Our Complete Accumulator Bet Guide

An accumulator bet, also knows as an ‘acca’, is an individual bet made up of a collection of single bets. For an accumulator bet to be successful, each of the single bets within the accumulator must be winning bets.

Below we can see an example of an accumulator, in this instance each of the single bets (also known as folds, legs or selections) is for a round of Premier League matches:

  • Fold 1 – Manchester United (1.50) to defeat Leicester
  • Fold 2 – Liverpool (1.35) to defeat Hull
  • Fold 3 – Manchester City (1.60) to defeat Swansea
  • Fold 4 – Tottenham (1.90) to defeat Middlesbrough
  • Fold 5 – Arsenal/Chelsea (3.50) to draw

How to Calculate Accumulator Bets

Calculating your accumulator odds is easy. You simply multiply each selection into the next. So using our example above, our calculation would be:

  • 1.50 x 1.35 x 1.60 x 1.90 x 3.50 = 21.55
  • Accumulator Odds: 21.55

Placing 20€ on this accumulator will return you 431€, for a profit of 411€ (our return of 431€ minus our stake of 20€). For this accumulator to be successful, each of our selections must be correct. If not, our 20€ stake is lost.

Please note that your accumulator bet does not have to be made up of match result selections. In fact, your accumulator can not only be composed of a range of betting markets including Asian handicaps, goal totals and many more, but can also be made up of selections across a variety of leagues, tournaments and sports.

This is one reason why accumulator bets are so popular, particularly over a weekend, as they provide punters with the opportunity to bet across many events, with large payouts available for a small investment.

Types of Accumulator Bets

While accumulator bets can often be referred to by the number of selections they include, for example a sixfold accumulator consists of six selections, it is also possible to combine a number of selections to create an array of accumulator bets.

  • Double
    A Double is simply an accumulator made up on two selections.
  • Treble
    A Treble is an accumulator made up of three selections.
  • Trixie
    A Trixie is a collection of bets made up of three selections. Each selection is coupled with the others to create three doubles and one treble, for a total of four accumulator bets.
  • Patent
    A Patent is made up of three selections, with each selection taken as a single plus combined with the others to create three doubles and one treble, for a total of seven bets (three singles plus four accumulator bets).
  • Yankee
    A Yankee is made up of four selections, with each selection coupled with the others to create six doubles, four trebles and a four fold accumulator, for a total of eleven accumulator bets.
  • Lucky
    15 Much like what a Patent is to a Trixie, a Lucky 15 is to a Yankee. A Lucky 15 is made up of four selections, with each selection taken as a single bets plus combined with others to create six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold, for a total of fifteen bets (four singles plus eleven accumulator bets).
  • Super Yankee
    Also known as a Canadian, a Super Yankee is made up to of five selections, with each selection coupled with the others to create ten doubles, ten trebles five four folds and one five fold accumulator bets, for a total of 26 individual accas.
  • Lucky 31
    A Lucky 31 is made up of five selections, with each selection taken as single bets, plus combined with the others to create ten doubles, ten trebles, five fourfolds and one fivefold accumulator bet, for a total of 31 bets (five singles plus 26 accumulator bets).
  • Heinz
    A Heinz is made up of six selections, with each selection coupled with the others to create 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four folds, 6 five folds and one six fold accumulator, for a total of 57 accumulator bets.
  • Lucky 63
    A Lucky 63 is made up of six selections, with each selection taken as single bets, plus combined with the others to create 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, 6 fivefolds and one sixfold accumulator bets, for a total of 63 bets (six singles plus 57 accumulator bets).
  • Super Heinz
    A Super Heinz is made up of seven selections, with each selection coupled with the others to create 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four folds, 21 five folds, 7 six folds and one seven fold accumulator, for a total of 120 accumulator bets.
  • Goliath
    A Goliath is made up of eight selections, with each selection combined with the others to create 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds, 28 sixfolds, 8 sevenfolds and one eightfold accumulator, for a total of 247 accumulator bets.

Accumulator Bet Types Grid

To make things easier, we’ve created a quick reference guide for your accumulator betting. Here you can see the number of single selections required for each and the number of particular accumulator bets it will create. For example, a Yankee requires four single selections and will create six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold.

How to Place an Accumulator Bet

Placing an accumulator is an easy process. Once logged into your preferred bookmaker account, simply make your selections as you normally would, adding them to your bet slip.

Below we can see we’ve added three selections to our betslip:

Below our selections we are given a range of bet type options. We can bet each as a single bet or create a range of accumulators.

In this case, we want to create one treble with a stake of 10€, for a potential return of 156.30€. So we simply enter 10€ in the Treble field and confirm our bet.

Accumulator Pros & Cons

There are a number of pros and cons when it comes to betting on accumulators. While there is the potential for huge payouts, consistency of winning accumulators can be an issue.

Pro – The opportunity to multiply betting value

The number one benefit of betting on accas is the ability to multiply betting value. With each value bet you place in your acca, the more you enhance the value of each selection.

For example you may have five single bets, each of them offering 3% value. Individually that’s great. But combining these value bets into a fivefold acca, will see that value multiply to just under 16%.

