There comes a time in every punter’s life when simply betting on the result of a single match no longer provides a thrill or challenge. Despite the inherent unpredictability of sports, guessing the outcome of a single game is not necessarily that exciting. Similarly, rewards for such feats are often underwhelming unless there is a considerable upset on the cards.
Enter accumulator bets, a daring punter’s solution to keeping up the challenge while reaping great rewards.
What Is an Accumulator Bet?
An accumulator bet, or acca, is simply a compound bet consisting of four or more sections/individual bets. In order to win an accumulator bet, all individual bets have to win, and just one misstep voids the winning status of the entire bet. Football accumulator bets are the most common type, as bettors typically combine multiple match predictions into one acca.
A popular accumulator bet, for example, would be predicting the winners of each game in a given league match day or even the entire round. Note that with acca meaning multiple bets, it also means that those bets are created on different games. Placing bets on multiple events within a single match is called a game multiple, which is a different type of bet entirely.
While football is the most popular sport for placing acca bets, basketball, horse racing, and many other sports (both team and individual) feature their own accumulators and odds calculators. In the following sections, we’ll examine in more detail how these types of bets work and what you need to know before placing them.
Accumulator Bet Types
Accumulators typically start at four or more combined bets, with a two-part bet being called a double and a three-leg bet a treble. While there is technically no hard limit on the number of variables in an accumulator, most online bookies limit the selection to around 20.
The naming convention is pretty simple: if an accumulator has four sections, it will be called a 4-fold accumulator. If there are five – a 5-fold accumulator, and in the case of seven – a 7-fold accumulator.
More complex bet accumulator types can also consist of several smaller accumulators. For example, a trixie bet contains three double bets and one treble bet, while a yankee bet is an accumulator composed of 11 different bets but broken down into a single four-pronged accumulator, alongside six doubles and four trebles.
The ultimate in complex multiple betting are lucky 15 bets: 15-fold accumulators consisting of four singles, six doubles, four trebles, and one four-fold accumulator. These advanced types of accas exist to provide some sort of cushion for punters, as each accumulator type can return some winnings, even if the others fail.
How Do Accumulators Work?
Now that we’ve touched on the different types of bets, it’s time to explain how a football betting accumulator works in practice and what you need to know if you want to place bets this way.
The simplest way to look at accumulator bets lies in the name accumulator itself. Each successive bet accumulates winnings from the previous one, using them in place of the original stake. Let’s draw up an imaginary scenario to help better explain this, shall we?
|
Bet Section |
Match Result | Starting Odds: fractional (decimal) | Bet Outcome |
|
Real Sociedad to win |
Real Sociedad 2 Barcelona 0 |
3/1 (4.00) |
Won |
|
Sevilla to win |
Sevilla 1 Atletico Madrid 0 |
4/1 (5.00) |
Won |
|
Valencia to win |
Valencia 3 Real Madrid 2 |
3/1 (4.00) |
Won |
| Real Betis to win | Real Betis 4
Alaves 2 |
7/2 (4.50) |
Won |
What is a four-fold bet? Well, you’re looking at one. As our final column tells us, all four bets were successful, but how much did we actually earn?
Let’s say the initial bet was £10, for the sake of simplicity. Upon Real Sociedad’s win, you are now at £40 (£10 stake + £30 winnings). This will be your bet for the Sevilla game, netting you a 4 x £40 payout of £160, but we’re just getting started.
Remember, your wager on the Sevilla game was £40 and not £10, so the total “winnings” are now at £200, all of which becomes your wager for the Valencia game.
Following the same acca bet logic from before, Valencia’s win has now earned you £800 (£200 + £600), which is your final investment into the Real Betis game, at 7/2 odds. We’ll save you the trouble – Betis may have upset Alaves, but providing everything else went to plan, your humble £10 bet will now pay out £3,600!
As you can see, the profit potential is enormous, as each successive leg of the accumulator uses your previous winnings plus stake as the new stake. The simpler way to calculate your acca odds is to multiply all individual bets together: 4.00 x 5.00 x 4.00 x 4.50 = 360.
Don’t forget the inherent risk involved in all acca betting; we got great odds in our example by betting on four major upsets. After all, what is an accumulator bet with one failed prediction at any stage? A bet that just lost you your stake without winning anything at all.
Each Way Accumulator Bets and Non-Runners
Believe it or not, we’re not quite done explaining the types of accumulators commonly seen on the betting market. As we’ve shown previously, despite their fantastic potential for big payouts, acca bets can be very risky and tricky to win. One way to get around that is by betting each way.
For example, say the odds of Leicester City F.C. winning the Premier League are 14 to 1. Placing another stake on the club finishing within the top five gives you a cushion while providing extra winnings should Leicester win anyway.
A similar betting accumulator could be placed on horse racing. Say you were doing a 7-fold accumulator on seven different race winners – pretty tough bet, right? Well, many bookies may allow you to place both win and each-way horse accumulator bets to the tune of your horses either winning or placing within the top three or four spots in the race.
That way, if they win, you’ll secure winnings from both bets, and if they don’t, there’s at least a consolation prize available if they manage to rank within the top four. All big betting operators that allow such bets for horse racing have their own each-way calculator for determining the exact conditions for the secondary wager.
What happens if a bet is void in an accumulator, though? Say a game was postponed due to bad weather, or a horse you had in the race got injured – what then? It’s pretty simple, really. These situations lead to what we call non-runners: a section or multiple sections are removed from your accumulator bet, and the acca calculator adjusts the odds to match the new situation.
This will typically lower the potential winnings but also reduce the risk incurred. We think that’s a completely reasonable and fair reaction to unforeseeable circumstances.
How to Place an Accumulator Bet
Now that we’ve covered how to work out accumulator odds and explained all of the types you may encounter, it’s time to talk about actually placing bets. Luckily, the process is straightforward. Here are the steps for placing an acca online:
- Pick the sport you want to place acca bets on;
- Select the type of bet you’re going for – i.e., the home team wins;
- Pick the selections for your accumulator bet and add them to your betting slip;
- Check for “accumulator” within the “multiples” section and enter your stake;
- Double-check everything, and when ready, click on ‘place bets.’