What is an Accumulator Bet?

If you feel really confident about your sports betting knowledge, and you want a chance to win a high payout, one exciting type of wager you can place on football matches and other types of sports is an accumulator or parlay bet.  With this type of bet, you wager on four or more selections.  If all of your selections “accumulate” as wins, you win the entire wager and the payout.  If any of your selections lose, you lose the entire stake.

As you can probably figure out for yourself, this is a high risk bet.  It is much harder to win four or more selections than it is to win just one!  So why would you ever place an accumulator bet?  Some casual punters do it simply because it is a thrilling, fun way to wager.  Others do it because the potential payout is much higher than what you could expect for a single selection. 

Technically, there are accumulator bets available for two or three selections, but they are known by different names: Double and Treble.  Here is a list:

•           2 selections: Double

•           3 selections: Treble

•           4 selections: Four-Fold Accumulator

•           5 selections: Five-Fold Accumulator

•           6 selections: Six-Fold Accumulator

•           7 selections: Seven-Fold Accumulator

•           8 selections: Eight-Fold Accumulator

•           … and so on

8 selections certainly is not the limit for an accumulator bet.  The higher you go, though, the more unlikely the odds are in your favour.  Of course, the payout becomes greater too.

If you bet on a Four-Fold Accumulator, each match must win for you to proceed.  Let’s say your first match is successful.  You will then proceed on to the next match.  If that one is a win in your favour, you will proceed to the third match.  If that one loses, you are out, and you lose your stake.  If it wins, however, you would proceed to the fourth and final match.  If you lose that one, you lose the wager.  If it wins, you get a big payout for being right four times in a row.

If you are interested in accumulators, I recommend that you stick with simple double and treble bets to begin with, just to get a feel for it.  They are harder to win than you might realise, and once you find out how difficult they are, you may very well realise you want to stick with simple bets.  If you jump right into a Six-Fold Accumulator, you will probably lose.  Accumulator bets can be very frustrating and expensive.  For many bettors, they quickly become a losing prospect, and even veterans often choose to avoid them outright in favour of smaller—but regular—wins.

Still, accumulator bets can be very exciting, and if you are very smart and very lucky, quite profitable.  Oftentimes when you see headlines about punters winning millions of pounds on a single bet from a betting site, that bet is an accumulator.  Just be sure you know what you are getting into before you place your wagers!