Cheltenham Festival 2017 – use an acca to multiply your winnings

By | March 2, 2017

Multiply your winnings with accumulator bets

The ‘Acca’ is one of those words you hear bandied around all the time, but not everyone knows how they work – or how best to use them. During Cheltenham, effective use of multiple bets can transform your betting, turning modest wins into huge cashouts.

What is an Acca?

‘Acca’ is betting slang for Accumulator. An Accumulator bet is a multiple bet that involves four or more selections (for other types of multiples, like Doubles, Trebles, Forecasts etc, have a read through this page:  Multiple bets explained).

In an accumulator, multiple bets on your selections are combined into a single bet. The most important thing to note is that an acca only wins when ALL parts win. This clearly increases the risk, but the payoff can be huge!

Edit your bet with bet365

bet365 currently have a great feature called Edit Bet that allows you to modify your Acca before it’s settled. Edit Bet gives you the ability to add, swap or remove selections on unsettled straight accumulators – both pre-match and In-Play. If three legs of your acca have come up and you suddenly get cold feet about the fourth, you can get in there and swap it for a safer bet. It’s a bit like Cash Out, but for your accas!

You can find full details of bet365’s Edit Bet at the foot of this page. If you’re tempted by it, remember that bet365 are offering new customers a betting bonus of up to £200, which you can claim by signing up below.

Get £200 at bet365

How does an Accumulator work?

An accumulator combines a number of multiple bets – Doubles, Trebles and Fourfolds.

A double is a bet on two things happening. Both have to win. eg you place a £10 double on two horses, X at 4-1 and Y at 7-2. If horse X wins, your payout is £50 (4 x 10 + 10) which is then bet on horse Y. If that wins, the payout would be £225 (7 / 2 * 50 + 50).

A treble is like a double but with three bets. Again, all three must win, but the payout is much higher. eg you place a £10 treble on three horses, X at 4-1, Y at 7-2 and Z at 2-1. If horse X wins, your payout is £50 (4 x 10 + 10) which is then bet on horse Y. If that wins, the payout would be £225 (7 / 2 * 50 + 50). This then goes on to horse Z and if that wins, your payout is £550 (2 * 225)

A fourfold is like a double and treble, but with four bets. To take the above example further, if your first three horses win and your fourth comes in at 3-1, your overall winnings are £1650!

In an Accumulator bet, a bet is placed on every possible permutation of your four selections (A, B, C and D). In a Lucky 15 (the most popular acca bet currently) there are 15 possible permutations, therefore 15 separate bets, as follows:

4 single bets (ABCD), 6 doubles (AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD), 4 trebles (ABC, ABD, ACD, BCD) and 1 fourfold (ABCD)

Each bet costs a ‘unit stake’. For example, if you bet a £1 unit stake on a Lucky 15 bet, it will cost you £15 in total.

When should I use an Acca?

The temptation is to look at an acca as a way to get maximum profits. While it’s true that if you got four long shots at 25 to 1 each, you could make over half a million for a £1 stake, the odds are very much against that.

NB always remember that bookies odds aren’t accurate. Bookies’ odds are not an accurate representation of probability. Bookmakers set their prices with two intentions: firstly, to attract money for outsiders; secondly, to minimise their losses should the predicted winner win.

A much better way to use an acca is when you have four short priced selections that are more likely to win, but which wouldn’t generate much return if you bet on them individually.
Let’s say you’ve chosen four likely winners that are priced at 1/3, 11/8, 6/4 and 7/4. Four individual £10 Win bets would give you a profit of £89.58.

If you placed a £3 Lucky 15 (overall stake £45) your return would be £307 – three times as much.

An acca increases both the risk of losing AND the potential returns!

bet365 Edit Bet explained

Edit Bet gives you the ability to add, swap or remove selections on unsettled straight accumulators both pre-match and In-Play. For unsettled single bets, you have the facility to swap or add selections.

The Edit Bet feature is offered when Cash Out is available for all unsettled selections within your bet and where the outcome of the bet has not already been determined. This means that even if a number of selections within your accumulator have already been settled, you still have the option to use the Edit Bet feature.
When editing a bet the current Cash Out value will be used as the new stake and all prices will be updated to reflect live odds and not the initial prices taken. However, when Edit Bet is used to add a selection to a bet where all selections in the original bet are still pre-match and where no odds changes have occurred, the new stake will be equal to the original stake amount.
How to edit your bet
You can edit a bet via the Cash Out tab within My Bets. Simply select Edit Bet in the top right of the bet slip, which will then update to allow you to add, swap or remove selections of your choice.
Adding a selection
To add a selection to your bet, you will firstly need to click on ‘Add Selections’ on the bet slip. This will then take you to the homepage and launch a pop-up inviting you to browse the site and add selections. Making a selection from any coupon will add it to a temporary bet slip, which will display at the bottom of the screen. The new return amount will update to reflect the odds of the additional selection(s). Selecting ‘Add to Bet’ at the bottom of the temporary bet slip will then add the selection(s) to the bet slip. You should select ‘Save Changes’ and then ‘Confirm’ in order to submit your Edit Bet request.
Swapping a selection
To swap a selection in your bet, you will firstly need to click on the selection within the bet slip. This will then load a Swap Selection pop-up, allowing you to choose an alternative option from the same market. Once you have selected your replacement, the new return amount will update to reflect the amended odds of the bet. You must then select ‘Done’ in order for the bet slip to update with the new selection. You should select ‘Save Changes’ and then ‘Confirm’ in order to submit your Edit Bet request.
Removing a selection
To remove a selection from your bet you simply need to select the ‘X’ to the left of the selection. The removed selection will then display as struck through on the bet slip. This can be reversed by selecting ‘Undo’ and the selection will be added back to the bet slip. A new return amount will display to account for any changes in selections, odds or stake. You should then select ‘Save Changes’ and ‘Confirm’ in order to submit your Edit Bet request.
Saving and confirming your request
Once you have added, swapped or removed selections to your bet you will need to confirm this by selecting ‘Save Changes’. Once clicked, the ‘Save Changes’ button will update to state ‘Confirm’. If you do not click on confirm within five seconds this will revert back to the previous state. On selecting ‘Confirm’, the button will update to ‘Saving’ and when complete, your bet will display as edited.
For full details of this feature, go here: Edit Bet explained

Author: Andy Follin

Copywriter, webmaster, and casino systems expert.

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