What is Pick 4? Pick 4 Explained in 2 minutes
Jesse M. Cox Last Verified
19/04/2026
What is a Pick 4?
A pick 4 is the name given to an accumulator bet which relies upon choosing four winners in a row. The winnings on a pick 4 bet are made up a pot which consists of all the money which has been placed on the pick 4 option. In this way, a relatively small bet can, in all four choices come in as winners, be turned into a large winning pay out.
How is Pick 4 Used in Sports Betting?
The chances of successfully picking the winning horse in four consecutive races are clearly fairly slim, so the pick 4 systems make allowanced for this by allowing bettors to pick more than one horse per race. If only one horse per race is chosen and the first choice doesn’t win its race then the rest of the bet is void, something which is likely to be highly frustrating if picks 2, 3 and 4 manage to come in first. The solution to this problem is for bets to be placed on more than one horse in several of the races. Ideally, there should be a clear favourite in one or two of the races, allowing the bettor to take the risk of choosing two or three horses in the other races, thus increasing the stake which has to be bet, but also making success that little bit more likely. Betting on pick 4 races using a system of this kind requires a greater degree of knowledge of the horses involved, their form and the conditions which prevail. Whereas a small single bet on each of the four races is much more of a long shot and involves a degree of luck which makes it more akin to buying a lottery ticket than an informed bet.
