Draw No Bet: how does the refund-if-drawn bet work?

How does Draw No Bet work?

On a Draw No Bet, you pick a team. If it wins, the bet wins. If it loses, the bet loses. If the match ends in a draw, the stake is refunded.

The principle removes the draw from the equation without ignoring it: it neither wins nor loses the bet, it simply neutralizes the stake placed, regardless of the final scoreline as long as neither team came out ahead.

Settlement table

The same principle applies symmetrically to a selection on the away team: a win for that team = won, a draw = refunded, a home win = lost. Nothing about the mechanism changes based on which side is favourite — only the odd offered on each selection reflects that.

Draw No Bet vs Double Chance

Draw No Bet and Double Chance handle the draw differently: one neutralizes it through a refund, the other covers it through a combined selection.

Double Chance turns the draw into a win for the selection; Draw No Bet turns it into a refund. This difference explains why the Draw No Bet odd is usually higher than the corresponding Double Chance odd: it covers one fewer outcome in the event of a straight win.

Draw No Bet and Asian Handicap 0

The settlement principle of Draw No Bet is often equivalent to an Asian Handicap of 0: a win for the selection = won, a draw = refunded, a loss = lost.

The exact rules and label can still vary by operator. The full workings of the Asian Handicap, and the complete comparison with Draw No Bet, are covered on the page dedicated to the Asian Handicap.

A fully worked, settled example

An odd of 1.65 on a home Draw No Bet, €20 staked.

A home win returns €33.00 (€20 × 1.65), a net profit of €13.00. A draw refunds the full €20 stake, with no win and no loss. An away win loses the stake in full.

Edge cases: extra time and abandoned matches

Draw No Bet generally covers regulation time only, stoppage time included — including in cup competitions, where the match can continue into extra time after a draw. A level score after 90 minutes therefore triggers the Draw No Bet refund, even if one team goes on to win in extra time or on penalties: those additional phases generally don't count for this market, unless stated otherwise by the operator.

If a match is abandoned or stopped before full time and isn't replayed the same day, bets are generally voided and stakes refunded, regardless of the score at the time of the stoppage. This differs from a whole-number Asian Handicap line, where a refund can instead be part of the market's normal settlement rather than an exceptional cancellation triggered only by the match itself failing to reach full time.

Margin and implied probability on Draw No Bet

Draw No Bet converts to an implied probability the same way as any odds market: divide 1 by the odd. An odd of 1.65 corresponds to an implied probability of roughly 60.6%, calculated exactly as on a 1X2 or handicap market — the detail of this conversion is covered on the implied probability page. The implied probabilities of the market's two outcomes usually add up to more than 100%: that excess is the bookmaker's margin, calculated in detail on the bookmaker margin page. That margin applies on top of the draw refund: Draw No Bet remains an odds market like any other, not a free insurance policy handed out by the operator. Comparing it fairly to a straight moneyline bet on the same team means weighing the lower odd it usually carries against the protection the draw refund provides.

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