The short answer is yes, there is. Nowadays, most bookmakers settle bets using automated computer systems, which provide faster, more accurate results than traditional human settlers, so the bet is less ‘nightmarish’ than was once the case, but it is still trying enough, not least because of the number of disparate bets involved. Generally speaking, the Bookies’ Nightmare is not an option you’ll see listed with online bookmakers, so you may find it’s a rigamarole to place, never mind settle!
The Bookies’ Nightmare consists of 47 individual bets, staked on nine, unrelated selections, which are arranged into two Patents, two Yankees, one Round Robin and one, rather speculative, nine-fold accumulator. A Patent, of course, consists of three singles, three doubles and a treble, making seven bets in all, while a Yankee consists of six doubles, four trebles and a four-fold accumulator, making 11 bets. Thus, staking two Patents, on selections 1, 2 and 3 and selections 7, 8 and 9, respectively, plus two Yankees, on selections 1, 2, 3 and 4 and selections 5, 6, 7 and 8, respectively, constitutes 7 + 7 + 11 + 11 = 36 bets.
The remaining 11 constituent bets comprise a Round Robin on selections 4, 5 and 6 and a nine-fold accumulator on selections 1-9. The latter is self-explanatory but, for readers unfamiliar with the structure of the bet, the Round Robin is similar to a Patent, insofar as it includes three doubles and a treble on three selections, but also three pairs of single stakes about bets, a.k.a. up-and-down bets or cross bets, making 10 bets in all. Essentially, any return on each single, up to the original unit stake, is used to fund a further single on the other selection in the pair; clearly, the further single is conditional on a return from the first one.