Previously we’ve talked about the pros and cons of doubles and trebles as opposed to single bets. Here we will cover rather more ambitious accumulator bets where four or more selections need to win for your bet to be a winner. When an accumulator consists of four selections it is referred to as a fourfold, with five a fivefold, six a sixfold. If there’s a non runner your five fold will turn into a fourfold and so on. Accumulators can be placed across various sports (horse racing, football, tennis etc) though selections must be ‘mutually independent’ – one bet cannot have a bearing on another. Some gamblers hedge their bets with smaller combinations, to avoid the ‘all or nothing’ nature of this type of bet. That way should most, but not all selections win, you could still get a good return.

Skill of course can come into placing an accumulator, but no matter your ability as a gambler, there is an element of ‘shot in the dark’ about accumulators. That’s a consequence of needing so much to go right – it’s not a bet that’s going to come in with any regularity. On the flip-side though, when it does you’ll be richly rewarded even with a small stake.

Most big ‘everyday punter’ wins that you read about are accumulators and it’s no surprise as the odds can become truly astronomical when results start to go your way. For some there’s serious thought that goes into their accumulators, for others it’s their version of buying a lottery ticket. For all though it’s an exciting and very memorable moment when everything falls into place for you.

As with the doubles and trebles posts, let’s see how much a £10 stake on a four bet accumulator could bring in:

Bet 1 Easy Rider at 3-1 (£30 win + £10 = £40 on next bet)
Bet 2 Nagshead at 4-1 (£160 + £40 = £200 on next bet)
Bet 3 Faster Than You 3-1 (£600 + £200 = £800 on next bet)
Bet 4 Going For Gold 6-1 (£4800 + £800 = £5600 – £10 stake = £5590)

As this example shows, if you have a bit of luck with your selections you can potentially end up raking it in. There are many real life examples of people hitting it big with accumulators, occasionally to the tune of well over a million. I wouldn’t have minded having Steve Whiteley’s betting slip!

Previously we gave an overview of doubles bets. We explained how multiples can add a bit of excitement to your betting due to significantly bumping up odds and in turn the potential payout. This is even more of a factor with trebles, where achieving three winning selections can see you gaining a return that would otherwise be all but impossible for the average punter, even with a fairly significant single bet.

Trebles are an attractive proposition for many. They are a somewhat more daring proposition than opting for a double, but at the same time, we’re not talking about entering the ‘once in a blue moon’ territory of accumulators, where four or more results need to go your way for you to win. You can do a treble as a bit of a punt, or if you’re confident of your selections, be hopeful that you haven’t got your head in the clouds if you believe you’re in with a chance of winning a nice wedge with your bet.

With treble bets, much like doubles, each bet rolls into the next, so you’re progressively lumping more on the next part of the bet. Of course this comes with the risk that a selection will lose and as such the entire treble will be a losing bet. It brings with it the chance of higher returns though of course. Let’s show the potential returns with a £10 football treble:

Manchester United to win 2-1 (£20 win + £10 = £30 on next bet)
Norwich to win 4-1 (£120 win + £30 = £150 on next bet)
Aston Villa to win 3-1 (£450 win + £150 = £600 – £10 = £590 win)

As you can see, based on a modest £10 bet you can see substantial returns. Granted you’re not going to be seeing them coming in week on week, so it can be something of a waiting game, but based on the outlay trebles can be quite an exciting bet to follow.

As much as we all like to see ourselves as bookies bashers in the making, it’s often hard to achieve a serious payout on a single win bet. Most often we adjust our stakes based on the odds, so will lump on at even money, but be much more conservative on a 18-1 shot for instance. This makes sense of course, but at the same time limits of chances of a genuinely big win. That’s where it can make sense to go the multiples route. Sure, common sense tells you that any given multiple bet you do isn’t going to result in easy money, but at least when you do get a good result, you get a really good one!

If picking a tonne of selections day in, day out and hoping for a win before you croak has too much of a ‘lottery’ aspect it to for your liking, it’s worth remembering that a multiple bet can consist of as few as two selections. Betting on a double (a bet on two selections where both must win – with the exception of ‘each-way’ doubles) isn’t exactly ‘going out on a limb’ if the selections you have in mind are based on sound logic and reading the form. In fact if you’re confident of your bet it can be something of a no-brainer to bet on a double even if your selections are individually relatively short priced. Case in point, you have a £10 stake on this horse racing double:

‘Romp Home’ at odds of 2-1

‘Can’t Lose, Won’t Lose’ at 3-1

If ‘Romp Home’ wins you make £20 profit (£30 including your stake). This £30 bet then rides on your second selection ‘Can’t Lose, Won’t Lose’ and if that wins adds another £90 so you have £120 in total or £110 profit minus your original £10 bet.

Doubles are very common with football bets too. You’ll often see them highlighted in a bookmakers windows. ‘Chelsea to win with X to score first’ or something along those lines. It’s a popular punt to make nowadays.

As you can see from the example, when you’re betting on reasonably likely outcomes or even favourites, it doesn’t take a lot to go your way for a small initial bet to make a tidy profit. Now extend that to trebles and beyond and you can see the potential in multiples.