Sports Betting Strategy: Accumulators
Accumulators allow you to combine four or more selections into a single bet in an effort to secure a higher potential return. It is one of the most popular bets among casual sports betting fans, and it can be great fun to compile an acca.
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However, many punters come unstuck due to a poor strategic approach, so we have listed some important points to bear in mind before parting with your hard-earned cash.
What is a Betting Accumulator?
An accumulator is a bet that consists of multiple selections rolled together into a single wager. Instead of backing each one individually at lower odds, you combine them to gain higher accumulative odds. This makes your potential profit greater, but there is a catch: each one has to win for your bet to pay off. If one selection lets you down, your bet crashes and burns.
On a particular weekend, you might like the look of these bets:
- Rafa Nadal to beat Marin Cilic at 1/2
- Alexander Zverev to beat Denis Shapovalov at 4/6
- Naomi Osaka to beat Coco Gauff at 11/10
- Johanna Konta to beat Karolina Pliskova at 6/4
If you bet £10 on each one as a single wager, and all four predictions prove to be correct, you would earn a profit of £37.67 from your £40 stake. However, if you combine them into an acca, your profit would be a much more impressive £486 from a £40 stake.
If just one player lets you down, your bet is busted, but the potential returns are far higher, which is why so many punters love accas. A bet featuring two selections is referred to as a double, three is a treble, and four or more is considered an accumulator. The more legs you add to your acca, the greater the potential profit. You can combine selections from multiple sports into a single acca.
Adopting an Accumulator Strategy
Many punters like to adopt a consistent betting strategy that helps them compile the best accumulator bet on an ongoing basis. These include:
- Rolling a nunber of short odds favourites together
- Picking a few underdogs that could upset the odds and combining them
- Consistently focusing on special bets like both teams to score in football or total runs in cricket
- Backing strong teams with home advantage to all succeed
- Sticking to certain leagues and tournaments that they know well
How is an Accumulator Bet Calculated?
For any sports fans that like to bet, accumulator wagering offers a tantalising opportunity to make high returns off a small stake. The easiest way to calculate the potential payout on accumulators is to convert the odds into decimal format. Sticking with the example used above:
- Rafa Nadal to beat Marin Cilic at 1/2 = 1.5
- Alexander Zverev to beat Denis Shapovalov at 4/6 = 1.67
- Naomi Osaka to beat Coco Gauff at 11/10 = 2.1 - Johanna Konta to beat Karolina Pliskova at 6/4 = 2.5
You then simply multiply them together to calculate your total return:
- 1.5 x 1.67 x 2.1 x 2.5 = 13.15.
- Your total return from a £40 stake at odds of 13.15 would be £526.
- Take off the £40 you laid down and you are left with a profit of £486.
Anyone interested in online accumulator betting will find that betting sites allow you to view odds in either fractional or decimal format. The site will also tell you what your potential return is on your betslip when you place an acca.
Creating a Winning Accumulator
The best advice is to stick to what you know. Focus on a few key sports or competitions that you are familiar with and resist the temptation to bolster your acca with weird and wonderful selections on teams you have never seen play. Before you place a bet, accumulator tips such as these might help:
- Avoid selections with really low odds, as they do little to boost your cumulative odds and a freak result could bust your coupon.
- Stay away from selections with really high odds, as they can work as single bets.
- Find that sweet spot by making selections that offer a reasonable amount of value and combining them.
- Be cautious about adding draws into accas.
- Generally try to stick to the home team winning.
- Do not confine yourself to winner markets, as there are a number of intriguing special bets to choose from.
- Do your research.
You can benefit from a wealth of online stats before compiling your accumulator. If you are interested in football, you can find out how well each team has fared at home and away, how often both teams to score pays off in their games, how frequently matches featuring each team see over 2.5 goals, the head-to-head record between the teams, any injuries or suspensions and so on.
Never bet blind. Do plenty of research and compile your acca with intelligent predictions from a position of knowledge. You can also throw in total points bets, handicap bets, draw no bet options and all manner of special wagers into an acca, so check out all of the sports betting available before making your selections.
Special Offers
You can benefit from some fantastic special offers when placing accumulators. One is acca insurance, which sees you get your money back if one leg lets you down. You often have to include five or more selections to enjoy this offer, and there might be a minimum price for each leg. Betfair Sports have excellent insurance offers.
Another bonus sees you gain boosted odds for each leg you add to an acca. If you’re placing a bet with 10Bet, you’ll get a 4% cash boost on four-fold accumulators, a 5% boost of five-folds, 10% on six-folds, all the way up to 50% on 16-folds. The minimum odds for each selection must be 1/2 to qualify. Paddy Power Sports has also run some tempting acca boosts over the years.