Types of Bets Explained: Understand Accas, System Bets & Bankers
Learn how to use the most common types of bets in sports betting
Stop wondering, start knowing!
Knowing when to stake on singles, to place system bets or to wager on footy accas with bankers can be crucial. Your bankroll will suffer unless you correctly understand the weapons you have at your disposal.
You already know that acca betting has become very popular in the UK over the last two decades, so as a beginner it is only normal for you to ask: What is a football accumulator and how do I place a bet?
Where did most punters start to bet online? Find out now!
Our accumulator betting guide will get you going straight away, teaching you what singles are, how to place an acca, how to calculate odds, potential winnings and how to play system bets and use bankers on bookies’ platforms.
And we won’t leave you in the cold: the last part covers valuable acca betting advice!
Quickly navigate to your desired topic:
- What Is A Single Bet?
- What Is An Accumulator, Multi Bet, Acca Bet Or Parlay?
- What Is A Combination or System Bet?
- What Is A Banker Bet?
- Acca Betting Guide
What Is A Single Bet?
A straight bet or a single bet is the first thing you should grasp to understand how online sports betting works. It’s simply a bet placed on only one outcome. Let’s take a football betting example: Manchester City to beat Tottenham. Each pick, tip, prediction or selection offered by the bookies comes with odds attached; in our case, we received 2.50 (decimal odds).
To determine the potential winnings o a single bet, one has to multiply the staked amount by the odds offered by the online bookmaker. That means that for every £10 you stake you’ll get £25 in return if the bet wins, thus £15 the profit you’d make by backing these odds.
The wagers can be placed on several betting markets, depending on the sport and the reputation of the competition. For example, some of the most common markets in football are 3-way betting – 1X2, Double Chance – 1X/X2/12, Goal Totals – Under/Over X goals, Both Teams To Score, Correct Score, and Asian Handicaps. In basketball we’ve got: Points Spread (Handicap), Moneyline (Outright Winner), Points Totals (Over/Under) and Player Totals, among others.
Professional punters prefer single bets because they offer the best payout, which means those who wager solely on these types of bets have more chances to land a profit on the long run than those playing accumulator bets. At the same time, be aware that Lay bets can only be placed as singles on licensed and regulated Betting Exchanges.
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What Is An Accumulator, Multi Bet, Acca Bet Or Parlay?
A multiple bet is when you place a combination of selections on a single bet slip. Bets involving a minimum of two selections are also known as parlays. Note that all selections must be successful for the bet to win. The basic bet types and betting markets are usually accepted as part of a multiple selections bet, but there are exceptions (i.e. outright bets can not be placed as accumulator betting slips with every online bookmaker).
The double is a single bet placed on two selections. Usually, bookies don’t allow punters to combine two or more predictions from the same sporting event on a ticket, other than those that are already combined and come as part of a single prediction in their offer, of course.
A treble is the same type of bet as a double, the only difference being the number of selections: three. Then there are the fourfold accumulators, the fivefold accumulator, the six-fold accumulators, the sevenfold accumulators, the eightfold accumulators and so on. Remember that the term fold means nothing more than the number of selections that you’ve added on the betting slip. So a fivefold footy acca is a bet on 5 football predictions combined into one large bet.
You’ll have to multiply each of the individual odds into the next and then to the stake to find out the potential winnings of a multi bet, combo bet or acca bet. For example, in a three-fold acca with odds of 1.30, 2.20 and 1.75 where you wagered £10 you’ll be able to win 1.30 x 2.20 x 1.75 x 10 = £50,05.
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What Is A Combination or System Bet?
System bets allow your bet slip to be partly successful even without winning all the selections. A combination bet requires at least three selections. Let’s say you’ve picked three winners: Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. If you were to place a 2/3 system bet, you would have your stake divided in 3 and placed on these three virtual bets:
- Bet 1: Liverpool and Manchester United win
- Bet 2: Liverpool and Chelsea win
- Bet 3: Manchester United and Chelsea win
So, in this case, you will only require two of the three predictions to win to get a return. If we take a 2/4 combination bet, you’ll need two of the four selections to win to claim a return and so on.
Now, there are quite a few types of accumulator bets, so let’s check them out. There more advanced combination bets in the online bookie’s offers are more commonly referred to as Perms betting:
- Trixie: 4 selections, 3 doubles and 1 treble (4 bets)
- Patent: 3 selections, 3 singles, 3 doubles and 1 treble (7 bets)
- Lucky 15: 4 selections, 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 four-fold accumulator (15 bets)
- Yankee: 4 selections, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 four-fold accumulator (11 bets)
- Super Yankee: 5 selections, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds and 1 five-fold accumulator (26 bets)
- Lucky 31: 5 selections, 5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-fold and 1 five-fold accumulator (31 bets)
- Heinz: 6 selections, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds and 1 six-fold accumulator (57 bets)
- Lucky 63: 5 selections, 6 singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds and 1 six fold accumulator (63 bets)
- Super Heinz: 7 selections, 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four-folds, 21 five-folds, 7 six-folds and 1 seven-fold accumulator(120 bets)
- Goliath: 8 selections, 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds and 1 eight-fold accumulator (247 bets)
Depending on the odds you choose you’ll need more or less winning outcomes to break even or land a profit when you’ve wagered on such permutations, although recovering a significant proportion of your investment isn’t too bad in some cases.
