A handy visual of bets that can be made up from a set number of selections. For a more detailed write up of various types of multiple / acca bet (heinz, trixies, yankees, lucky 31 etc) check out the right side of any page on multiples.co.uk).
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Acca Cashout
Cashing out an accumulator bet or, in other words, getting money back – albeit less than might otherwise be the case – before the bet has finished, inevitably has its pros and cons. However, one punter for whom cashing out worked just perfectly was the anonymous Betfair customer who, on Boxing Day, 2016, staked just £1 on a speculative, 21-fold accumulator on British football matches.
Two of his chosen matches were evening kick-offs but, when Olivier Giroud scored a header on his first league start of the season for Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion after 86 minutes, he was ahead in all 19 matches already underway. At that point, although he stood to collect a potential £1.2 million on his ‘all or nothing’ bet, he decided not to push his luck any further and immediately cashed out for the not insubstantial sum of £223,000.
Lo and behold, just four minutes later, Wycombe Wanderers’ winger Myles Weston scored his first goal for the club against Plymouth Argyle to level the scores at 3-3 after 90 minutes as the away team fought back from 3-1. The scoreline remained 3-3 at full-time, thereby rendering the bet worthless, so our intrepid punter had reason to feel well satisfied with his decision. For the record, of his two remaining selections, Manchester City completed a routine 3-0 away win against Hull City, but Newcastle United were beaten 1-0 at home by Sheffield Wednesday.
Keen to promote the benefits of cashing out to punters – the mechanism can, of course, benefit bookmakers, too – Betfair spokesperson Naomi Totten said, ‘Cash Out gives customers the ultimate control over their bets and this is surely the mother of all Cash Outs from the mother of all accumulators.’
Tayla Polia
The ‘all-or-nothing’ nature of accumulator betting, or parlay betting, as it’s known in the United States, makes it an inherently risky proposition. Nevertheless, the prospect of a huge payout for a small stake provides tasty bait for those punters who consider the risk worth taking. Once such punter was 26-year-old Las Vegas resident Tayla Polia who, in December, 2015, staked $5 on a 15-fold accumulator involving National Football League (NFL) matches and landed odds of over 20,000/1.
A lifelong sports fan, but having just her second sports bet ever, Polia had previously discussed point spreads with her boyfriend without, it seems, fully understanding the concept. In fact, she simply based her picks on whom she thought would win each game, regardless of the points spread. Reflecting on her windfall, Polia said, ‘I remembered that I picked the [New York] Giants and they lost.’ What she failed to realise, though, was that she backed the Giants as five-point underdogs, so their 38-35 defeat by Carolina Panthers was a winner as far as her accumulator was concerned.
All told, Polia backed four more underdogs, namely Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions, and not only correctly forecast that Pittsburgh Steelers, six-point favourites to beat Denver Broncos, would cover the spread, but also that both teams would score over 45 points. She had only been in Las Vegas for two months, having moved from Boston to escape the East Coast winter but, $100,000 better off, as the result of a naive, but nonetheless lucky, punt, she said she hoped to move on to a beach house in California in due course.