What is an Accumulator Bet?

Accumulators, also known as Accas, multiples or parlay bets is a bet with multiple “legs” included in it. For it to win every leg must be correct for you to win. This article will talk you through all the nuances of exactly what an accumulator bet is and how to place one on your favourite UK bookmaker. We’ll even show you how to get free accumulator tips and how to place an accumulator.

Accumulator Legs Definition

As we mentioned in the introduction an accumulator is a single bet with multiple legs. A Leg is a single bet for a particular market. For example Man Utd might be priced at odds of 2-1 to win against Man City. If you placed £10 on that particular bet, it would return £30 (£20 winnings + £10 stake).

Let’s say there is another bet that you like the look of and it’s Wolves to win against Southampton, priced at odds of 2-1 as well. Again if this bet was placed as a single bet it would return £30.

If these 2 bets were placed in an accumulator the bet would have 2 legs, Man Utd to win and Wolves to win and each leg would have odds of 2-1

How Are Accumulator Odds Calculated?

The appeal of accumulator bets are the large odds that can be achieved when pricing them up. This is due to the multiplication factor that occurs with Accas. When you calculate the odds of an accumulator you multiply the stake by the odds of each leg of the accumulator. This is where the magic happens. You can end up with an accumulator that has lots of legs with very low odds, but because you are multiplying the stake by the odds of each leg the odds can grow very quickly and equal a large payout.

When calculating accumulator odds, it’s easier to work out the potential returns by converting the odds to a decimal format first. Most UK bookmakers use fractional odds by default, but it’s pretty simple to switch to decimal using on site settings. If you can’t find out how to do this, you can always use our fractional to decimal odds calculator to quickly change the odds. If the fractional odds are any permutation of X-1 EG 2-1 3-1 4-1, it’s really simple to convert, you just add 1 to the payout multiple, so 2-1 becomes 3.00, 3-1 becomes 4.00 etc etc.

In the case of the 2 fold accumulator that we started with above let’s take a look at how the accumulator odds are calculated:

• Man Utd v Man City - 2-1 = 3.0 decimal odds
• Wolves v Southampton 2-1 = 3.0 decimal odds
• Stake - £10
• The formula to calculate the accumulator odds is as follows:
• Stake x odds of leg 1 x odds of leg 2 - stake = Accumulator profit
• £10 x 3.0 x 3.0 - £10 = £80 profit

Most bookmakers will display your return in the betslip and not your profit. This is simply the above calculation but without your stake taken off. If you want to calculate your actual profit from your accumulator, simply take your stake off the return value shown on your betting slip.

Compare this £80 profit to the 2 single bets that would make you £20 profit each at £10 stakes.

At this point some of you may be thinking, why doesn’t everyone just place accumulators because the profits are so much greater. But remember, in an accumulator, all legs must win. Imagine Man Utd Won but Wolves lost. In this scenario You would win £20 from your Man Utd bet, but lose £10 on your Wolves bet, leaving you with £10 profit overall. If you have placed an accumulator, you would have lost £10 overall. Accumulator bets allow us to take on greater risk for greater reward.

How to Place An Accumulator Bet

Now you know what an accumulator bet is, let’s take a look at how you place an accumulator bet. The first thing to remember when you place an accumulator is that all legs need to placed with the same bookmaker. You may be able to find better odds for certain legs at different bookies, but unfortunately you won’t be able to take these odds. Every leg needs to be on the same site.

You can place accumulators on plenty of different markets, it doesn’t just need to be just the win, draw, win market. Some other popular markets include BTTS, over under goals, half time/full time, anytime goalscorer and many more. If you are struggling for selections check out our accumulator tips for some inspiration.

You don’t even need to restrict your accumulators to football, you can even add horse racing bets, tennis bets, golf bets, anything that you can think of really.

Can I Add 2 Markets Within 1 Football Match to an Accumulator?

Unfortunately you can’t add multiple markets within an accumulator because they are part of a related contingency. This essentially means that the outcomes of the 2 markets are related. However the likes of Paddy Power and Betfair have recently started to offer same game multi bets that do allow bets on multiple markets within the same game.

Adding Your Bets to the Betslip

Once you’ve identified the legs that you want to add to your accumulator, you need to click on each of these bets to add them to the betslip. Simply search for each market and click add to betslip or click on the odds.

Once you have finished adding each of the legs that you would like to add to your accumulator you need to open your betslip. You will normally see a list of the markets (or legs) that you have added to your betslip. Below all the singles markets you should see a Multiples section and there will either be an option that says ACCA, Accumulator or something similar. It may say multiple and the number of selections that you have added. There may also be other Multiples markets shown such as Singles, Doubles, Trebles etc. It should always state 1x bet meaning you are placing one bet. When you’ve found it enter your stake and place your bet.

Checking the Progress of your Accumulator

In this modern world with fancy betting apps, if you have one installed for the bookmaker that you’ve placed your accumulator with, some of them will update you when each leg has completed (and it was successful). This can keep you posted on the progress of your acca if you have games starting at different times.

Are There Any Accumulator Offers Available?

Bookmakers run various accumulator promotions and are available throughout the year. Normally these come in the form of accumulator insurance. If 1 leg lets you down, get your money back as a free bet. This will be dependent on the number of legs that you have selected in your Acca, with the minimum being around 5. Boylsesports offer one of the best forms of acca insurance allowing both pre-match and in-play bets to bets to be included in selections

Other Accumulator promotions include percentage bonuses on accumulators with a certain number of legs. For example place an accumulator with 10 legs and get a 60% bonus if it wins.

More recently bookmakers have offered free bets when you place an accumulator. Party Poker and Genting bet have offered free bets for placing accumulators on the NBA and Premier League football respectively. But keep your eye out for promotions in other major competitions. Champions League betting offers have been known to include Acca promotions and there were a number of bookies that offered acca promotions as part of their suite of betting offers for Cheltenham

How to Pick Winning Accumulators

Picking winning accumulators can be tough, but the payouts can be huge. If you are stuck for selections make sure you take a look at our free accumulator tips, providing you with some inspiration for selections that we think could get you that all important big win.