Accumulator Bets Explained, Advantages and Disadvantages
What are accumulator Bets? When it comes to betting, I am of the opinion that there are two different types of people. There are those who bet for profit and there are those that bet for fun. If you were to separate these two into some kind of Venn Diagram, there is one area that would potentially cross over and that is the subject of accumulator betting.
The fact is that the two disciplines of betting are very different. The professional bettor, the one who bets for profit is cold and calculated. If you ever look at any product that takes betting seriously, they will talk at length about taking the passion and emotion out of betting.
It is simply a numbers game. Where can the best odds be found? How do they stack up against the risk or the form.
This kind of bettor is almost robotic in their approach.
At the other end of the scale you have people who bet for the fun of it. These are the lads you see sticking a few quid on a 100/1 outsider on the Grand National. They put a tenner on their favourite team, not because they’ll win, but because it makes the game that little bit more important. The bets are erratic, they are eclectic and they very rarely come in.
So where does accumulator betting come into this? For an increasing number of people, an accumulator bet allows you to enjoy the thrill of big odds and exciting outcomes whilst balancing it against the risk.
Review Contents
What are Accumulator Bets?
Accumulator bets work by allowing you as a bettor to compile multiple bets into one event. What this means is that instead of placing 10 bets on 10 outcomes, you place 1 bet on 10 outcomes. If one doesn’t come in, then your bet is lost.
This means that the more bets that you have involved, the bigger the risk, however it is hard to ignore that the reward grows proportionately.
When it comes to accumulator bets, there are a massive amount of types available and I will look at some of the more exotic examples below, but in the main, there are doubles, trebles and “x-fold” accumulators. A double and a treble are small accumulator bets that involve backing two or three events respectively.
An “x-fold” is a reference to the number of bets, for example a 4 fold is made up of four bets, an 8 fold eight bets, and so on and so forth.
One of the interesting things about accumulator bets is that they are only really offered by bookmakers. Where a lot of betting types that I have looked at before now have been widely available in some form or another on betting exchanges, this isn’t the case with accumulators.
This is because all of the odds are compiled into a single bet and there simply isn’t really a way of getting this matched.
Whilst the lack of activity on betting exchanges could be perceived as a negative due to the fact that you have to see out your bet and can’t trade it, however most bookies offer a cashing out service, especially on accumulator bets. This works to their benefit as they don’t have to pay out quite as much if a bet comes in whilst you can still choose to take some profit rather than none.
In many respects, accumulator bets are something of a niche and whilst bookmakers are constantly opening up the sports that you can place accumulator bets on, the majority are for horse racing, greyhound racing and football (or in some cases a combination of the 3).
So How Are Accumulator Odds Calculated?
It is a bit of a cop out but different bookies have different methods of calculating the odds. The unfortunate fact is that there is no set rule on how to work things out. To give some kind of context however, at the time of writing this, I have picked 5 Premier League games that I would consider to be “reasonable” and through Sky Bet, I will look at how the odds change as I increase my bet.
The first is Arsenal to beat Southampton. This has odds of 1.6 meaning a £10 bet would make me £6 profit.
The next game that I add is Tottenham to beat Stoke at odds of 1.8. This has put my accumulator odds up to 2.88 which is .48 more points of profit than the 1.4 points I would stand to make betting individually.
Adding West Ham to beat Watford would mean that I would I would get odds of 1.85, however my accumulator is now at odds of 5.33. Over double what my profit would be from individual bets.
By the time I add Liverpool to beat Leicester at 1.615 and Chelsea to beat Swansea at 1.6, my accumulator stands at 13.77.
What this means for me is that were I to bet individually, I would have made a profit of 3.465 points on my bet, or based off a £10 stake, £34.65. Using an accumulator, this profit is almost 4 times higher at £127.70.
The Following Video Will Show You How To Do Accumulators – Simplified:
Full Coverage Accumulator Bets
As well as your typical accumulator bets, there is another aspect to accumulators that I like to refer to as full coverage accumulator bets. There a host of different examples of these available however some of the ones that you are most likely to encounter are a Patent and a Trixie as well as a Yankee and a Lucky 15.
