If you’re new to sports betting and all your mates are talking about are accas, then you’d be right to feel a little intimidated. Sports betting has a bad habit of forgetting to explain how bets work – and accumulators are one of the bet types people need help to understand.
In this quick guide we’ll provide answers to ‘what is acca betting’ and explain the pros and cons of this bet type. We’ll primarily look at football for our examples but be assured you can place an acca on all sports in the Paddy Power sportsbook.
If you want to then understand the process of placing a wager then check out our how to place an accumulator bet guide.
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What is an acca?
An acca is a group of individual bets brought together in one mega wager. Each leg of your acca, or accumulator, must win in order for you to win the overall bet and get a payout.
It’s called an accumulator because the odds grow for every leg you accumulate into the wager. The more legs, the less likely you are to win and therefore the greater the odds.
If one leg loses then your entire acca loses. However, you could get acca insurance, which repays your stake back as free bets if your acca fails by one leg.
It’s possible to place accas across multiple sports, or on a single event. For example, you might want to use an acca to cover various sporting events on a single day, such as:
- The Wimbledon men’s singles final
- The Silverstone Grand Prix
- England playing a football friendly
- A Lions Test match in New Zealand
Or you might want to place five bets on a single football match! Accas work across all sports bar horse racing and greyhounds.
Why bet with an acca?
The point of an acca in betting is to enhance your odds and therefore your profit potential. People use accas to bet on heavy favourites or low-odds outcomes, group them all together and then place a small stake that carries large profit potential.
Here’s how an acca looks in the Paddy Power sportsbook. The below are two promotional accumulators that proved popular during football’s international break.
As you can see, bettors backed big favourites Croatia, Wales, Portugal, Slovakia and Bosnia to win their games against lesser opponents.
If you individually wagered £1 on each of these favourites you wouldn’t win much in profit. However, wagering £5 on this acca would generate £21.80 profit.
Of course, if one leg of this acca loses then the whole thing loses. However, that’s the risk you take – and the art of an acca is to back heavy favourites who are unlikely to lose.
Acca calculator
You can use Paddy Power’s accumulator bet calculator to figure out your profit potential, or simply craft your acca in the sportsbook and enter your stake in the bet slip. From here you’ll be able to see your odds and win potential before clicking Place Bet.
If you’re looking for the acca formula, here it is:
First, convert your odds into decimal odds if they aren’t already. Then multiply your odds together to produce your acca odds.
- Leg 1: 2.40
- Leg 2: 1.40
- Leg 3: 1.50
- Leg 4: 1.90
2.40 x 1.40 x 1.50 x 1.90 = 9.57
So there you go. Calculating an acca is pretty straightforward but you don’t need to do the maths yourself. Instead, either use the Paddy Power accumulator calculator, or simply build your acca in the sportsbook.
Your bet slip will tally all your bets together and offer you the option to enter your stake in the acca box. This will automatically generate your potential profit, so you know how much you could win compared to your risk, before you hit Place Bet.
Pros and cons of acca betting
There are plenty of pros and cons to acca betting, especially in football. Here are the main ones to consider before you create an accumulator:
Pros:
- A betting acca boosts your profit potential by increasing your odds
- You can group dead-certs together and chase bigger profits
- You can attach underdog bets to heavy favourites and boost your odds further
- Get acca insurance if one leg fails
- Freedom to bet small wagers on big odds
Cons:
- Your chances of winning reduces as the odds increase
- One leg can spoil an acca and upsets are common in football
- There’s not always an option to cash out
- A bet builder is better when placing multiple bets on one game
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