Accumulator betting is one of the most common betting types out there, and something that thousands of punters up and down the country place every single week of the sporting season. The commonplace you see accumulators is football, although many different sports are great for placing accumulator bets. Whether it is a Saturday afternoon and people are placing their football accumulators, or it is midweek and people are betting on snooker or darts in an accumulator, people will always place accumulators.
Those who place accumulator bets are doing it for one reason and that is to win big from placing just a small amount of money. They dream of the big win and often aim too high, a strategy that often ends with a losing bet. It takes a lot of skill and patience to land an accumulator bet, but with the potential returns being so high, landing just one accumulator bet per season would put you in profit. This is the strategy you need to employ, don’t go all out to win every single week, it won’t happen. There is no guarantee to success with accumulators, but by following a few simple rules you can improve your betting and improve your chances of landing a nice win that will put you in profit for the season.
How Many Selections?
This is probably the most controversial question to come up when you talk to your friends about accumulator betting and is sure to get many different responses.
The most commonly asked question when it comes to accumulator betting is always how many selections should be put in a bet. This is an area that many people disagree on, and everyone has their own opinion that they will vocally tell you about and expect you to follow. For me, I would never place an accumulator bet with more than eight selections in it and this has worked well for me over the past two decades of placing football accumulators. In my opinion, using eight selections gives the right balance between a nice big pay out and a realistic chance of winning.
If you choose more than eight selections that that is when the bet starts to become unrealistic and very difficult to land unless you have a huge amount of luck that week. Any less than eight selections and the bet does not offer enough value to give you enough money back for a nice profit. When you start backing accumulators with less than eight selections you will need to win more than once per season to get a nice profit on the year, this is not what I want from my accumulator betting.
There are many people out there who will disagree and add many more than eight selections to their accumulators, but to me, this makes the bet an unrealistic proposition that relies on luck. Accumulator betting is all about getting the right balance and in my opinion, that is what eight selections does. Of course, many people will land an accumulator with more than eight selections but these bets very rarely land and require a lot of luck, as well as a tremendous amount of patience to wait for the big win.
I am also against choosing less than eight teams when I am putting together my accumulator bet. This type of bet is difficult to land so it needs to be worthwhile and if you put anything less than eight in the bet then you are not going to get a pay out that matches the risk involved. The fewer teams you put into your bet, the more chance you have to win the bet, but an accumulator should be a once a season victory that you aim for. With only six selections, for example, one win per season may not be enough to give you a profit, or a profit that is worth working for all season. This is the main reason why I think choosing eight selections is important, it finds the right balance
between having a chance of winning and bringing enough returns to give you a nice profit for the season.
The final thing to remember regarding the number of teams in an accumulator is that I don’t think varying the number of teams every week is the right thing to do. I like to bet with structure and discipline, therefore have different amounts of teams each week is not betting in the correct manner for me. By changing the number of teams each week, you will also change the returns by quite a lot and that will mean that sometimes the bet will be very unrealistic and sometimes the bet won’t return enough to give good profit. I always find that I initially choose ten or maybe even twelve teams and by limiting that to eight, I can remove the least fancied selections out of my teams. This lowers the chance of failure on the bet, while still giving me the chance to win back a big return for the accumulator that I place.
Level Stakes
One of the other big mistakes made by many accumulator backers out there involves the stakes placed. Everyone has their own betting bank and some people back 50p per bet, while others will back £10 per bet, it all depends on your financial circumstances. However big or small your bets, one thing you really shouldn’t do is to vary the stakes you place each week. This is often because people have had a win recently, or because they feel like they are due a win, whatever the reason is don’t do it, keep your stakes the same all the time.
Despite being classed as a ‘throw away’ bet by a lot of people, you still need to treat the staking of your accumulator bet as you would any other bet. This means choosing a staking plan at the start of the season and sticking to it throughout the season. When you fluctuate your stakes, should you land an accumulator on a week when you only put a small amount on, that will affect the chances of you finishing the season with a nice profit.
Another reason why people sometimes change their stakes is that they don’t fancy the bet as much as what they did the week before, so they will put on loss. This is another bad habit to get into and you should fancy the bet just as much each week, and always put on the same amount. Some of the best accumulator returns I have had have been when I least expected it and for whatever reason, I didn’t think I would be winning that week. Luck plays a part in every single bet that you place and with a bit of luck you could find yourself picking up a great win when you least expect it.
Patience and Discipline the Key to Accumulator Success
The biggest thing you need when you are backing accumulators is patience, along with a lot of discipline too. Be prepared to go on long losing runs, but also keep in your mind the fact that just one win and you will be back in profit due to the big returns an accumulator has. Make sure you stick with your accumulator betting and do not abandon it or change your strategy after a few weeks of losing bets. This would be a huge waste of time and money and it isn’t the way to handle accumulator betting.
When it comes to the number of selections you are putting in your accumulator, make sure you remain disciplined and stick with the number that you think suits you the best. My number is eight and while that may not work for everyone, I always think it is a great place to start for anyone that is unsure about what to do. This stops you from adding too many selections to your bet and making it unreasonably difficult to land but also makes, sure enough, teams are involved to give you a winning amount that is worth winning.
Another area you need to be disciplined is with the stakes you put on each bet. Everyone has a different betting bank and different stakes but it is very important that no matter what your amount it, you stick to it and keep it the same every single week. Should you win on a small stakes day then the profit you win will not be as big and potentially not enough to give you a profit for the whole season. That would be such a shame after landing a win and would really dent confidence in your betting going forward.
Patience and discipline are the key, make sure you keep those at the forefront of your mind and stick to the key rules. If you do this then your betting overall will improve, but it will definitely improve your accumulator betting, where these are very important requirements.