Draw No Bet Meaning: How DNB Odds Work, With Examples

Draw no bet (DNB) means you back one team and get your money back if the match is drawn. If your team wins, you are paid at the DNB odds. If it loses, the stake is gone.

• Home draw no bet (Home DNB or DNB 1) backs the home team. The 1 comes from the 1X2 market, where 1 is a home win, X the draw and 2 an away win.
• Away draw no bet (Away DNB or DNB 2) backs the away team in the same way.
• Home no bet and away no bet are different bets: they refund your stake if the named team wins, and you back one of the other two results.

Every worked example on this page uses one match: 2.10 for a home win, 3.40 for the draw and 3.60 for an away win, with draw no bet quoted at 1.53 on the home team and 2.56 on the away team.

When draw no bet makes sense

Draw no bet does not make a bet better on its own: you pay for the refund with lower odds. It suits some matches far better than others, and two things decide which.

The first is how often matches end level, because the refund only pays out on a draw. In the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A, about a quarter of matches over the last three full seasons ended level, and Serie A had the most. The count uses full-time results from football-data.co.uk for every match in those seasons.

The second is who you back. The refund is paid for out of your winnings, and a favourite gives up a bigger share of them than an underdog.

• You back an underdog. DNB keeps more of an underdog's winnings, and a draw against a stronger team is a common result.
• The match is close. When neither team is a clear favourite, a draw is a real chance and the refund comes into play often.
• You back a heavy favourite. Usually skip DNB. The other team rarely wins, so the bet mostly insures against the draw, and that cover takes most of your winnings. The DNB odds end up very short.
• You build an accumulator. A drawn DNB leg is void, so one draw lowers the payout instead of losing the whole bet.
• The price is good. If your bookmaker's DNB price is higher than a betting exchange offers for the same bet, or a price boost lets you build a better one, the bet pays over time. The sections below show how to check both.

Draw no bet vs double chance vs Asian handicap

All four back the home team. The difference is what a draw does to your bet, and that decides the price.

Asian handicap 0, also called level ball, settles like draw no bet when you bet before kick-off. It is a separate market with its own price, and its in-play rules vary between bookmakers, so check them before you treat the two as the same bet.

Double chance here means home or draw. Because it also wins on a draw, its price is much shorter: about 1.30 in our match, worked out from the 1X2 prices, against 1.53 for draw no bet.

How draw no bet odds are priced

A DNB price is the win price with the draw taken out of the market. Turn the three 1X2 prices into chances (implied probabilities), remove the bookmaker's margin, then take the draw out and share what is left between the two teams.

In our match that gives fair DNB odds of 1.58 for the home team and 2.71 for the away team. The bookmaker offers 1.53 and 2.56, a little below fair. The next section shows what that gap costs you.

To find a bet worth taking, run the same check on prices from a sharper market than the one you bet into: a betting exchange, or a sharp bookmaker (one that takes big bets on thin margins, so its prices sit close to fair). If your bookmaker's DNB price is higher than that fair price, the bet pays over many bets.

What draw no bet costs you

Every way of backing a team carries the bookmaker's margin. What matters is how much of it you pay, and in our match the home DNB is the cheapest way to back the home team.

Two things make the home DNB cheaper here. On the matches that end level you lose nothing, and its price of 1.53 sits close to the fair 1.58. The away DNB at 2.56 sits further below its fair 2.71, so it costs more. Double chance costs the same as the straight win, because in our example it is built from the same 1X2 prices.

Build draw no bet yourself

If a bookmaker has no DNB market, you can make one from two 1X2 bets: one on your team, and a smaller one on the draw, sized so a draw gives your whole stake back. For €100, that is €29.41 on the draw and €70.59 on the home win.

Together the two bets pay out like one DNB bet at 1.48, lower than the 1.53 quoted, because you pay the margin on the draw bet too. Building it yourself pays when one price is better than usual, such as a price boost (a bookmaker offer that raises the odds on one result). If the home win is boosted to 2.25, the same split works out at 1.59, above both the quoted DNB price and the fair one.

How draw no bet settles

• Normal time only. Football DNB is settled on the score after 90 minutes plus stoppage time. If a cup tie is level after 90 minutes, a DNB bet is refunded even when your team goes through on penalties. Only markets such as "to qualify" count extra time and penalties.
• First half draw no bet is settled on the half-time score, whatever happens after the break.
• Abandoned matches follow each bookmaker's own rule. Some void the bet, others keep it open if the match is finished within a set time.
• In an accumulator, a drawn DNB leg is void. It counts as odds of 1.00 and the rest of the accumulator carries on. The accumulator void rules guide works through the new payout.

UK-licensed bookmakers have to settle bets by their own published rules, as the UK Gambling Commission requires, and other bookmakers publish rules too. Read them for normal time, abandoned matches and void legs before you bet.

Draw no bet in matched betting

In matched betting you back a bet at a bookmaker and lay it (bet against it) on a betting exchange, so the result does not matter and you keep the bookmaker's offer. DNB works like any other market when the exchange lists it.

The amount you give up to unlock an offer is the qualifying loss, and the closer the back and lay prices, the smaller it is. In our match, backing home DNB at 1.53 and laying it at 1.60 on an exchange that takes 2% commission (its fee on winning bets) costs €5.10 whichever team wins, and a draw voids both bets. Check the offer terms first: some offers do not count a bet that ends void.

The Sharkbetting oddsmatcher has a DNB filter that lines up bookmaker DNB prices against exchange lay prices and sorts them by rating, which compares what the bookmaker pays with what the exchange pays after commission. The highest ratings, which lose least, come first. The matched betting guide covers the full process.

Draw no bet FAQ