined odds of 5.00 shown for Row 1 in the reference table are reached, while the doubles pair those same prices two at a time.

Because every line settles as its own Trixie, a result in one line has no effect on any other — the calculator works through all eight, then sums the returns. The centre selection is worth watching, since it sits in more lines than an edge selection, so its result carries more weight across the thirty-two bets than a corner pick’s does.

What the Calculator Shows You

Once you’ve entered the nine prices and a unit stake, the calculator returns a handful of figures. It shows the number of bets the grid produces (thirty-two, fixed by the format) and the total outlay, the unit stake multiplied across all thirty-two bets. For each of the eight lines it shows the combined odds of that line’s treble, so you can see which row, column, or diagonal carries the shortest or longest price. It then totals the returns into two figures: the return if all nine picks win, and the profit once outlay is taken out. Between the per-line odds and the two totals, you can see where a result comes from, not just the final payout.

Worked Example

Take a Union Jack Trixie on nine NBA moneyline picks, staked at a $0.50 unit. Row 1 has Celtics to win at 1.40, Knicks to win at 2.10, and Heat to win at 1.70. Row 2 has Nuggets to win at 1.90, Bucks to win at 1.60, and Suns to win at 2.30. Row 3 has Lakers to win at 2.00, Warriors to win at 1.50, and Clippers to win at 2.40.

Nine selections produce eight lines — three rows, three columns, and two diagonals — and every line is played as its own Trixie: three doubles and a treble, four bets per line. Eight lines at four bets each comes to thirty-two bets. At a $0.50 unit stake, that’s a total outlay of $16.00.

If all nine teams win, every double and every treble across all eight lines lands, and the calculator sums the returns from all thirty-two bets. The combined return comes to $65.78. Subtract the $16.00 outlay and the profit on the bet is $49.78.

That gap between the unit stake and the number of bets working for it is the shape of a Union Jack Trixie: nine picks generate thirty-two settled bets, and because each line only needs two of its three teams to win, a card that falls short of a clean sweep can still return plenty from the doubles alone.

The Eight Union Jack Lines and Their Combined Treble Odds

Each pick sits in either two or four of the eight lines, and the combined odds below are for the full treble on that line — the price if all three of its picks won outright. Rows and columns carry three picks straight from the grid; the two diagonals cut across it. Comparing these odds shows which parts of the grid are priced short and which carry the longer prices, before the Trixie’s own doubles come into it.

Total Outlay for a Union Jack Trixie at Different Unit Stakes

Since the bet count is fixed at thirty-two no matter what prices sit in the grid, total outlay scales in a straight line with the unit stake. The table below shows what four common unit stakes turn into once multiplied across all thirty-two bets, useful for sizing a Trixie to a bankroll before a price is entered. A $1.00 unit commits ten times what a ten-cent unit does.

Two Winners, Not Three: What Changes in a Trixie Line

The upgrade from trebles to Trixies changes what counts as a result on every line. In a plain Union Jack, a line only pays once all three picks have won — miss one, and the line returns nothing. In a Union Jack Trixie, two winners out of three lands one of that line’s three doubles, so a line can pay even when its treble misses.

That matters because a nine-pick grid across nine games rarely comes in clean. Somewhere among nine results a favorite usually loses, and in a plain Union Jack that’s often enough to wipe out several lines at once. In the Trixie version, those same near-misses can still produce a double.

The cost of that extra coverage is the bet count: four bets per line instead of one, so the same unit stake buys four times the commitment. Grid position still matters: the centre pick sits in four of the eight lines — every row, column, and diagonal through the middle — while a corner pick sits in only two. A result on the centre selection moves four lines’ worth of bets at once.

When a Union Jack Trixie Makes Sense

A Union Jack Trixie suits a bettor who likes the spread of a nine-pick grid but doesn’t want one missed leg to void an entire line. Because every line pays on two winners instead of three, it’s built for grids where you’re confident in most of the nine picks but don’t expect all nine to land together. It rewards picks placed in the middle of the grid, since the centre selection touches four lines at once, so your strongest pick belongs there rather than in a corner.

The trade-off is stake size. Thirty-two bets from nine picks is a large commitment for a small unit stake, and doubling the unit stake doubles the total outlay, with no way to scale down the bet count itself. Anyone working with a tight bankroll should size the unit stake to the full thirty-two bets, not to a single line.

If you’re confident enough in all nine picks to want the higher prices of a straight treble, a plain Union Jack of trebles is the cheaper route, at a quarter of the bets. If you want even more coverage than a Trixie gives, a Union Jack Patent or Round Robin goes further, at the cost of more bets. The Trixie sits in between: more forgiving than a treble, less exhaustive than a Patent.

Common Mistakes

A common mistake is setting a unit stake without multiplying it across all thirty-two bets, making the real outlay far bigger than expected. Another is assuming a Trixie line pays on a single winner — it still takes two winners sharing a line before a double lands. Bettors also compare the outlay of a Union Jack Trixie against a plain Union Jack without noting the Trixie runs four times the bets for the same nine picks. Finally, ignoring grid position is a mistake, since a centre selection touches four lines while a corner touches only two.

Union Jack Trixie vs the Other Union Jack Variants

A Union Jack Trixie is one of four ways to stake the same nine-pick grid. Trebles keep it to eight bets, a Patent adds every single and double for fifty-six, and a Round Robin goes further at eighty. The table below lines up all four side by side.