What is a football accumulator and how can I place winning bets?

There’s no doubt that accumulators are extremely popular in the contemporary football betting world, thanks to their capacity to deliver excitement and huge returns in equal measure to punters nationwide.

Accumulators can also be successfully structured according to several statistical facts, including the accepted wisdom that 48% of all football games end with a home win.

In this article, we’ll delve a little deeper into this while asking what is a football accumulator calculator and how can you place winning bets?

What’s a Football Accumulator?

 

Let’s start with the basics; as a football accumulator is an individual bet that comprises of multiple single wagers.

In essence, it represents the accumulation (hence the name) of single bets into a multiple, which will present odds that have been calculated using the individual wagers.

Also known as an ‘acca’, an accumulator can include as many betting selections (or folds) as you choose, although the bets with a higher number of single wagers will typically carry higher odds and a lower probability of winning.

How to Calculate the Odds on a Basic Accumulator

 While you can explore a number of alternative betting markets as part of your football accumulator (we’ll have a little more on this later), most accas will include a predetermined number of outright moneyline wagers.

These will require you to select from two potential winners or in some instances the draw, before calculating your initial stake, odds and ultimate returns.

To start with, it helps if you convert any fractional odds into decimals, as this simplifies the calculation and makes it easier to appraise the value proposition quicker. You can do this quickly and easily using this site, and from here it’s a relatively simple calculation.

Using some examples from the most recent of EPL fixtures below, you’ll see that each individual selection has its own fixed odds. When including these in an accumulator, you simply multiply each of these together to create a single price

Fold                             Selection                                             Odds

1                                  Man Utd to defeat Liverpool              3.10

2                                  Arsenal to defeat Southampton        1.57

3                                  Spurs to defeat Burnley                      1.66

4                                  Newcastle to defeat Huddersfield     1.60

 

Now the eagle-eyed among you will know that this acca wouldn’t have come in as Utd and Liverpool drew while Burnley stunned Spurs on Saturday. However, for the purposes of our calculation, a punter would multiply 3.10 x 1.57 x 1.66 x 1.60, creating final accumulator odds of 12.927.

Including a single, £10 stake, this acca would have produced an excellent return of £129.27 had the individual folds come in, which is far higher than could easily have been achieved by betting solely on each single game.

Not only does this highlight how accas are calculated, but it also offers a unique insight into the appeal of football accumulators in the modern age.

Varying your Accumulators with Diverse Markets

 As we touched on earlier, modern accas have evolved to include a wide range of diverse and real-time betting markets.  This means that they don’t need to be based on single match results, but rather various intriguing factors including exact score, winning margins and the number of goals scored per game. While these more in-depth selections should be based on careful and detailed data analysis, they offer particular value in instances where you’ve selected home bankers or perceived mismatches as a way of increasing your chances of winning.

As a result, they can improve the odds and the value proposition of your selected acca, without necessarily compromising your chances of winning to dramatically. For example, you could create a far-reaching footy accumulator that includes betting on more than 2.5 goals being score in a selected EPL game, the match result of a La Liga contest and the Asian handicap market in a chosen Ligue One battle.

The combinations here are virtually limitless, and so long as you think strategically when venturing into alternative markets you can achieve the optimal value for your stake and bankroll.

How to Win with a Football Acca

 

In simple terms, you win a football acca in instances where each of your individual selections are successful.  So, if you place a six-fold accumulator, every one of your single wagers must come home if you’re to bank the overall prize.

While this explains how you can win a footy accumulator in the most simple terms, however, it doesn’t begin to discuss the best strategies to use when placing an accumulator. Here are some ideas to keep in mind: 

• Avoid Betting on your Favourite Teams: Football is arguably the most tribal and partisan sport known to man, but betting on your favourite team as part of your acca is fraught with risk. After all, this means that you’re building a betslip based on emotion rather than data or logic, and this is a great way to lose cash on a Saturday afternoon or undermine an otherwise carefully structure accumulator.

• Use Data to Inform Selections and Identify Value: As you can imagine, data sets such as form guides (both home and away) and goal scored can be used to inform each single wager that contributes to your acca. The analysis of individual games can also help you to determine the value proposition of each potential bet, which is crucial if you’re to manage your bankroll effectively and generate a return.

• Manage your Bankroll Wisely: The notion of managing your bankroll strategically is an important one, particularly when placing accumulators. While you’ll only need to lay down a single stake to fund your acca, the odds, value proposition and potential returns will vary wildly depending on your individual selection. This means that you need to vary your stake according to your acca’s risk-reward ratio, while also using fractional proportions of your bankroll to make it stretch further.

• Start with Mismatches and Build from There: If you’re planning on building a six-fold accumulator, you should start by identifying selections that have an excellent chance of winning (choosing Liverpool to beat Watford at Anfield this week represents a relevant case in point). Then, introduce strategic measures to add value to your accumulator through some of the markets discussed above, perhaps by backing the game on Merseyside to deliver more than 2.5 goals overall.

• Consider the Handicap Market: On a similar note, the handicap market offers you an excellent chance to add value to your acca and boost the odds on offer. Using the above game as an example, you apply a -1.5 handicap to the Reds in the expectation that they’ll win by two goals or more, as this will immediately enhance the accumulator’s odds while maintaining chances of you winning. Once again, you just need to choose your handicaps wisely, while identifying genuine mismatches on any given matchday.

The Last Word

This brief guide should offer an insight into the increasingly popular footy accumulator, while hopefully helping you to structure your acca and increase your chances of winning. The tips included here may also help you to boost your bottom-line returns, as you look to turn five and six-fold accumulators into veritable gold mines!