While an accumulator may consist of individual bets combined together, these individual bets create a single bet. In this way, an accumulator is just like any other bet. If we think about accumulators in this manner, then it should be clear that combining individual value bets together to create a bet of even greater value, is easily the greatest benefit of placing accumulator bets.

Con – Being eaten alive by bookmaker commission

Bookmaker commission (also known as vig or juice) is the share a bookmaker subtracts from what we would refer to as ‘fair odds’. For example, fair odds in a coin toss, a 50-50 proposition, would be odds of 2.00. However, bookmakers do not offer fair odds on a coin toss or any other betting market. They will offer odds something in the range of 1.90, a commission of 5%.

This becomes an issue for acca punters who do not create accumulators consisting of value bets. If you include selections randomly with no consideration for value, you are going to multiply the bookmaker commission. So while a sixfold accumulator consisting of six Asian handicap bets at odds of 1.90 offers odds of 47.05, the fair odds for such a bet would be odds of 64.00. A huge difference.

Pro – Low Stakes / Large payouts

For most punters, the ability to win large payouts at low stakes is what makes betting accumulators so great. In fact many casual punters would rather bet on accas than the National Lottery.

While the National Lottery promises huge prizes, in relation to the cost of a ticket and the chances of winning, lottery tickets are terrible value.

Placing an accumulator on the weekend’s football, while not providing the chance to win millions (most bookmakers cap the amount you can win on an individual acca at around 100,000€), an acca provides you with a better value opportunity (even with bookmaker commissions taken into account), the chance to apply your football or sports knowledge plus the excitement of following your acca across the weekend’s sporting events, rather than merely checking your lotto numbers when the results come in.

Would you rather just wait for the weekend’s lottery numbers, or would you rather go into a Saturday afternoon with an acca like this?

Fold 1 – Manchester United to win at odds of 1.50
Fold 2 – Everton to win at odds of 2.50
Fold 3 – Liverpool to win at odds of 1.50
Fold 4 – Barcelona to win at odds of 2.00
Fold 5 – Real Madrid/Atletico Madrid to draw at odds of 3.30
Fold 6 – Juventus/AC Milan to draw at odds of 3.30
Fold 7 – Roma to win at odds of 1.70
Fold 8 – Dortmund/Bayern Munich to draw at odds of 3.40
Fold 9 – PSG/Lyon to draw at odds of 3.40
Fold 10 – Monaco to win at odds of 3.00

Odds: 7,222.82

Profit from a 10€ stake: 72,218.24€.

We’d prefer the ACCA.

Con – Low strike rate

Many punters who bet on accas struggle to deal with the low strike rate of winning acca bets. A lack of patience in this regard can lead punters to errors of frustration, looking to bet on more likely outcomes than better value accumulators.

Once again, we should think of accumulators as being just like any other bet. While it is made up of individual bets, it is at the end of the day still a bet that a range of events will occur. In this respect, accas should be looked on like any other bet at long odds. While we would love a great strike rate, the fact is that an acca at odds of 20.00 is just as likely to occur as an individual bet on a team to win a match at those same odds.

With the low strike rate of accumulator winners, it’s crucial to maintain your discipline and look to include value bets rather than short odds outcomes, merely because you believe they are more likely to happen.

Basic Accumulator Rules

There are a number of rules to keep in mind when betting on accumulators. Such rules can vary slightly from bookmaker to bookmaker, but in general, they apply to each.

Firstly, most bookmakers will cap the amount you can win on any one accumulator bet. This is typically in the range of 100,000€.

Secondly, most bookmakers cap the number of selections you can include in any one accumulator bets. Some bookmakers can be quite strict, but most will permit accumulators in excess of ten folds. Bet365 currently offers accas up to fourteen folds, with a 100% bonus on top of your winning should your fourteen fold acca come through. (More on this later!)

Thirdly, as with all bets there is a minimum stake. This can vary from bookmaker to bookmaker, but is generally 1€.

Fourth, it’s important to know how match results may impact your accumulator bet. For example, if your accumulator includes a number of Draw No Bet (DNB) selections, what happens if there are drawn matches? In such circumstance, the selection is typically voided from you accumulator. This does not mean your accumulator will be lost, it just means that the affected selection will be deleted from your accumulator, therefore reducing the number of folds in your acca and diminishing your payout should your accumulator be successful.

Football Accumulator Strategy

As discussed previously, the number one thing to consider when betting on football accumulators or accumulators of any manner is the issue of betting value. If you are including selections without any regard for value, you are only creating poor value bets.

  • Cover More Leagues

Now you may be thinking that including value bets may limit the number of folds in your accumulator. How many value bets can there possibly be in any one Premier League weekend of football? One, maybe two? That might be true. But there’s dozens of leagues at play on a given weekend. If you can find one value bet in the Premier League, then you can surely find a value bet in the weekend’s Bundesliga, or La Liga, or Serie A, or Ligue Un, or the Championship, League One, League Two and so on. You get the point.

  • Cover More Markets

Not only can you create accas across a number of leagues, but you can also create accas across a range of markets. Again, this provides you with greater opportunity to discover value bets to include in your weekend football acca.

