Ian Bruce became interested in betting in 1987, when he landed a winning Yankee on his first attempt. That stroke of luck (and he its that's exactly what it was) sparked an interest in understanding the strategies behind successful wagers. Over the years, he has become one of the UK's most prolific writers on betting and gaming, and is best known for his systematic approach to winning. Ian's career in the industry now spans over three decades. His favorite betting method is Dutching because, in his words, "It's the one I win with more often than not."
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All posts by pavelpudakovThe combination forecast is a combination of wagers that gives its s a winning forecast bet if any two of their selections finish a sporting event in first and second place. In this guide, we explain how a combination forecast works, how it’s used and how you can make the bet online.
What is a Forecast?
Before we talk about the combination forecast in more detail, we should first mention the regular forecast, which is more commonly known as a straight forecast. This is a bet that requires you to name the two competitors that you think will finish in first and second place in a sporting event. With a straight forecast, you also need to be quite specific about which of your selections will finish first and which will finish second. If they don’t finish in that precise order, the bet will lose.
Bettors like the straight forecast bet because it gives them a chance of making more profit from a winning wager than a straightforward bet on the winner. The problem is that it’s a lot harder to succeed with a forecast than it is with a win or each-way bet. For that reason, bookmakers invented something called the reverse forecast.
The Reverse Forecast Explained
A reverse forecast – also known as a dual forecast bet – is actually two straight forecast bets. One bet covers the two selections in one finishing order, and the other covers the same two selections in reverse order, hence the name. This wager costs twice as much as a straight forecast, but you’re guaranteed a return as long as both of your selections occupy the top two finishing positions.
The straight or reverse forecast bets are perfectly fine for the needs of most casual bettors. However, even a reverse forecast can be difficult to land, especially in events where there are more than a handful of competitors. For that reason, some people began combining multiple forecast bets together to ensure a winning forecast. Bookies quickly caught onto that and started offering the combination forecast to make the task easier for them.
How a Combination Forecast Works
A combination forecast works by combining as many forecast bets are needed to guarantee a winning forecast when any two of the chosen selections finish in first and second place. The combination will cover all eventualities, and so – as with a reverse forecast – it doesn’t matter what order the two horses finish in.
The cost of a combination forecast depends on how many forecasts are involved, and that depends on how many selections you make. For example, if a forecast horse racing fan picks three horses in a race for a combination forecast, six forecasts will be required to cover all eventualities, so it would cost six bets. In this case, if we were to designate the letters A, B, and C to the three horses, the forecasts required would be as follows:
- A-B
- A-C
- B-A
- B-C
- C-A
- C-B
As you can see, if any two of your three horses the post before the rest of the field, one of the horse racing forecast bets above is sure to have them in the right order. In the old days, bettors used to have to write separate betting slips for the required combinations and pay for them separately. Today, you can simply make your selections, and the bookie will enter all the possible forecast combinations on your behalf, which means the bet is just one transaction.
The combination forecast is most often used in racing sports such as horse racing and greyhound racing. There is no reason why it can’t also be used in other events where there is a clear 1-2 finish before the rest of the field, such as a golf or tennis tournament, but few online betting sites would automatically offer this bet for those events. Of course, you can always ask for it via the request-a-bet feature that the biggest bookies provide, but in the main, the combo forecast is for horse racing and greyhound racing.
Combination Forecast Chart
We said in our discussion about the combination forecast meaning that the number of bets – or “lines” – required to provide full coverage with a combination forecast will depend on how many selections you make in a given event. You can typically choose anything from 3 to 8 selections for a combination forecast, and the chart below illustrates how many bets would be needed in each case. If you ever need to know how many lines are required for more than 8 selections, you can use a combination forecast calculator to get the answer.
| Number of Selections | Number of Lines Needed |
| 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 20 |
| 6 | 30 |
| 7 | 42 |
| 8 | 56 |
Obviously, the more selections you make, the more chance you will have of landing a winning forecast. However, with even six selections costing 30 bets, the odds of the selections involved in a successful forecast would need to be pretty good to cover your outlay, let alone make a profit. For that reason, most bettors choose their forecast races carefully and make as few selections as they think they can get away with.
How Much Will a Winning Bet Pay?
Unlike most bets that you can make online, you won’t know exactly how much you can expect to return from a combination forecast in advance. That’s for a couple of reasons:
First, you don’t know which two of your selections will finish in first and second place or in what order.
Second, the returns are calculated using a complex formula that considers the runners’ starting prices, their finishing order, the quality of the opposition, and more.
