How to Succeed with an Accumulator Bet

Posted by Harry Kane on Monday, March 25, 2019

The accumulator remains one of the most popular wager types in the world of sports betting, and this is not only due to the fact that it has the potential to deliver huge returns if successful.

In fact, statistics suggest that the popularity of accumulators has coincided with the rise of in-play betting and audience participation. This is particularly true in terms of football, where an estimated 76.8% of fans now enjoy nothing more than watching a game and using their smartphone to place wagers.

In this article, we’ll explore the phenomenon of accumulators in greater detail, while asking how you can succeed with this type of bet.

Getting down to Basics: What Is an Accumulator?

If you’re new to the accumulator (or “acca” to you and me), this is an individual bet that comprises of multiple single wagers.

Essentially, it refers to the accumulation of single wagers into a multiple, which then presents odds that have been calculated using the prices associated with each individual selection on your bet slip (we’ll explore this a little further later on).

Every single bet is known as a ‘fold”, and an accumulator can include as many single wagers as you’d like (although the most successful wagers of this type tend to feature around five or six selections).

You’ll just need to note that increasing the number of folds will lengthen the odds of success and increase your potential return, while simultaneously reducing your chances of winning.

What Odds a Win? Getting to Grips with Accumulator Pricing

Football accumulators have become increasingly popular in recent times, particularly as they’ve evolved to include a number of niche and alternative markets.

However, the majority of accumulators include so-called “moneyline” bets, through which punters select from one of the two potential winners of a specific match or choose to back the draw.

The odds of their chosen selections will then be multiplied by one another in line to define the price of your accumulator before this is combined with your total stake to calculate your potential return.

Before you start, you may want to convert the fractional odds featured on most UK betting sites into decimal prices, as unless you have a particular penchant for mathematics this will make it far easier to calculate your odds.

To help illustrate this, we’ve taken four recent Premier League matches and the decimal odds associated with each selection:

• Bournemouth v Man. City – backing an away win at odds of 1.20
• Man. United v Southampton – backing a home win at odds of 1.44
• Arsenal v Tottenham – backing a home win at odds of 3.60
• Wolves v Cardiff – backing a home win at odds of 1.44

When we multiply these together, you get a four-fold accumulator with odds of 8.957. Now, if you placed a £10 stake on this wager and each selection comes good, you’ll generate a return of £89.57 while also building your bet slip primarily by using favourites and sides with an excellent chance of winning.

This return is also far higher than you would achieve by backing one of these matches with a relatively modest stake, which is just one of the reasons why accas are so popular.

Can You Include Alternative Markets in Your Acca?

Earlier, we spoke about how the majority of accumulators are built on straightforward moneyline bets.

However, you can now feature a huge array of alternative and lucrative markets as part of your acca, in a bid to turn the odds in your favour and potentially increase your potential return.

One of the most popular selections involves the number of goals scored per game, as this does not require punters to select a winner but instead speculate on whether more or less goals will be scored than a predetermined amount.

Taking one of our previous selection as an example, you could bet on the game between Manchester United and Southampton producing more than 2.5 goals. This will be available at slightly more favourable odds than the home win, and so long as the game generates three goals it will come good.

Similarly, you can apply handicaps to heavy favourites as a way of creating greater value in mismatches. For example, Manchester City was heavy, odds-on favourites to win when they visited Bournemouth on the South Coast, but a price of 1.20 is hardly alluring to bettors.

By backing City to win by two clear goals or more with a handicap of -1.5, you can immediately create more favourable odds without seriously compromising the likelihood that the wager will come in as part of your accumulator.

As a note of caution, it should be remembered that while the combinations are virtually limitless when building your acca focusing solely on alternative betting markets can be detrimental.

With this in mind, you may be better served by selecting moneyline bets when creating your accumulator, as the odds on a five or six-fold wager should be generous enough.

Top Tips for Building a Successful Acca

As you’ve probably guessed by now, an acca can only ever be as successful as its individual wagers.

More specifically, you’ll need every single bet to be successful if your accumulator is to prove successful, so you’ll need to build your wager carefully and with a keen strategic mind. Here’s how:

1. Rely on Data and Statistics as your Friends

In truth, the key to building a winning accumulator lies with mitigating risk by backing highly likely outcomes across a number of selected matches.

This is a relatively safe and sensible way of introducing value into your acca bets, while it also relies primarily on the use of data and statistics when selecting games.

Our previous example selections offer a relevant case in point, as three of the matches chosen were relatively mismatched and included a clear, odds-on favourite. The other selection featured Arsenal to beat Spurs, with the Gunners boasting an unbeaten run of 14 matches at home at the time of the game and a distinct advantage in form over their rivals.

Another key takeaway from our four-fold acca was that three of the selections were home teams. According to studies, an estimated 48% of all league games in the UK result in victories for the team playing at home, so this should definitely inform your selections as an accumulator enthusiast.

If you’re going to pick an away side, try to prioritise teams that have a clear advantage on quality over their rivals and have been heavily backed to win.

By understanding patterns of results and regularly reviewing home and away form guides, you can build effective accas that offer a far better chance of success.

2. Judge Each Acca on Its Own Individual Merits

Before you build an accumulator, you may be tempted to restrict your selections to comply with a predetermined number.

There’s some sense to this, of course, as five or six-fold accumulators tend to offer the best balance between potential returns and your overall chances of being successful.

However, this does not mean that you cannot build larger accumulators in some instances, as each acca should be judged on its own individual merits and the nature of the games being played on any given matchday.

So, if your analysis of the weekend’s fixtures highlights seven or eight games that you think should be included, don’t be afraid to factor these into your accumulator, enhance the odds on offer and provide a boost to your potential returns.

The most important thing is that each individual bet warrants a place in your acca, and contributes positively to both the overalls and your chances of winning.

Similarly, you’ll need to consider your bankroll when building your acca and placing a stake, as you look to tailor this on a fractional basis depending on the potential return provided by each accumulator.

3. If You’re Going to Explore Alternative Betting Markets, Go for Goals Scored per Game

We spoke earlier about being wary of alternative betting markets, but we understand that this can be a tempting option for some punters.

If you’re serious about complicating your accumulator, however, you may find it better to wager on the number of goals that’s likely to be scored in a particular game.

The reason for this is simple; as there are current and historical data sets that can really inform your decision, especially through resources such as Opta. These include the number of goals produced through historical match-ups through the years, along with the number of goals teams has scored and conceded during the course of the current season.

So, if you highlight a game that you think is likely to feature a particularly high number of goals, you can incorporate this into your accumulator and improve the odds provided by operators.

Just try not to overuse this or similar alternative betting markets, as while they can add genuine value they need to be leveraged strategically and in a way that respects the accumulated data.