KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Draw no bet (DNB) is a two-way market: bet on one team to win, with the draw removed from the outcome.
• If the match ends in a draw, a DNB stake is fully refunded — it’s treated as if the bet never happened.
• Because the draw risk is removed, DNB odds on a team are always shorter than that same team’s 3-way moneyline price.
• A DNB refund is a push, not a win — it returns the stake with zero profit and zero loss.
• DNB exists mainly in sports where a draw is a real, regularly occurring result, most commonly soccer.

A draw no bet (DNB) is a two-way wager on one team to win a match, with the draw taken out of the equation entirely: if the match ends level, the stake is simply refunded instead of lost. It’s built for sports like soccer, where a tied result is common enough that sportsbooks price it as its own outcome on the standard moneyline, but where a bettor may want to back a team without the draw complicating the bet. This article explains what draw no bet means, how it settles compared with a standard 3-way moneyline, and the mistakes bettors most often make when using it.

What Is a Draw No Bet?

Draw no bet is a derivative of the standard 3-way moneyline (home win, draw, away win) that removes the draw as a possible outcome. Instead of three prices, a DNB market shows only two: Team A or Team B. A bettor picks one team to win; if that team wins, the bet wins, if the other team wins, the bet loses, and if the match is drawn, the stake is returned in full rather than being settled as a loss.

This makes DNB conceptually similar to a straight 2-way moneyline in a sport without draws, except that the draw outcome still exists on the scoreboard — it’s simply excluded from what the bet is actually judged on. It is a different, separate market from the standard 3-way moneyline described in this blog’s Sports by League coverage of soccer betting, not an alternate way of describing the same bet.

DNB exists specifically because draws happen often enough in soccer to matter, unlike sports where a tie is rare or structurally prevented by overtime rules. League matches in particular can legitimately end level with no extra period forcing a winner, so a bettor confident a team simply won’t lose — without being certain it will win outright — has a real, common scenario to plan for. That’s the exact gap draw no bet is designed to fill.

How Draw No Bet Works

A DNB market is priced using only the two team outcomes, with the draw’s probability effectively folded back into the two remaining prices. Because removing the draw removes one whole way for a backed team to lose — a team can no longer “lose” a DNB bet by drawing — the odds on either team are always shorter (implying a higher probability) than that same team’s price on the standard 3-way moneyline for the identical match.

Settlement is based on the result at the end of regulation play plus stoppage time, the same cutoff point used for the standard moneyline. In competitions where a drawn knockout match proceeds to extra time and penalties, the DNB bet still settles on the 90-minute result — a match level after 90 minutes triggers the refund regardless of what happens afterward, unless the sportsbook’s specific rules state otherwise for that competition.

The refund itself is processed as a push: the original stake is returned to the bettor with no profit and no loss, exactly as if the bet had never been placed. This is different from a standard moneyline bet on the same team, which simply loses outright if the match ends level, with no refund at all.

Sportsbooks typically build a DNB price by starting from the 3-way market’s implied probabilities and reallocating the draw’s share proportionally between the two teams, rather than pricing it from scratch. A team that was heavily favored on the 3-way market absorbs most of the draw’s removed probability and sees its DNB price shorten more than the underdog’s does, which is why DNB odds don’t move by the same amount for both sides relative to their original 3-way prices.

A Worked Example

Suppose a sportsbook lists a hypothetical draw no bet market as: Team A −180, Team B +150. Team A’s implied probability is 180 ÷ 280 ≈ 64.29%, and Team B’s is 100 ÷ 250 = 40.00%, a combined 104.29% reflecting the sportsbook’s margin on the two-way market.

A bettor stakes $100 on Team A at −180. Three outcomes are possible: if Team A wins, the bet profits $100 × (100 ÷ 180) = $55.56, for a $155.56 payout. If the match ends in a draw, the $100 stake is simply returned — no profit, no loss. If Team B wins instead, the $100 stake is forfeited entirely, the same as it would be on a standard moneyline.

Compare that to the same team’s price on a standard 3-way moneyline for the identical match, where a draw settles as an outright loss rather than a refund. The DNB price on Team A is necessarily shorter than Team A’s 3-way moneyline price, since the sportsbook is no longer taking on the risk of paying out $0 profit on a drawn result — that risk has simply moved from “loss” to “refund.”

Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

The most common mistake is assuming draw no bet and the standard moneyline settle identically. They do not: a moneyline bet on a team that draws is a straightforward loss, while the same team’s DNB bet on the same result is a full refund.

A related error is treating the DNB refund as a small win. A push is not a win — the stake comes back with zero profit, which is a materially different outcome from actually winning the wager, even though no money is lost either.

Bettors also sometimes assume DNB and 3-way moneyline odds on the same team should be roughly equal. They’re never equal: because DNB removes an entire losing outcome for the backed team, its price is always shorter than that team’s price on the 3-way market, reflecting the higher probability of winning the bet.

How Draw No Bet Is Used at the Sportsbook

On a typical soccer bet slip, draw no bet is listed as a separate market from the standard 1X2 (3-way) moneyline, usually just below or beside it, so a bettor chooses which structure fits the wager they want to make. Bettors often use DNB when they’re confident a team won’t lose but less certain the match will end decisively, trading a smaller potential payout for the protection of a refund instead of a loss on a drawn result.

Because it removes one entire outcome from consideration, DNB carries meaningfully lower variance than a standard moneyline bet on the same team, which is part of why it’s a commonly offered alternative anywhere soccer’s 3-way market appears, from major leagues down to smaller competitions.

DNB is one of several markets built to soften the draw’s effect on a straightforward win bet, alongside double chance, which pays out on two of the three 3-way results for a single stake, and the Asian handicap, which removes the draw by applying a goal-based adjustment instead of a refund. Each approach trades something different: double chance keeps the draw as a winning outcome rather than a push, while the Asian handicap changes the number being bet on entirely rather than simply excluding one result. DNB sits between the two, keeping the bet a simple team pick while converting the draw specifically into a refund.

Draw no bet is built directly on top of how 3-way moneyline betting works in soccer, which explains the standard home/draw/away market that DNB modifies. It’s also worth comparing against the generic moneyline bet definition used across sports without a draw outcome, since DNB effectively recreates that simpler two-way structure inside a sport that does have one.

For the odds math behind the implied probabilities shown above, see how to read American odds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is draw no bet the same as double chance?

No. Double chance covers two of the three 3-way outcomes for a single stake (such as “home win or draw”), so it can still win on a draw. Draw no bet removes the draw entirely and refunds the stake if it happens, rather than counting a draw as a winning result.

Do I get my money back if the game ends in a draw with a draw no bet wager?

Yes. The entire stake is refunded as a push, with no profit and no loss, exactly as if the bet had never been placed. This only applies to the draw outcome itself; if the team you backed loses outright, the stake is forfeited as normal.

Why are draw no bet odds shorter than 3-way moneyline odds?

Because removing the draw removes an entire way for the backed team to lose the bet. With one fewer losing outcome to price around, the implied probability of winning goes up, which means the odds on the same team are always shorter under draw no bet than under the standard 3-way market.

Which sports offer draw no bet markets?

Draw no bet is most common in soccer, where draws are a frequent, standard result across almost every league and competition. It can appear in other sports where ties are possible, but it’s rare outside soccer since most other major sports rarely or never end in a tie.

Is a draw no bet refund counted as a win or a loss in my betting record?

Neither. A push should be tracked separately from wins and losses when logging results, since it has no impact on profit or units won or lost. Counting it as either a win or a loss would distort a betting record’s true win rate.