The smallest of these is a Patent bet. These are based around treble bets and involve backing each of your three bets as singles, three doubles and the treble itself. This means placing 7 bets however the potential to increase your profits does increase exponentially. A variant of the Patent bet is a Trixie bet. This is very similar however it does away with single bets.
A Yankee bet is rather larger. It follows the same principle as a Patent but is made up of four selections. For a Yankee, you are actually placing 11 different bets. These are a four fold, four trebles and 6 doubles. This again covers all bases and can massively boost the profits if you are fortunate.
A Lucky 15 is similar to a Yankee however it involves betting on each horse to win individually as well.
What Kind of Accumulator Betting Systems Are Available?
Accumulator bets systems are actually something of a rarity.
The fact is that the nature of an accumulator bet makes it a very difficult thing to systemise and identify patterns.
In terms of the systems that are available, you will mostly be looking at tipster services and these will rarely have large accumulators.
This is mostly down to the fact that large accumulators simply don’t win very often and it is difficult to justify to subscribers when you’re a tipster that you will win eventually.
There are different types of accumulators though, including:
- Each way accumulator bet
- Direct accumulator bet (example above)
- 2/3/4/5/6/7/8+ Fold accumulators with no upper limit.
Here is an example of an each way accumulator, meaning the result does not have to win, but can be placed also:
What are the Pros and Cons of Accumulator Betting Systems?
The pros and cons of accumulator bets are arguably the most polarising in terms of the various methods of betting that I see on a semi frequent basis. This is because they swing so wildly. The obvious pros are that you can get massive wins from very small bets (something that I have comfortably demonstrated with the example from Sky Bet).
There can also be a lot of value there as well as you can pick out a number of games or horses that are dead certs and multiply the odds, so long as you don’t mind the risk.
Of course these things that are strong positives about accumulator bets are also the negatives. To use the example I looked at before, if one were to bet individually, then 3 of your 5 bets could lose and you would still make half a point of profit . The fact is that there isn’t much that is worse as a bettor than watching 4 bets come in, only to have it all fall apart at the last minute.
The other disadvantages lie in the fact that you can only use bookmakers and bets aren’t as widely available outside of the sports mentioned.
Accumulator Bets Calculator
Of course when you are trying to work out your bets, you can simply guess, because should all the bets come in an win, then you will be in a profit situation, but if you want to take it more seriously, you may wish to use an actual accumulator calculator.
Here is an example: https://www.aceodds.com/bet-calculator/accumulator.html
Arbitrage Accumulator Bets
There are services now that can find accumulator bets and put you in a position of a no lose situation, and this is called arbitrage accumulators, meaning that will win no matter what the outcome of the bets.
This is done by taking the bets with the bookmakers but using the exchanges to guarantee a profit. Mike Cruickshank has software that finds these all day long, and it is also very quick to do. It is called Accumulator Generator, and you can read about it by clicking the link at the end of the review in the resources section, and better still you can trial it for just £1.
Conclusion on Accumulator Bets
Accumulator betting isn’t something that will work for everybody and as I have mentioned before now, it remains a very divisive type of betting. Personally I think that depending on how you like to bet will ultimately decide whether or not accumulator betting systems are for you. It definitely isn’t something that is for the risk averse.
The fact is that it is difficult to ignore the fact that you increase the risk of your bets losing and as I explored in the pros and cons, if you are reliant on betting as a big chunk of your income, this can be a problem. If on the other hand you are working with a much smaller betting bank or prefer big wins to consistent wins, then accumulator betting is a godsend.
One of the key differences that is worthwhile exploring as well is in the difference between horse racing and football as well. Accumulators work best with predictability and in the main, football comes out on top here.
That having been said, you do get better odds with horse racing. This is why you will often see more exotic types of accumulator bets in horse racing. The smaller accumulators still generally prove profitable enough to make it sustainable.
So are accumulator bets good? Personally, I’m a fan, although I don’t tend to take my betting quite as seriously as perhaps I should. That having been said, I have had some reasonable fortune with football accumulator bets (although I haven’t tried with horse racing so much).
I do understand why people don’t like them however. There is nothing more crushing than watching £120 walk out of the door due to a last minute goal.
Resources and Related Posts:
Accumulator Generator is a piece of software that finds profitable accumulators that are guaranteed to profit, and you can read about it on this website here:
There are no comments yet, add one below.