The humble acca is the cornerstone of Saturday football betting. Some punters go for small stake bets with monstrous odds hoping for that one big win, whilst others like to keep the odds low and the legs sensible. Wherever you sit on this spectrum we have some tips to help you pick your bets.
How Do Our Acca Tips Work?
We do our accumulator tips a little differently to other sites. Rather than creating a single rigid acca, we’ve come up with a series of acca-friendly bets for upcoming matches. These semi-bankers are chosen through a combination of how likely they are to hit as well as the value they offer. Simply choose the ones you agree with the most and combine them into an acca of your own choosing.
Accumulator Tips & Predictions
Recent Accumulator Tips
Accumulator Betting Explained
As said above, our acca tips are a blend of bets we feel have a great chance of hitting but also wagers where we feel the odds offer good value too. It’s all too easy to get sucked into a big acca of 1/6 shots thinking they can’t possibly lose when the reality is that around one in six of them will do exactly that! We’ll leave aside anything too technical for now though has this is a total guide to acca betting that is primarily, though not exclusively, aimed at those who are less confident when it comes to this type of wager or even betting in general.
We will explain everything from the very basics of what we mean by an acca, or accumulator, through to more complex options like full cover bets and more exotic multiples. In addition we will note any rules or vagaries you should be aware of, how payout limits might come into play, and also what offers or bonuses you might be able to claim that relate specifically to these types of football bets.
What Is An Acca?
To start with the most basic point, an acca is short for an accumulator, or what Americans call a parlay bet. It is a bet that takes a number of unrelated selections and combines them into one bet, with a single stake. All selections must win in order for your bet to win and even if just one doesn’t, the whole bet will lose.
Because the odds from each bet effectively multiply it is possible to win very large amounts from very small stakes. Possible, though that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily easy. The stake and winnings from each selection roll onto the next one with winnings accumulating, hence the name.
What Can I Add to an Acca?
Typically you can put any bet at all you like into an acca, meaning you can mix and match sports, markets and odds. Usually accas apply to standard bets, by which we mean not ante post markets and not in-play bets, though you can also make ante post accumulators too, such as picking which four teams will win the top four divisions in English football.
The only thing that cannot be combined in an acca are bets that are related to each other or that could feasibly have an influence on one another. Bookmakers call these related continencies and these come in many shapes and sizes. Some may be more obvious than others; for example you could not back Real Madrid to beat Barcelona, Real Madrid HT/FT, Real Madrid to win the first half and over 0.5 goals as an acca.
This is because the odds for just one of those bets – Real Madrid/Real Madrid in the HT/FT market – covers all of the bets. It is impossible for that one outcome to happen without all the other three also taking place. Less obvious related contingencies might be backing Man City to win the league and the FA Cup. This would be priced separately because of the logic that if City won the league they would have had to have enjoyed a great season and therefore their chances of winning the FA Cup would be better.
Thankfully if you are placing your football bets online this is not something you will have to worry about. Try to add related contingencies to an acca and you will receive an error message on the betting slip, stating something along the lines of “Multiple restrictions apply to one or more selections”.
What is a Leg and How Many Can I Use?
Such restrictions aside, you really can add anything you like to your acca, opting for as many legs as you like. The terms leg, selection, pick and (slightly confusingly) bet, are all often used interchangeably to refer to the individual elements that make up an acca. We feel avoiding the use of “bet” is wise as the bet is the acca itself, or the single stake that covers all the individual legs (or selections or picks).
Another bone of contention for some is whether a double is an acca or not, and the same with regards to a treble. We would say they are because the mechanics of the bet are the same but if you disagree, fine – call a double a double, a treble a treble and anything bigger an accumulator.
Standard terminology is to call an acca, in our eyes at least, with two legs a double, one with three a treble and from there on upwards an X-fold. So, for example, an acca with four selections is a fourfold, or four-fold, 4-fold, 4 fold or any other variation you can come up with. Each leg is a “fold” and you can keep on adding as many as you want, so an accumulator with 12 picks will be called a 12-fold acca.
