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Making the most of the European World Cup Qualifiers, could mean stepping outside the box of wagering on fixed odd single outcomes. This is a once-in-four-years chance to spread the betting as the remaining eight teams from the European zone stride valiantly towards a place at South Africa 2010. This represents an exciting night of action across Europe, one which could be rewards through alternative betting. This, therefore, is a good night to try and employ some of the many forms of multiple bets that are on offer. The starting place for this would be…

DOUBLE
A Double is where you make a selection on the outcome of two different sporting events, meaning that you can’t pick the France v Ireland game to end in a draw, and a win for the Irish for example. This is a basic multiple bet, where you need both results to come up. What happens is that the returns from the first selection gets placed on the second one, accumulating the odds. With four European games on offer on Wednesday night, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick two winners out. Now, with the circumstance surrounding the games on Wednesday night, there are options other than just picking a winner on the night. You could go for the “To Qualify” bet, which will eliminate any worries of whether or not the games will be going to extra time or penalties. All you would be concentrating on with that, is a team getting to the World Cup Finals, and not how.

The selection for the European Play-offs on Wednesday night are (aggregate score in brackets):
France (1) v Ireland (0)
Slovenia (1) v Russia (2)
Ukraine (0) v Greece (0)
Bosnia (0) v Portugal (1)

Two of the favourites to get through are France and Russia. Taking both of those To Qualify in a double with bring France 1/12 at Coral and Russia 2/7 at Coral (the double bet will need to be placed at one Bookmakers clearly). That would bring a small return, but a little profit is better than no profit at all, and the To Qualify odds are going to be shorter than a ninety-minute win result on the night. Looking at the latter, then you could get  France to win 8/15 and Russia to win 7/5 at William Hill. A £1 stake on a double would bring a return of essentially trebling your stake.

TREBLE
The same as a Double, but you need three selections and need them all to come in for a return. Much harder to pull of than a Double, even though it is just one more selection, but naturally the returns will be bigger. Here again you can play with To Qualify bets, or win markets. Sticking with the favourites just to win their matches on the night would give decent prices, therefore backing at William Hill France 8/15, Russia 7/5 and Portugal 13/10 would bring a return of £8.46 for a £1 stake. Looking at SkyBet To Qualify France 1/16, Russia 1/4, Portugal 1/4 which is a relatively safe bet, would bring £1.66 return on a £1 stake.

ACCUMULATOR
Above and beyond the Double and Treble bets, comes the Accumulator. For this you will need to play with four or more selections which need to come in. If the Treble is hard to land, then this is like some kind of betting Holy Grail. It seems very easy at the time of placing bets, that everything is going to go to plan, but it is hard, even picking from the four European World Cup Qualifying games. For example, let’s look at Bet365 for an Accumulator on match results. Portugal to win 7/5, Russia to win 13/10, France to win 1/2 and Ukraine to win 3/4. That is backing all of the favourites, but of course, wins, however much expected, can be interrupted by hard fought draws by the underdogs which is some cases is enough for teams (Portugal for example will progress with a score draw on the night). The hardest game to look out for here is the Ukraine v Greece one, which is the tightest one to call as they look incredibly evenly matched. Making a selection on an accumulator is judging not what teams you may think will win, but judging what they need to do. Drawn games are the pitfall of many Accumulators, but you can at least use your judgement and take a draw instead of a win, which in many cases will be at better odds. The name of an accumulator will change with the amount of selections made, like a fivefold, or six fold accumulator for example.

FULL COVER BETS
This is where the fun could be taken. A Trixie would be ideal for Wednesday night’s qualifiers. What is a Trixie? It is three selections which are covered by four bets. Within the Trixie you have three doubles and one treble. What this does is give you coverage on your bet, and you can see some return if only two of your three selections come up. The difference in terms of stake between this and an Accumulator for example, is that if you want to wager £1, then you are actually staking £4, which is the sum of staking £1 on each of the bets (unless you just put four bets of 25pence on each, then your stake will be £1). Let’s again look at the favourites, this time at BetFred for a Trixie, looking at win markets on the night. Picking three of the four matches for Wednesday night: France 8/15, Russia 11/8 and Portugal 7/5 at a BetFred Trixie would bring a return of £21.76 for a £4 stake if all three results come in (which would mean you reap the benefit of three doubles and a treble).

YANKEE
If you really want to push the boat out and feel confident that you can pick four correct outcomes, again whether it is win markets, To Qualify bets, a mix, or anything else you fancy on the games, then you can go for a Yankee. This is the bigger brother of a Trixie, where you make four selections, and are covered this time by eleven bets. You get six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold Accumulator. Again this will pay off immensely if all four results come up, but  you are covered if only two of them happen to, as that will be a minimum to capitalise on one of the double bets. A Yankee will accrue a larger stake, just like the Trixie, your stake amount will be applied to each covered bet, in this case, all eleven of them, so if you wagered £11, you would have £1 on each bet. Let’s look at what Blue Square has on offer for the Qualifiers. Portugal 6/4, France 1/2, Russia 5/4 and Ukraine 17/20 will return £71.95 for that £11 stake.

Of course, with so much at stake, anything could happen on the night, and the selections will be down to you. Drawn matches are probable, and perhaps one upset out of the four games is possible too. Choose the online Bookmaker which works best for you, and you could have some fun and profit with the second legs of the European Qualification Play-Offs, even if you may not be overly interested in the games themselves. If you want to branch out further, remember there are two other Qualification matches being played, a hotly contested one between Uruguay and Costa Rica, and an even more fiercely contested one, at least amongst fans, between Egypt and Algeria. The latter two are in a sudden death playoff after finish their group qualification with exactly the same records, and it was a 95th minute second goal for Egypt which as brought this about. Uruguay leads Costa Rica 1-0 on aggregate.