What Is A Banker Bet?
A banker refers to a prediction that is very likely to happen in the sports betting realm. At the same time, a banker is an option for systems bets that allows the users to define predictions that will be found on all the betting combinations.
Usually, to be able to use this option, you’ll have to change the bet type from Standard to Banker and make sure you’ve got at least three selections on the betting slip. Some checkboxes should appear on the left or right of your predictions (Paddy Power, Paddy Power, Sky Bet, Sun Bets, Stan James, Sportingbet etc. all got their way of allowing you to use bankers). The selections you will mark will become bankers, meaning that they will be added to every single combination, so there will be fewer bets at bigger odds. However, the banker selections must win for any of the perms to generate earnings. You can choose one or more bankers on a betting slip, but first, let’s see an example of how betting bankers work:
You’ve got Real Madrid to win the Champions League, Aston Villa to promote to the Premier League, Germany to win the World Cup, Leicester City to win the FA Cup and a horse racing bet. This five-fold acca allows you to place 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-folds and 1 five-fold in the Standard mode. However, if you mark either prediction as a banker, you’ll be able to place 4 doubles, 6 trebles, 4 four-folds and 1 five-fold. Marking two bankers will only allow you to place 3 trebles, 3 four-folds and 1 five-fold. So, as a general rule of the thumb, keep in mind that the more bankers you add, the fewer bet combinations are possible, meaning that the stakes required are lower, while the combined odds become greater.
The good news is that bankers work with most betting types available and can also be used at live betting. Combination tricast and forecasts are commonly being used in horse racing and greyhound racing. Punters often place football accumulators on Europa League and international friendlies using bankers, marking those clear favourites, while trying to keep safe by using system bets to avoid upsets.
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Acca Betting Guide
Tens of thousands of punters are placing an accumulator daily, but only a few of them land a profit at the end of the month or year. To win an accumulator bet is not really something hard to do, as it is mostly based on luck if you add many selections without caring too much about their chances of success. Unlike value betting, where you always look for the value in the odds, footy accas and all accumulator bets, in general, require betting tips with a very high probability, so the first lesson in this beginners guide would be to pick heavy favourites.
Betting systems can come handy because they allow you to earn something even when one or more of your selections fail to win. Avoid combination forecasts (picking 1st 2nd and 3rd) in horse racing and HT/FT types of bets in football.
Focus on Draw No Bet (DNB) selections, each-way bets (greyhound racing, motorsport, horse racing bets, etc.) and exploit other Asian Handicap markets more often. When these picks are voided, the number of folds in your acca will be reduced, and you’ll still have a good chance of landing a profit or at least breaking even. With the use of Asian Handicap types of bets, you can win multiple bets easier because not all selections must win for the ticket to generate earnings.
Another trick you have to learn is that the acca bonus is not exactly your best friend. The more selections you add on the betting slips, the worse the payout gets, so the total odds don’t actually reflect the true probabilities. Accumulator betting is a key part of most bookies’ business, so keep that in mind when picking outcomes for a betting slip.
Seven selections are usually too many, but a Super Heinz could do the trick for you. If you are used to wagering on sevenfold accumulators, try lowering to a six-fold accumulator. From there, try to steadily reduce the number to five selections and try to stay under this limit. If you have the patience to wager on three selections, you’ll see how much your hit rate will increase. Of course, the winnings will be lower (unless you raise the unit stakes) for the bets on three selections, but winning selections will guarantee a decent return based on your bet stake.
Also, be sure to check out the staking requirements and the withdrawal restrictions before claiming any betting promotions. Remember, terms & conditions apply!
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Look for short odds and limit your betting slip to five selections if you want to increase your chances of winning. However, don’t pick short price favourites without adequately analysing the match. To do that, you’re better off ignoring the popular football betting tips presented by bookies and their acca generators. It’s not necessarily a bad idea to follow a betting blog that provides football accumulator betting tips, although you should always come up with your own accumulator betting tips!
Don’t just wager with one bookie, but always shop around for the best odds and promotions (such as the William Hill Acca Insurance, the BetVictor Acca Price Promise or the Unibet Premier League Acca Bonus – offers from widely popular bookies in the United Kingdom). You’ll find significant differences when comparing odds – always check the price offering for the type of wager you are interested in first. Licensed and regulated online bookmakers can offer quite a distinct array of odds, and when it comes to accumulative odds, the differences can be huge.
Do not hesitate to use the Cash Out after you’ve devised a plan about it. Cash Out for footy accas can be incredibly useful at times. But don’t develop a habit of using it all the time randomly because you might end up losing money. Although Cash Out provides you with much greater flexibility for your accumulator bets, note that each time you use it, you are paying the bookie’s commission twice.
Be careful not to fall into the trap believing that those amazing stories where punters win hundreds of thousands of pounds from a £2 bet are anything other than once-in-a-lifetime wins. You might be tempted to think that many punters made a small fortune backing Leicester City’s Premier League success back in 2016, but when you come to think of it, how often do such things happen? Well, definitely not too often, maybe once in a lifetime, no?
The risk/reward ratio of most footy accas or horse racing accumulators might not provide a lot of value, but these types of bets definitely come packed with a lot of excitement!