Three-way moneylines
A three-way moneyline has three prices: one team, the other team, and the draw. Only one of the three wins. If you bet a team and the game ends level, you lose, and that is the part that catches people.
Three prices, one winner
An ordinary moneyline has two outcomes because somebody has to win. A three-way moneyline is for games that can end in a tie, which mostly means soccer. A typical line looks like this.
| Bet | Price | A $100 bet wins |
|---|---|---|
| Home team | +120 | $120 |
| Draw | +240 | $240 |
| Away team | +230 | $230 |
You pick one. If you take the home team at +120 and it wins, you win $120. If the game is a draw, the draw bettors are paid and both team bets lose, with no push and no refund. You will also see it written as 1X2, where 1 is the home team, X is the draw and 2 is the away team.
Three-way and two-way prices on the same game often sit next to each other on the screen, so I'd read the label before betting any moneyline in soccer or hockey.
Ninety minutes, not the trophy
At most books a three-way soccer line is settled on regulation time: the 90 minutes plus whatever the referee adds for stoppages. Extra time and a penalty shootout don't count.
That matters in cup games. A team can draw 1 to 1 after 90 minutes, win on penalties, lift the trophy, and your bet on it to win still loses, because the result for betting purposes was a draw. If you want the team that goes through, that is a separate market, usually called "to advance" or "to qualify", at a different price. In a knockout game I'd decide which of the two I'm betting before I look at either.
Hockey works on the same principle. The three-way line there is a 60-minute line, and overtime and the shootout don't count toward it, while the ordinary hockey moneyline includes them. Both are on the screen, and the three-way prices look better because the bet is harder to win.
Why both teams can be plus money
On the line above, nobody is a minus. New bettors read that as two underdogs and a bargain. It isn't one, because the draw is taking its share of the probability.
Turn the three prices into percentages and the home team at +120 comes to 45.45 percent, the draw at +240 to 29.41 percent and the away team at +230 to 30.30 percent. That adds up to 105.17. The 5.17 over 100 is the book's cut, and it is there on a three-way line the same as anywhere else (three prices just give it more places to sit). The method is on the implied probability page, and I'd add up all three before every bet, because the total tells you what the book is charging.
Taking the draw out
Books offer two bets for people who don't want the draw against them.
- Draw no bet. You bet a team, and if the game is drawn your stake comes back. It is a two-way price, so it is shorter than the three-way price on the same team.
- Double chance. You bet two of the three outcomes at once: home or draw, away or draw, home or away.
You can build a draw no bet yourself out of the three-way line, and it is worth doing once to see what the book is charging. Say you have $100 and like the home team. Put $29.41 on the draw at +240, and if the game is drawn that returns $100, so you are level. Put the other $70.59 on the home team at +120, and if it wins that returns $155.29, a profit of $55.29.
So the three-way prices amount to a draw no bet on the home team at about -181. If the book's own draw no bet is -200, you are better off building it. If it is -170, take theirs. I'd make that comparison every time; it takes a minute.
The bet nobody makes
The draw is the bet almost nobody makes. People bet on teams, and a recreational player almost never walks up wanting a soccer game to finish level.
That does not make the draw a good bet on its own. It does mean it is the outcome the public ignores, and in an evenly matched, low-scoring game it comes in more than people who only bet American sports expect. I'd price it like the other two and see what I got.
A three-way bet on a team has two ways to lose, and good teams draw all the time, so I'd keep the stake small against the bankroll. The draw belongs to the book unless you bet it.