In recent years football accumulators or ‘accas’ as they have become affectionately known, have become a staple of British gambling culture. 

For most modern football fans, putting on an accumulator is now as much of a staple on a Saturday afternoon as having a pint or a pie. 

For those who have never done it before though, looking at a long list on a Saturday could be quite overwhelming so we here at bonus bets have created this guide to show you how to put on a football accumulator. 

Football is the most popular sport on the planet and as a result, demands for betting on the sport are also incredibly high. 

Football seasons run throughout the year on different continents, with the most popular, the European seasons, taking place between the months of August and May. Other divisions, such as the MLS, the USA’s biggest league, take place between March and October. 

Outside of the traditional leagues, there are also several cup competitions and international tournaments that all take place at different times. 

The biggest international tournament, the FIFA World Cup, takes place once every four years, while the biggest club competition, The Champions League, takes place during the normal campaign every year. 

Traditionally, the majority of football games will take place on a Saturday afternoon at 15:00, though, there will always be top flights game taking place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Mondays due to television deals. 

An accumulator is different to a normal football bet because it requires you to choose four or more selections on your betting slip and for all of those selections to come in correctly to win your bet. 

Due to their continued popularity, most bookmakers will now offer a wide array of accumulators for customers to choose from. The following are the most popular types: 

Full time-results

 

The most common time of accumulator placed is just a straight forward results accumulator. 

These accumulators just consist of four or more home, away or draw predictions and on most websites, can feature as many selections as the customer wants. 

Accumulators are an incredibly exciting way of betting on football and can stand to make their customers a lot of money. They can, however, be incredibly frustrating when one result can bring your whole bet crashing down. 

Both teams to score

 

Both teams to score, often abbreviated to BTTS, bets are one of the most popular types of football accumulators on the market. 

As their name suggests, for this type of bet you need to bet on whether or not you think both teams playing in a match will score. 

While the odds on these accumulators aren’t always the highest and you will often find yourself having to build a big accumulator to get a decent pay-out, they are one of the most exciting types of accumulators available. 

The biggest benefit for these kinds of bets is that, unlike normal accumulators, they can still be active right until the very end. 

If a team is winning 5-0, it makes no difference, providing the other team can grab a goal and win you your selection. 

While betting against both teams to score is an available option, and often offers better odds, it is not too advisable to bet on these as they can be losing very early on. 

Another type of accumulator that is becoming increasingly common is the over/under goals accumulators. 

On these bets, you simply choose whether you think there will over or under a specific amount of goals in a series of games. 

Like both teams to score accumulators, you tend to have to build a big accumulator on these if you really want to see any sort of sizable return, unless of course, you’re brave enough to bet on a high amount of goals such as over 3.5 or something. 

These bets also tend to stay open until very late in the game, especially if you opt for an over 1.5 goals accumulator.

Special bets

 

Accumulators are a mega business for bookmakers and as such, they are all in constant competition with one another to try and provide the most exciting and innovative experiences for their customers.

One of these special types of bets is bet365’s bet builder, which allows punters to build an accumulator using bets from all different football markets. For example, you could build an accumulator that features two full-time results, two BBTSs and one over/under goals bets. 

These kinds of gimmicks offer a nice way of keeping your betting interesting and can also allow you to build some fairly exciting odds if you can mix and match the right markets. 

Most bookmakers will also offer cash-out bets on your accumulators, meaning, for example, if you have eight out of eight results coming in with ten minutes of the game to go and you are worried that one of those may change, the bookmakers may offer you a reduced price to withdraw the bet and take the cash instead. 

Any bookmakers worth their salt is going to have various markets for football and accumulators so it often comes down to a case of who is offering the best odds. 

Given the sheer number of football matches played on a weekly basis, it is fairly easy to find great bonus offers as well, and many websites will offer a football related bonus offer when you sign up with them. 

Accumulator strategies

 

There are various ways of approaching accumulators depending on what type you want to put on, however, one thing is for certain, research is incredibly important. 

A close examination of the league table, recent form, and player eligibility can give you an edge when it comes to selecting which teams or bets to place. 

The number of results you place on your accumulator will also play an important role in how successful you are. If you choose favourites for your accumulator, you will have to put more of them on your slip to boost your odds. Whereas if you wanted to go for an accumulator built up exclusively on away wins or draws, then you would be better advised to choose fewer teams to increase your chance of victory. 

One thing that is advised with accumulators, however, is to try and make sure all the games on your slip are taking place on the same day, and if possible, at the same time. There are few things as frustrating as having to wait for a result to come in only to find out you’ve lost anyway. 

Placing your bets for games on the same day will also increase your chances of getting a good cash-out option if you are that way inclined.