The Most Famous Bet in Soccer: The Accumulator

Accumulator bets in any sport allow the punter to back not one selection but a set of them. In order for the bet to be an accumulator there must be more than three selections (any less is a treble, double or single bet). In relation to football betting the odds on one team winning at home will normally be odds-on (less than 2.00) for the team likely to win. An accumulator bet is one bet only so all of your selections must win in order for you to achieve the winning bet. If you select fourteen teams to win and thirteen win but the last team loses, unfortunately you lose your stake! You can beat on the home team, away team or the draw for any match.

When you are working out a bet for the coupon bear in mind that bookmakers have a limit on what they can pay out on any one bet, so do not go mad with lots of selections. Despite favourites often winning in football picking too many will result in one or two selections consistently letting you down. I tend to pick between five and seven selections, but this is entirely up to you.

When I worked in the betting shops a few years back we had to manually settle the football betting slips. Player tended to pick out Manchester United, Arsenal then a few more matches. Usually if one of the big teams drew or lost this meant most of the football bets were losing bets, despite most of the other favourites winning. We could have 50 coupons on the go before the end of business because football betting is a really popular weekend indulgence by many fans. The bookmakers actually love these bets because a punter may not get many wins on the accumulator bet in their lifetime. They should therefore be viewed as entertainment to add excitement to your weekend football viewing.

When picking out your selections I have put together some advice below.

Avoid Your Own Team – Crazy? Perhaps. But if they lose you will be doubly disappointed and some fans write off their entire weekend when their soccer team loses. Imagine your football betting being effected by that result also. I find it best to avoid my local team to avoid the upset feeling that this causes me (plus I do not like to tempt fate!).

Be Disciplined – Never turn up at the bookmakers and add more selections to your accumulator than you planned to. It can be tempting because if they win the return would be bigger but the more teams you add to your bet the less likely you are to win.

Prepare Your Bet – Loads of punters just walk into the shop and cross various boxes down the list and hope for the best. This is a bookmakers dream! You should check teams that have key players injured bad form or even a bad pitch! There are lots of factors that can affect the result of a football match and by considering as many as you can you will make the right decisions on your selections.

Stick to Favourites – Even though your return would be great if Chester City beat Arsenal, putting six of these unlikely results onto your accumulator will not see you profit very often, if ever. Look for the likely results to help you win, but avoid the heavy favourites where the returns are smaller. You may win the bet if you choose five results at 1.20 but your return will not be very good. I look for value around the 1.80 – 2.25 odds range.

Another good idea is to use the various online betting calculators to work out your potential win from your bet. You can then tailor your football bet to the potential return you want. If you are careful you can organise a 6.00 bet with around seven selections that are likely to have a real chance at winning and this puts you at an edge of the bookmaker because you are not betting blindly. This is always our aim.

Now just sit back and cheer on your teams on during the weekend and hope they deliver your winning football bet!

By Malcolm Clarke