Whilst you can keep going up to an infinity fold in theory, in reality all betting sites have a limit. With some sites this may be 12 or 14 selections but we know of at least one major UK bookmaker that allows you to include up to 25. For reference, when we simply put the first 25 teams in we could, all home wins, the odds came out at a whopping 46,450,705,321 to one. That’s 46 billion to one if your head started hurting before you could work it out.
Acca Payout Limits
One might think that opting for such huge odds was a good idea because, although very unlikely to win, you would only need a tiny stake to deliver a huge payout. Whether you are opting to back an acca at 1,000/1 or 500,000/1 (or even higher), it is crucial that you are aware of a betting site’s payout limits because you might be paying more than you need to when it comes to your stake.
To limit their liability on individual bets, almost all betting sites, and certainly all the main, traditional UK ones, have limits on the amount they will pay out to a customer on certain bets each day. These tend to vary by sport and market, with the biggest, most popular events having the highest maximum. Luckily this means football is pretty well served, and most bookies will have a payout limit of seven figures (£1 million or more) on the top leagues’ key markets, with at least £100,000 for less common wagers types.
When it comes to the limits for accas, it is worth being aware that most bookmakers apply the lowest limit of the markets used. So, for example, if the match odds has a limit of £2 million but you do an acca that combines that market with, for example a goals-based bet that has a lower limit of £100,000, the lower payout limit will apply to the whole acca.
Sticking with such a hypothetical bet, if the payout limit means you cannot win more than £100,000, staking any more than £1 on an acca with odds of 100,000/1 is a waste. You will not be paid more than the £100,000 maximum and so putting £5 on is pointless. You are staking £4 more than you need to with no potential upside.
Full Cover Bets
With a standard accumulator all of your picks must win, as said, or the bet loses. Full cover bets are a type of multiple where you can also win a lot from a small stake but you do not need all of your legs to come in. In fact, if we look at full cover with singles bets, you only need one team to do the business to get a return. Such bets are popular, therefore, because they combine elements of an acca and elements of bets with lower combined odds. They offer some of the benefits of both, chiefly that you can potentially land a big win but you also have a margin for error and the chance to take cash off the bookies even if one, or more, of your legs lets you down.
Full cover bets take multiple selections and fully cover every possible acca, from the smallest to the largest, that can be made with them. This will be far easier to understand with an example so let us consider the smallest full cover bet, a Trixie, and the full cover with singles equivalent, a Patent.
| Full Cover Bet | With Singles | |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Trixie | Patent |
| Number of selections | 3 | 3 |
| Doubles | 3 | 3 |
| Trebles | 1 | 1 |
| Singles | 0 | 3 |
| Total bets/stakes required | 4 | 7 |
So, for example, you might decide you want to opt for a weekend “banker” in the Premier League. You pick the following three bets to use for your three selections:
- Man City to win
- Liverpool to win
- Chelsea to win
Using the numbers listed above, both bets include the following wagers:
- Double – 1 and 2
- Double – 1 and 3
- Double – 2 and 3
- Treble – 1, 2 and 3
With three selections that is every possible “acca” that can be created and is a Trixie, with a Patent simply adding three singles, one on each of the sides. There are various other full cover and full cover with singles bets that work in the same way but just include more selections, and therefore more bets and stakes overall.
With four selections you have a Yankee, which entails 11 bets in total, of which six are doubles, four are trebles and one is a fourfold acca. The “with singles” equivalent is a Lucky 15, created, apparently, by Betfred owner Fred Done. This includes 15 bets in total, the 11 above plus a single on each of the four selections.
Next we have a Canadian, sometimes referred to as a Super Yankee, and if you want to add singles a Lucky 31. Both have five selections, a Canadian including 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five fourfolds and a single fivefold, with a Lucky 31 having five additional singles and thus 31 bets in total.
Moving upwards once again we have a Heinz, so-called because it features 57 bets (akin to the food giants’ varieties). This, and a Lucky 63 both have six selections, the latter adding six singles to the former’s sixfold acca, six fivefolds, 15 fourfolds and 15 doubles, and 20 trebles.
Full cover with singles bets are not normally “named” after that but in theory you can keep going, adding more selections and more total bets. With regards full cover bets, seven selections gives you a Super Heinz, requiring a massive 120 separate bets to cover all the different doubles, trebles and so on. If you want to include eight legs in your multiple, that would be a Goliath but a £1 Goliath would cost you £247 in total, £1 on each of the component bets, including a massive 70 fourfolds.
