Accumulator betting is one of the most popular forms of betting in the gambling industry at the minute. The potential to win huge sums of money from a relatively small outlay is something that punter are lapping up.
But, the increased odds obviously comes with its downfalls as it makes it tougher to win. Also, an accumulator bet is reliant on you getting every selection within your acca right. If you get just one wrong then your whole bet loses. At least, it did until the introduction of acca insurance.
See also: Acca bonuses
Football & All Sport Offers
What is Accumulator Insurance?
Accumulator insurance has been designed by bookmakers to offer their punters a little bit of cushion when placing these types of bets. Essentially, if just one leg of your accumulator loses and the rest all win, then the bookmaker will often refund your original stake.
That’s right, no longer do you need to curse your luck when just one team loses, now you will have a bit of insurance to soften the blow somewhat.
But, there are a number of key terms that the majority of bookmakers will add to what are essentially promotions. We have listed some of the more common ones below and you need to be aware that they may change slightly from bookmaker to bookmaker.
Minimum Odds
first thing to consider is that qualifying bets must be placed at a minimum odds set out by that bookmaker. These will range depending on who you bet with, but most start from odds of around 5/1 and upward. So, if your odds are lower than this, then it’s likely your bet wont be eligible for this offer.
Some bookmakers may also include a maximum odds for these bets as well, although these are much less rare. We’ve seen them where they limit you to odds of between 10/1 and 50/1, so make sure you are aware of this, even though, as we say, it’s very rare these days.
It’s also worth noting that a bookmaker may require you to have a minimum odds for each individual selection as well. For example, they may state that every selection within your acca has be priced at 1.50 or greater. If a bet fails to meet this criteria then it could potentially removed from the promotion.
Limited Leagues and Competitions
A lot of bookmakers will only allow you to place these bets on certain leagues or tournaments from around the world. For example, one of the main players in the industry state that you can only include bets from games within England, Germany, Spain and Italy, with any other selections not being eligible for this offer.
Some bookmakers will also exclude certain tournaments as well. We noticed that in the 2016 European Championships, quite a few of the bigger bookies actually pulled this offer for bets within the tournament.
Limited Sports
Many people associate accumulator betting with football, but you can include the betting format in pretty much all sports. But, again the bookies might not cover these sports for their acca insurance. We know that darts acca betting is very popular, but we have also noticed that a few bookmakers limited their acca insurance deals strictly to football, so bets on darts wouldn’t actually be eligible. Same goes for horse racing!
Minimum Number of Selections
Each bookmaker will require you to have a minimum number of selections within your bet, usually 5. This means that any accumulators that have less than this number wont be eligible to claim the offer.
How is the Money Refunded?
More often than not, the money that you receive from your insurance will be refunded in the form of a free bet. There may be times where the bookmaker will refund the money in cash, straight back to your betting balance, but this is very rare and almost unheard of.
The amount you are going to get back is also going to be limited to the promotion. Generally you will find that most bookmakers will refund up to about £20 worth of bets, but usually they are a 100% match of this amount.
Cash Out
Any bets that are cashed out wont be eligible to claim acca insurance. So, if one leg is losing and you cash your bet out, you wont be eligible to claim a refund on your original stake.
Acca Insurance Example
We are going to place an accumulator bet with a bookmaker who is offering acca insurance. The bookmaker insists the following terms for this bet (pretty much industry standard and what are likely to find from most bookmakers):
- Min odds per selection: 1.50
- Min odds per accumulator: 5.00
- Min number of teams to qualify for acca insurance: 5
- Sports included: all
- Offer: £20 max return if 1 leg loses; 100% match
- Min stake amount: £10
We place the following bet bearing in mind the terms mentioned above:
- Newcastle V Sunderland – BTTS Yes – Odds: 2.10
- Manchester United v Manchester City – BTTS Yes – Odds: 1.70
- Liverpool v Everton – BTTS Yes – Odds: 1.60
- Cardiff v Swansea – BTTS Yes – Odds: 2.00
- Real Madrid v Barcelona – BTTS Yes – Odds: 1.80
The odds for this are 20.56 and we place a £10 bet. This shows that we have ticked all the boxes to be eligible for the acca insurance as mentioned above. The results of the match are as follows:
- Newcastle V Sunderland – 2-1
- Manchester United v Manchester City – 1-0
- Liverpool v Everton –2-2
- Cardiff v Swansea – 4-1
- Real Madrid v Barcelona – 3-2
From our bet, all results have won for the BTTS market apart from the Manchester United v Manchester City game. This means that 1 leg of our 5-fold accumulator has lost.
But, as we have met the terms for the acca insurance, we are eligible for a refund of our original bet of £10 and the money is credited to our bonus account.
Accumulator Insurance v Accumulator Bonuses
On top of acca insurance, some bookmakers are going to be able to offer you an acca bonus. The acca bonus works slightly differently, in that you need all of your results to come in, but the more successful results you have within that acca, the bookmaker is going to pay you a bonus on top of that.
Acca Bonus Example
| Bet Type | Bonus % | Returns | Returns Post-Bonus % | Variance (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Folds | 5% | £50 | £52.50 | £2.50 |
| 5-6 Folds | 10% | £50 | £55 | £5 |
| 7-9 Folds | 20% | £50 | £60 | £10 |
| 10+ Folds | 30% | £50 | £65 | £15 |
For example, for a winning 4-fold you might get 5% of your winnings added on and for a 10-fold accumulator you might get 30% of your winnings.
The insurance and the bonus both have their merits. The insurance is great for bets that you think might be tight. If you’ve included a selection that you aren’t quite sure on or you think could go either way, then we would recommend that you choose insurance.
The bonus is good for shorter priced selections that are much more likely to win. You are able to add more these to your bet and as you do, the percentage of bonus is going to increase. But, we would also say that if you are looking to target the bonus over the insurance make sure you add a good number of selections to your acca as you are likely going to find that a 5% bonus for a 5-fold might not work out to be more money than your original stake anyway.