Multiples Betting Explained
Multiples betting is a great way to increase the odds on your bets by combining a number of unrelated events in one single bet. It is hugely popular in all sports but football, alongside horse racing, is where multiples betting – otherwise known as accumulators, or accas for short – is probably most common.
What Is Multiples Betting?
Multiples betting, as said, is the combining of a number of different events into one single bet or group of bets. On a standard 10-game Premier League weekend you could place a single bet, called a 10-fold, on the outcome of all the games and in order to win anything you would need to correctly predict all 10 matches.
Whilst your chances of doing this are slim – even if you backed 10 big favourites the chances are at least one would slip up – the rewards can be huge, with the stake and winnings rolling over from one leg to the next.
In the example given a £1 stake would return £1,024 if we assume that all 10 bets were placed at odds of evens (2.00 in decimal odds) whilst increasing just three of those to 6/4 (2.50) would mean your £1 stake would turn into £2,000!
Multiples bets can be placed on any unrelated outcomes, so you could have a bet that included Liverpool to win 2-1 in one game, Romelu Lukaku to score first in another and over 2.5 goals in a third match. It’s more common, however, to stick to the same sort of bet, with match odds accumulators, both teams to score, or over/under 2.5 goals probably being the most common football betting markets on which to place an acca.
An accumulator is anything from a double (with two selections) upwards, with a treble (three), a four-fold (four) or anything upwards of that all counting. But multiples betting also covers other bets as well.
With, for example, a treble, as well as betting on the single accumulator that requires all three selections to win you can also include the three possible doubles, as well as the three singles, thus securing a return as long as at least one selection is correct.
This type of bet is called a full cover with singles bet because it covers all possible combinations of bets, including singles. In effect this is seven separate bets in one, with one treble, three doubles and three singles, such that a £1 bet would cost £7 in total.
Pros and Cons
Multiples betting is a great way to win huge amounts whilst risking very little and that is the most obvious benefit. As discussed above, just a £1 stake can lead to huge returns and whilst a 10-fold is exceptionally difficult to land, by upping that stake to just £5 and adding a few selections at slightly longer odds you can still win a large amount. For example, £5 on a four-fold at odds of evens, 6/4, 2/1 and 3/1 will return £300!
What’s more, with options such as a Yankee for four selections, you don’t need to win all your bets to see a return or even make a profit. A Yankee is a bet that covers all possible options aside from singles, so all six possible doubles, four trebles and the four-fold acca and depending on the odds getting three of the four picks right can lead to a profit.
The obvious downside to backing accumulators and other multiples bets is that they are, by their nature, difficult to land. Even very short-priced favourites will lose every now and again, and often more frequently than punters expect them to. It’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security and think that if one selection is odds-on it must win, and therefore three such picks can seem like easy money when in fact the combined odds remain a truer reflection of the likelihood of the bet winning.
Related Contingencies
Related contingencies is the term given by bookmakers to two or more events that cannot be combined in an accumulator because they are not independent of each other. For example, Luis Suarez to score first and Liverpool to win 2-0 is one single bet, as opposed to two separate selections and as such it cannot be combined as a double.
If Suarez scores first the chances of Liverpool winning 2-0 are greater than they would be if he hadn’t and so rather than multiplying the odds for each selection, as one would with a double, the bookies offer a single price for both events to occur.
Types of Multiple
Some of the various types of multiple have already been mentioned but here are some of the most popular ones.
- Double – The most basic accumulator with two selections and both are required to come in to gain any return.
- Treble – As above but with three selections.
- Four-Fold – As above, but with four selections included in a single bet. (Any number of picks are permitted beyond this, right up to 12-folds or more.)
- Full Cover Bet (With or Without Singles) – A full cover bet with singles is a multiple that includes all possible combinations of singles, doubles, trebles and upwards, with one accumulator covering all selections in a single bet. A full cover bet is the same but without the singles and the total stake is the value of the per line bet multiplied by the number of individual bets.
- Patent – A Patent is a full cover bet with singles that includes three selections and therefore seven bets: three singles, three doubles and a treble.
- Lucky 15 – A Lucky 15 is a bet invented by Betfred and is similar to a Patent but with four selections and a total of 15 separate bets.
- Trixie – A Trixie is the same as a Patent but without the singles, so four separate bets, three doubles and a treble.
- Yankee – Includes four selections and 11 bets: a single four-fold acca, four trebles and six doubles.