Pros and Cons
These bets are hugely popular and, as said, they give you a nice mix of the chance to land a big win but also the chance to at least win something when you get one or more legs wrong. Most punters can only afford relatively low unit stakes once they start having to place 15, 31, 63 or however many bets are needed to cover all the included accumulators. This means that unless you get a few of your picks right, you could still be down overall.
How may you need to get right in order to win overall depends, of course, on the type of bet you have made and the odds. If you are looking at a full cover bet on something like the match odds and picking favourites, or betting on both teams to score, or over 2.5 goals, the odds will typically be low. As such you will probably need to get almost all of your legs right to take money off the bookies. In addition, one of the key things to be aware of when you make these bets is that you understand that the stake will be multiplied by the total number of bets, so the overall cost of the bet can soon add up.
Acca Offers and Bonuses
Accas are great for punters because the opportunity for a big, life-changing win from a tiny stake is very tempting. However, bookies also love them because for every big winner there are many more smaller losers and in general accumulators very much favour the people setting the odds. There is an upside to this for punters though and that is the fact that bookmakers can afford to offer a wide range of promotions and freebies to those who bet on accumulators. Here is a selection of the ones you can expect to find at the best football betting sites.
Acca Insurance
Applicable only to standard accas where all legs must win, acca insurance is a very common promotion which gives you a little margin for error. Missing out on a big win thanks to the seemingly inevitable one leg that often lets you down is very frustrating. Acca insurance alleviates the pain, at least partially.
The precise terms vary from site to site, so check things like minimum and maximum legs, odds and stake size. However, the general principle is that if you get all legs right apart from one, you will get your stake back, either as a free bet or as cash. Not as good as a win but a second bite of the cherry is not to be sniffed at.
Acca Bonuses
Acca bonuses tend to give you a boost on winning bets, rather than compensation on losing ones. This usually comes in the form of a percentage boost on the winnings when you land an accumulator. Once again, the exact terms will vary but in general, the more legs your bet contains, the bigger the boost you are likely to get. Best of all, with offers like this, the extra winnings will almost certainly be in cash, as opposed to free bets or bonus funds.
Full Cover Offers
Full cover bets, especially the ones that include singles like the Lucky 15, 31 and 63, often come with an offer attached. Some sites offer an all-correct bonus, some offer a one-right bonus and, if you look hard enough, you should even be able to find some bookies offering both.
The two promos are fairly self-explanatory and with the former, as with the acca bonuses mentioned above, you get extra winnings. The percentage may be 5% but might go up to 20% or even more. Considering you will probably already have landed a tidy win, an extra 20% on top could be a considerable sum so this is a very nice extra for customers who like these bets to be aware of.
A one-right bonus is more of a consolation but if the odds of your winner are big enough, it could still lead to a positive overall result. This promo is only offered on full cover with singles bets as it only applies when just one of your legs is a winner. A standard sort of offering might be double the odds on a Lucky 15, triple on a Lucky 31 and four times the standard price on a Lucky 63. This means, for example, that if your Lucky 15 has three losers but one winner at odds of over 7/1, you could still be up overall.
Voids in Accas
When it comes to accumulators and the related multiples bets we have looked at, there are not really any rules you should be aware of, aside from the issue of related contingencies. However, because some accas may have a large number of legs, the chances of one (or more) being made void are increased and punters may be unsure what happens in this case.
A void may occur due to bad weather, something highly unforeseen like the events of 2020 and beyond, or something more mundane like a goalscorer bet where a player did not start a match. Whatever the reason, the rules are usually very straightforward and, as far as we are aware, entirely the same at all bookies.
The void selection is simply ignored as far as the acca goes, such that a sevenfold would become a sixfold and a treble would be settled as a double. With the full cover bets we have talked about the same rules apply so all the bets that included the void leg, be they a fivefold or a double, have that particular selection wiped from them.
The only time this might be an issue relates to some of the promos we have discussed. For example, if an acca bonus or insurance deal is only offered on fivefolds and upwards, and you made a fivefold that became a fourfold due to a void, you will not be eligible for the promotion in question.