If you’re tired of the smaller payouts that single bets yield for you, then you’ll want to consider placing an accumulator bet the next time you are putting down on wagers on your favorite league’s action, and this article will help you nail this popular sports betting strategy.
What’s a single bet?
Just what it sounds like – a wager on one thing happening. Maybe it’s your team to win by a certain margin, your favorite NBA player to hit at least five free throws before halftime, or your favorite horse to finish in a certain place in an upcoming race.
What’s an accumulator?
Accumulators are also single bets, but they are really links for multiple propositions at the same time. You have to connect at least two bets – and you have to win all the bets that you connect in order to prevail on the accumulator. You make more from carrying the accumulator than you would from winning all of the linked bets separately – but the probability of hitting on all of the bets at one time is much less than it would be to win just some of your bets. You can make accumulator bets on as many different sports or events as you want, as long as you can find a book offering those different events. You can make your accumulator contain a lot of bets if you’re feeling lucky – and if the book will take it.
Some of the most popular accumulator bets are the double, treble (triple) and the fourfold. A double accumulator places single bets on two different selections. You have to win both of them to win the accumulator. The treble (triple) uses three different selections, and the fourfold uses four. In all cases, you have to win all of the selections to get the payout for your accumulator.
Here’s an example of how it might work
You see these three soccer lines:
Everton v West Ham United – West Ham United 7/2, draw 9/2, Everton 6/7.
Liverpool v West Bromwich – West Bromwich 15/2, draw 11/2, Liverpool 6/11.
Bayern Munich v AS Roma – Bayern Munich 3/5, draw 7/2, AS Roma 11/2.
You put down money on Everton, West Bromwich and Bayern Munich to win. If you pull in the accumulator, you can expect about five times as much in a payout as you would have gotten if you had just put single bets down on all three matches, even choosing the same sides. Of course, with single bets, if you had won with two of the matches but lost the third, you would still get the payouts from those two. With the accumulator bet, you walk away with nothing if the third bet doesn’t come through for you.
For some people, the excitement of an accumulator bet is more than worth the extra risk of going down in flames on that last match or proposition. If you always remember that your gambling money shouldn’t be your money for rent, mortgage payments, bills and other responsibilities, then the accumulator bet is something you can enjoy the suspense of. When you place your bet, just enter the stake you want in the box marked “accumulator” or “double” or whatever the slip says, and then place it with the clerk, or fill out the online wagering form appropriately. Then sit back with your beer and wait for the results to pour in!
