Greyhound Forecast Calculator: Work Out Your Potential Payout

Know the Cost Before You Bet

Before you place a forecast bet, you should know exactly what it costs and roughly what it could return. This sounds obvious, yet a surprising number of greyhound punters commit their stake without running even basic arithmetic. A combination forecast on three dogs at £1 per unit is not a £1 bet — it is a £6 bet. A reverse forecast at 50p costs £1. These are simple multiplications, but failing to do them leads to overstaking, which leads to losses that have nothing to do with picking the wrong dogs.

Calculating the cost side is straightforward and entirely within your control. The returns side is harder — no formula can tell you exactly what a forecast will pay before the race runs — but historical data and an understanding of how the Computer Straight Forecast works give you a reasonable ballpark. Together, these two numbers let you make a decision that most forecast bettors skip: is this bet worth the outlay?

This guide walks through the cost formulas for every standard forecast type, shows you how to estimate returns using CSF patterns, and works through practical examples at common unit stakes. If you have ever placed a combination forecast without calculating the total cost first, this is the correction.

Stake Formulas for Every Forecast Type

The cost of a forecast bet follows a simple multiplication: the number of individual bets within the forecast type, multiplied by your chosen unit stake. The number of bets is determined by the type of forecast and the number of dogs you include.

A straight forecast is one bet. You pick Dog A to finish first and Dog B to finish second. If your unit stake is £1, the total cost is £1. There is no multiplier, no hidden complexity. One combination, one stake.

A reverse forecast is two bets — Dog A first with Dog B second, plus Dog B first with Dog A second. At a £1 unit stake, the total cost is £2. At 50p, the minimum typically accepted for forecast bets, the cost is £1. The reverse forecast doubles the straight forecast cost in every case.

A combination forecast with three selections covers every possible pairing of those three dogs in first and second place. That produces six individual straight forecasts: AB, BA, AC, CA, BC, CB. At £1 per line, the total cost is £6. At 50p, it is £3. The formula for a combination forecast is n x (n-1), where n is the number of selections. Three dogs give you 3 x 2 = 6 bets. Four dogs give you 4 x 3 = 12 bets. Five dogs — which is ambitious in a six-runner field — give you 5 x 4 = 20 bets.

Tricasts follow similar logic but add a third finishing position. A straight tricast is one bet: three dogs in exact order. A combination tricast with three dogs covers all possible orderings of those three finishers, which is 3 x 2 x 1 = 6 bets. With four dogs, the combination tricast is 4 x 3 x 2 = 24 bets. The cost escalates fast, which is why combination tricasts with more than three selections are expensive relative to typical greyhound stakes.

The table makes one thing clear: complexity costs money. A four-dog combination forecast at £1 is £12 in total outlay. If the winning dividend is £18, your profit is only £6 — less impressive than it first appears. Always calculate the total cost before placing a combination bet, and compare it against realistic dividend expectations.

Estimating Forecast Returns

Predicting exact returns is impossible, but historical CSF data gives you a ballpark. The Computer Straight Forecast dividend varies by race, but patterns emerge when you look at enough results. The key driver is the starting prices of the two placed dogs — specifically, how short or long they are relative to the field.

When two short-priced dogs finish first and second, the CSF tends to sit in the £5 to £15 range for a £1 stake. This covers the most common type of greyhound result: the favourite wins, and a well-backed second favourite fills the runner-up spot. If you are playing a lot of combination forecasts in races with a dominant favourite, expect many of your winning returns to cluster in this zone — and remember that your total stake on a combination forecast is £6, so a £10 CSF leaves you with only £4 profit on the winning line and a net loss after accounting for the five losing lines.

When an outsider fills one of the top two positions, the CSF climbs. A 6/1 shot finishing second behind a 5/4 favourite might push the dividend to £25-£35. A genuine longshot — 10/1 or bigger — in the first two can push returns past £50 and occasionally past £100. These results are less frequent, but they are where forecast betting generates its best value relative to stake.

The tote forecast dividend follows a different distribution because it depends on pool size and ticket distribution rather than starting prices alone. Tote dividends tend to be lower than CSF on popular results and higher on unusual ones. If you are estimating tote returns, the most useful proxy is the CSF of the same result, adjusted upward for contrarian combinations and downward for obvious ones.

A reasonable rule of thumb for planning purposes: assume the average greyhound forecast pays between £15 and £40 per £1 stake across all results. Some will pay less, some significantly more. If your combination forecast costs £6 and your average winning dividend is £25, you need to win at least one in four to break even. That hit rate is achievable with disciplined selection, but only if you are realistic about the maths upfront.

Worked Examples

Let us walk through three scenarios at a £1 unit stake, using a six-runner race at a typical UK evening meeting.

Scenario 1: Straight Forecast. You fancy Trap 3 (SP 2/1) to win and Trap 6 (SP 5/1) to finish second. Total cost: £1. The race runs. Trap 3 wins, Trap 6 finishes second. The CSF dividend comes back at £28.40. Your profit: £27.40. Clean, efficient, and entirely dependent on getting the order right.

Scenario 2: Reverse Forecast. You rate the same two dogs but cannot separate them for first and second. You place a reverse forecast: Trap 3/Trap 6 in either order. Total cost: £2. The race runs. Trap 6 wins, Trap 3 finishes second — the reverse of what you expected. The CSF for this particular order is £19.70 (lower, because Trap 6 was the longer-priced dog winning). Your return: £19.70 on the winning leg, £0 on the other. Net profit: £17.70. Still profitable, though the return per pound staked is lower than the straight forecast scenario.

Scenario 3: Combination Forecast. You rate three dogs — Traps 1, 3, and 6 — and want any two of them to fill the first two places. Total cost: £6 (six straight forecasts). Trap 1 wins, Trap 3 finishes second. The CSF comes back at £14.20. Only one of your six lines wins. Your return: £14.20. Net profit: £8.20. Respectable, but note how the total stake dilutes the return. Had the same result paid a CSF of £10, you would be showing a net profit of just £4 — and if two favourites had filled the frame with a CSF of £7, you would be in the red despite picking both dogs correctly.

These examples illustrate the core trade-off: broader coverage increases your chance of landing a winner but raises the bar for the dividend to deliver a meaningful profit. The straight forecast is high risk, high reward per pound. The combination forecast is lower risk but demands bigger dividends to justify the stake.

Tools and Resources

Several free tools exist to do these sums for you. Most major bookmaker websites include a bet calculator that accepts forecast and tricast inputs — you enter the number of selections and the unit stake, and it produces the total cost. These are reliable for the cost side of the equation.

For estimating returns, the Racing Post and Timeform both publish historical CSF data alongside their results. Over time, reviewing these figures will calibrate your expectations for different types of results at different tracks. There is no substitute for seeing hundreds of actual CSF dividends to internalise the ranges.

If you want to track your own forecast results, a simple spreadsheet is enough. Record the date, track, bet type, total stake, result, dividend, and profit or loss. After fifty bets, patterns will emerge in your own data that no generic calculator can provide.

The Margin Check

Every calculation ends with the same question: is the potential return worth the total stake? If a reverse forecast costs £2 and you realistically expect the winning CSF to sit around £8-£10 for the type of result you are predicting, the margin is thin. If a four-dog combination at £1 per line costs £12, you need a substantial dividend just to break even. These are not complicated sums, but they are the sums most punters skip.

Run the numbers before you run the bet. The calculator is not there to predict your profit — it is there to stop you making bets where the arithmetic was always against you.