Football Accumulators explainer

One of the most popular wagers in the world is the football accumulator - the chance to win a large amount of money from a small stake. The odds increase with every team a punter adds to their 'acca', so it provides a risk-reward conundrum for the betting community.

Visit a pub in Putney on a Saturday lunchtime - or a bar in Barcelona - and you will probably find groups of punters discussing their plans for a weekend football accumulator. It is a bet which typically instils passion and excitement.

What is a football accumulator bet?

A football 'acca' is a bet which puts lots of selections into a single bet - and the bet will only be successful if all of the selections win. An acca is a linked series of win singles where all the return from the first selection is automatically staked on the second selection as a win single and so on, until all the selections have won, thus giving a return, or until one selection loses - in which case the whole bet is lost.

A football single comprises just one team; a football double comprises two teams; a football treble comprises three teams. An acca, though, comprises four or more teams.

Some punters like to call an acca containing four teams a 'fourfold', and five teams a 'fivefold', etc, but the umbrella term of 'acca' is more commonly used for bets which consist of four teams or more.

The odds of your acca get higher every time you add a team. But obviously the odds of each team affect the overall odds of your acca. If you have only four teams in your acca, for example, but their individual odds are 3/1, 5/2, 9/4 and 7/4, the overall odds of your acca will be just over 124/1.

If you have six teams in your acca, but their individual odds are 1/4, 1/3, 4/11, 2/5, 4/9 and 1/2, then the overall odds of your acca will be just under 6/1.

There is no limit to how many teams you can put in your acca, but obviously the more teams you include, the more risk you are taking. You could put 20 teams in your acca, get 19 winners, and win nothing. It is important to remember that all teams in an acca must win for a return, unless the punter uses alternative betting methods like a Yankee.

A Yankee is a bet consisting of four selections and 11 bets - six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold. A Canadian, also known as a Super Yankee, is a bet on five selections consisting of 26 bets - 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five fourfolds and a fivefold.

There are other alternative bets if you want more selections. A Goliath, for example, is a bet on eight selections which consists of 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds, 28 sixfolds, eight sevenfolds and an eightfold, so a total of 247 bets.

A traditional 'acca', though, is purely an 'all or nothing' investment where all selections need to win to earn a return.

What is a Bet Builder? How to place one, markets and odds.

What types of accumulators can you place?

Any football eventuality can be included in an acca, as long as they are not a related contingency. A related contingency is when one part of your bet will make another part of your bet more likely to happen.

For example, if you tried to put Mohamed Salah to score the first goal in Liverpool versus Manchester United into an acca with Liverpool to win the match, it would not be possible - because Liverpool have more chance of winning the match if Salah scores the first goal - although bet365's technology will clearly show whether your bet is possible when you attempt to place it.

Most acca punters just pick a selection of teams to win their matches. Liverpool to win, Leeds to win, Celtic to win - these were the sort of teams which were regularly included in football accas all over the globe last season.

You can include draws in your acca if you think a match is destined to be tight, while both-teams-to-score (abbreviated to BTTS) is another popular option for accas.

Each-way accumulator explained

Accas do not have to consist of matches that are taking place imminently. A way of getting a whole season's worth of entertainment is to put teams in divisional accas - betting on who will win each league.

For example, you could bet Chelsea to win the Premier League, Millwall to win the Championship, Bolton to win League One and Grimsby to win League Two in an acca. At current odds of 18/1, 33/1, 11/1 and 20/1, the acca comes to a whopping 162,791/1.

You could make it an each-way acca, so if all four teams finish in the each-way places (two places for the Premier League, three for the Championship, League One and League Two), you will still get a healthy return for that.

What is BTTS - Both Teams to Score in betting.

How to place a football accumulator

Click on the odds of your selection - a home win comes under the header 1, a draw comes under the header X, and an away win comes under the header 2 - and continue this process until you have completed all your acca selections.

Then type your desired stake into the rectangle which says Set Stake, then click on the Place Bet button to complete the wager. You will, of course, need to have enough funds in your account to cover the investment.

What markets are available on a football accumulator?

As well as the to win the match odds, you can include myriad other markets like over/under goals (how many goals there will be in the match), both teams to score (yes or no), over/under corners, etc.

Use the Bet Builder option if you want to include related contingencies into a specially formulated bet with bet365 generated odds.

Read more football betting tips and predictions on site.