Mixing match results with Asian handicap selections, goal totals over unders, both teams to score and draw no bets, can provide you with a greater range of value bets to add to your accas.

  • Find Bookmakers That Offer The Best Odds

While it’s possible to shop around for the best odds when betting on singles, placing accumulators is a far more restrictive process. This is simply because we can only use one bookmaker in which to place our acca.

So do your research. Find bookmakers that offer the best odds on the markets and leagues you are wanting to place accumulators with. If you want to bet on accumulators featuring Premier League Over/Under 2.5 goals selections, then find a bookmaker that offers consistently the better odds on this market. Or on the other hand, you want to create accumulators featuring Asian handicap selections across La Liga and Serie A, find the bookmakers that offer consistently the best odds on these particular leagues and markets.

It’s difficult enough to win accumulators. Don’t diminish your winning accumulators by betting with bookmakers that offer inferior odds on your preferred markets.

  • Exploit Asian Handicap Markets

Using markets such as Asian handicaps can help bring consistency to your winning accumulators. Let’s say you have chosen six long shot underdogs for the weekend’s football, all at around odds of 4.00 to 6.00.

Each of these are value bets, and combining them into a sixfold acca will enhance that value. But combined the odds for the winning acca are around 15000.00. Even though it’s a value bet, the chances of the acca winning are very low. We would regard this as massive long shot.

Since Asian handicaps are correlated with match odds (I.e a team’s chances of winning, losing or drawing a match are mirrored in their Asian handicap odds) it can be a good idea to use Asian handicaps rather than match 1X2 odds. Yes, the odds will be lower (a sixfold Asian handicap acca would be at odds of around 47.00), but the value will be roughly the same and the consistency of your winning accas will improve.

  • Cash Out When You Have An Advantage

A number of bookmakers now offer the ability to Cash Out of your bets in-running to as to take a given profit or to limit your losses. Cash Out is now available to accumulators as well giving you the ability to Cash Out out of your acca while you have selections still alive.

For example you may have an acca of fivefolds, with the first four of these selections winning. Cash Out gives you the chance to take your winnings now (albeit at a reduced price) rather than wait and hope for the final selection to conclude.

While Cash Out gives you greater flexibility with your accumulator betting, please note that bookmakers typically offer you less than true value terms when cashing out early. So before you decide to cash out of your acca, seriously consider the profit being offered to you and the likelihood of your remaining selections winning.

Create a Football Accumulator System

As stated a number of times previously, the best type of football accumulator system is one that involves selecting only value bets. But as we also stated previously, many punters want to bet on accas as an alternative to betting on lotteries or other forms of high payout gambling.

While we wouldn’t recommend any of these if you are a bettor of a more serious type, for casual weekend football punters, here are a few fun football accumulator systems to try out.

  • The Couples Retreat

Keep the football related romance alive by creating a double consisting of the club you support and the club your partner supports. Place a stake of 20€ down and use the winnings to go towards a night out on the town.

  • The Terrible Treble

This involves betting on the three biggest underdogs in your favourite league. Sure it’s very unlikely to come through, but if it does you’ll not only claim a huge pay-off but probably end up on the front page of the Daily Mail holding an oversized novelty cheque.

  • The Awesome Foursome

Get your three best mates together, throw in 25€ each and create an acca involving the four football clubs you support. A total 100€ stake on a winning fourfold acca will make for a great night out … unless it’s your team that lets everyone down.

  • The Naive Five

Ask five people you know that have no idea about football who they think will win this weekend. Anyone who while watching a Manchester Derby has asked you “which team is the red one?” is a perfect candidate.

  • The Sadistic Six

This is creating a sixfold Asian handicap accumulator of very very very firm favourites. For example, Barcelona -3 vs Alaves, Bayern Munich -2.5 vs Darmstadt and so on. Essentially, you’re baying for blood in this one.

  • The Seventh Heaven

This is creating a sevenfold accumulator featuring every club placed in seventh place on the table in the following seven leagues – Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue Un, Eredivisie and Primeira.

  • The Hateful Eight

An accumulator composed of eight folds where you bet against the eight teams you despise most. Not only will a winning hateful eight acca bring you a huge payout, but you’ll also bask in the knowledge that the it came at the expense of the clubs you most loath.

Best Bookmakers for Accumulator

It’s difficult to distinguish one bookmaker from another when it comes to accumulators. The reality is most bookmakers cater for acca punters and in fact, see accumulator betting as a key part of their business and betting platform.

So which bookmakers would we recommend for accumulator betting?

One area where bookmakers can be distinguished from one another is in the area of acca promotional offers. These typically involve either acca insurance or an acca bonus. We recommend betting only with bookmakers that other either of these promotions.

What’s ACCA Insurance?

An acca insurance offer is where you place an acca of a minimum number of folds (it varies offer to offer) and if your acca fails by one fold, your stake will be refunded up to a certain amount.

What’s an ACCA Bonus?

An acca bonus is where you place an accumulator of a given number of folds and if your acca is successful, you’ll receive a bonus on top of your winnings.