Accumulator (Acca)
Learn how an accumulator works and understand how to calculate acca odds and payouts. We also give you tips and examples on acca betting.
Acca bets, or accumulators, are a type of wagers for which you have an overall bet with multiple selections within it. All selections must win in order to have the acca successful. A single selection is missed and the accumulator is lost.
Accumulator bets have been made famous because of everyone's desire to strike lucky and become rich overnight. The reality is quite different. Although there is nothing particularly wrong with chasing this dream, we think it is important that you know that the chances of hitting those miracle bets are very unlikely.
In the UK and Europe, the term accumulator is preferred to its American synonym, parlay betting.
What Is An Accumulator
An accumulator (acca) is a type of multiple bet that consists of at least more than one selection. All of these selections are added together to create one overall wager. In order to win an accumulator bet all selections would need to be successful.
Even though double bets and trebles do classify as accumulators most bookmakers tend to use this term to refer to multiple bets of four selections or more.
In the UK, an acca that only focuses on a single event or match is called bet builder. These builders allow you to create your own single bet out of multiple combined selections. Odds get larger, too.
Rules
The rules for accumulators are mostly the same throughout every bookmaker. Most bookmakers disallow placing multiple selections on the same event. This is because one outcome is likely to have an influence on the other.
Several bookmakers state that accumulator bets must be placed on events that are happening on the same day. However, this is not too common and for the most part, you should be able to bet on multiple markets and multiple sports.
Odds & Payouts
The odds for acca bets will be entirely dependent on the odds of your specific selections. The way the final payout is calculated will be through the accumulation of your proposed winning bets.
To calculate an accumulator bet odds, you need to multiply the odds of all individual selections together.
For example, if you bet on four different matches:
- Chelsea to win at 2.15
- Real Madrid to win at 1.85
- Paris Saint Germain to win at 1.70
- Bayern Munchen to win at 2.00
The odds will be the product of all selections:
Odds = 2.15 x 1.85 x 1.70 x 2.00 Odds = 13.52
Therefore, if all selections are successful, your acca payout for a total stake of £10 will be £135.20, with a net profit of £125.20.
Having read this you might now have an understanding of why accumulators can have such high payouts. If you were to go with four singles instead of an acca, the odds would be summed, not multiplied. With an accumulator bet, you adopt a higher-risk and higher-reward strategy. It's not better or worse, it is just a different way of betting for punters with a higher risk-tolerance.
Each-way accumulators
An each-way bet needs to be placed on a sporting event that is also paying out for places as well as the outright winner. In a football match, this won't be possible as there are only two teams so there is no way this system could work. Therefore this particular type of bet is often associated with horse racing.
An each-way accumulator bet means that you will be placing an accumulator bet for the horse to finish as the outright winner and another accumulator bet for the horse to finish in the top few positions, depending on the number of runners this will usually be in the top two or three. This means your original stake will be doubled so you can cover the price of both bets.
Accumulator vs Parlay
An accumulator and parlay are exactly the same thing. In Europe, the term "accumulator" is more commonly used while the term "parlay" is used in the US and other Americanized countries (e.g., Canada).
Types of Accumulator Bets
Accumulator bets are easy to understand but very difficult to find success with. Technically doubles and trebles will be classified as an accumulator bet but generally speaking we refer to acca's as a multiple bet of 4 or more selections.
| Number of Selections | Name of the Bet |
|---|---|
| 2 | Double |
| 3 | Treble |
| 4 | Four-fold accumulator |
| 5 | Five-fold accumulator |
| 6 | Six-fold accumulator |
| 7 | Seven-fold accumulator |
| 8 | Eight-fold accumulator |
| 9 | Nine-fold accumulator |
| 10 | Ten-fold accumulator |
Some bookmakers may restrict the amount of selections you can choose for an accumulator but if you select any more then ten you are probably just wasting your money. Also please consider that all bookmakers have a maximum payout. Therefore if you are going for that miracle bet don't add selections that you will not benefit from as it would be heartbreaking if you missed out on a huge payday unnecessary.
Accumulator Betting Examples
Before placing an accumulator bet it is important to know what constitutes a winning bet. Below are a couple of examples of what an accumulator bet might look like.
Winning Acca Example
We are going to place an Acca on five football teams to win in the English Premier League. Below is a list of the 5 teams we bet on, the odds, and the outcome of each selection. For the purposes of this example, we are going to presume we have staked £10.
| Team To Win | Odds | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 1/2 | Won |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 2/1 | Won |
| Manchester City | 1/3 | Won |
| Arsenal | 1/1 | Won |
| Everton | 2/1 | Won |
| Five-fold accumulator bet | 35/1 | Won |
The total odds for this accumulator is 35/1. Meaning that our stake of £10 would return £360. Leaving a very nice profit of £350.
Losing Acca Example
For this example, we have bet on the same selections as above. The only difference this time is that we have added Crystal Palace to our accumulator, taking our number of selections to six. Crystal Palace has odds of 3/1 to win their match. Just by adding this one selection at these odds takes the final odds of the accumulator to 1,440/1.
| Team To Win | Odds | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 1/2 | Won |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 2/1 | Won |
| Manchester City | 1/3 | Won |
| Arsenal | 1/1 | Won |
| Everton | 2/1 | Won |
| Crystal Palace | 3/1 | Lost |
| Six-fold accumulator bet | 1,440/1 | Lost |
Unfortunately for us, Crystal Palace only managed to draw their match meaning that despite our other five selections being successful this bet is ultimately an unsuccessful one.
How To Place An Accumulator Bet
Before deciding to place an accumulator consider how many teams or outcomes you want to bet on. This way you can keep rooted to some sort of strategy.
After this, you can scroll through your bookmaker and add selections to your bet slip one by one. Once you have chosen the number of selections you want to bet on you can head over to your bet slip where if done correctly, you will be able to see all of your selections laid out. At the bottom of the bet slip, you will be given a list of multiple wagers that you can place. For the purposes of this article, we are going to choose the option that reads "accumulator".
Accumulators: FAQ
Answers to the most common questions about accumulator betting.
Are accumulator bets worth it?
The main advantage of betting on accumulators is that you don't have to be successful that often to see a profit. The extent of this being true will be dependent on the odds of your selections.
Is accumulator betting too hard?
Accumulators are without doubt difficult to win. If we refer to accumulators as a multiple bet with 4 selections or more a lot of outcomes will need to be predicted correctly. The odds of your selections will determine the likelihood of you winning the bet as well as how many times you will need to win one in order to be successful.
Can you place an accumulator bet on Betfair?
Betfair has a sportsbook and an Exchange site. On the exchange site, it is not possible to bet on accumulators, while on the sportsbook it is.
How much can you win with an accumulator?
This is dependent on the odds of your selections. Technically speaking it's possible to make an excess amount of money from accumulators but the likely of winning a bet of this magnitude is unlikely.
What does acca mean in sports betting?
Acca is just an abbreviation of the world accumulator. Some bookmakers use this abbreviation when they have promotions on offer.
How to win big with accumulators?
The simplest answer to this is to choose selections with medium to high odds and hope you get lucky. Unfortunately if you want to become rich with betting on accumulators you will need a large amount of luck to go your way.
Accumulators offer betters the chance to win big from minimal stakes. The same principles of betting will need to be applied though as the quality of selections will mean everything.