This being the case, the return from a winning forecast will be published after the result has been declared as a CSF (Computer Straight Forecast) dividend. The dividend figure will be for a £1 stake, so if you have a winning forecast and you have bet £2 per line, you would need to double that figure to get your return.
While you can’t work out predicted returns for a forecast in advance, you can bear in mind that the odds of your selections will play a key role in the calculation used. The dividend for an odds-on favourite beating a short-priced second favourite will, therefore, be a lot lower than the one for a 10/1 shot beating a 50/1 outsider. That being the case, it only makes sense to pick more than three or four selections for a combination forecast if they are at good prices and you genuinely think they have a decent chance.
Combination Forecast vs Combination Exacta
You can make a combination forecast bet with most online bookmakers, especially those that are recognised as being particularly good horse racing betting sites. However, there is another bet at the Tote that works in much the same way, and that’s the Combination Exacta.
A Tote Exacta is the same as a straight forecast bet and requires you to pick the first two horses to reach the finish line in a race in the correct order. The big difference is that it’s a pool bet, so returns will be determined after the race by the amount of money that was bet and the number of bettors who made the correct prediction. The more unlikely the result, the more you can expect to get for a winning forecast.
A Combination Exacta combines multiple Exacta bets to cover two or more selections for a winning forecast, regardless of what order your selections finish in. This is much the same as with a combination forecast, but here, you can make a combination Exacta with just two selections, which would give you the same cover as the reverse forecast mentioned at the top of this article. Pick more selections, and all that we’ve said about combination forecasts applies, apart from the fact that returns will be dependent on the size of the betting pool and number of winners rather than the odds of the selections, as at other betting sites.
How to Place the Bet Online
Placing a combination forecast bet online is no more difficult than placing a simple win bet. In fact, the only difference is that you will need to add more selections to your betslip and enter your stake into the combination forecast option. Let’s take you through the process from scratch to illustrate this:
Make Your Selections
The first thing you need to do is click on the selections that you want to include in the combination forecast. As stated earlier, you can typically make anything from three to eight selections. To add a selection to your betslip, simply click on its odds. In the image below, we’ve clicked on four runners that we think might have the best chance of occupying the first two places in a race at Cheltenham. In this case, it’s the first four horses in the betting.
Enter Your Stake
Next, scroll down the list of betting options available on the bet slip until you get to the one for the Combination Forecast. Enter your stake in that area, bearing in mind that the stake you enter will be multiplied by the number of lines required to cover all of your selections. We’ve entered a stake of £1. Because we have made four selections, the bet slip tells us that the wager will cost 12 lines. Our total cost for this bet would therefore be £12.
Check and Submit
All that remains is for you to look over the betslip to check that you haven’t made any errors, such as picking the wrong horse or entering the wrong stake. If everything looks good, submit the bet, and the total cost will be deducted from your betting .
What Happens If There’s a Non-Runner?
It’s rare that a day goes by without at least one race on the card having a non-runner. In fact, some trainers tend to withdraw their horses more often than others, as these 2024 figures from the British Horseracing Authority show. So what happens if you’ve entered a non-runner in your combination forecast? Well, in cases where you’ve picked four or more selections, the number of lines needed to cover the remainder will be calculated, and you’ll be refunded the difference.
For example, in our bet, we picked four selections, and it cost us 12 lines at £1 each. If one of our selections were declared a non-runner, the bookie would calculate how many lines would be needed to cover the remaining three selections. The answer is 6, which would cost £6. We would therefore get a refund of the £6 we overpaid and the rest of the selections would be covered as intended.
Similarly, should a non-runner take your remaining selections down to two, your combination forecast would become a reverse forecast. And if you have a couple of non-runners that give you just one remaining selection, it would be counted as a win single. Any excess stake money you have already paid will then be refunded to your .
The full rules concerning how bookmakers deal with non-runners (and other possibilities, such as void races and dead heats) can be found on their websites.
Conclusion
And that’s the combination forecast explained. As you’ve seen, combination forecasts are handy for anyone who wants to bet on the first two past the winning line and have a decent chance of winning. You still need to be selective about the events you bet on and the selections you include, but if you manage to land a winning forecast involving two selections at good odds, the payout could be worth the extra form study involved.
FAQs
What is a forecast bet?
What is a forecast in horse racing?
What is a combination forecast?
How does a combination forecast work?
Where can I make a combination forecast bet?
Is a combination forecast the same as a reverse forecast?
