How many teams do you typically put on your ACCA? If your answer is anything above five then you’ll always be welcome at any bookmakers you ever wish to visit. That goes for punters who like to visit their local bookie in person, as well as those who prefer to bet online.
The simple fact is that bookies absolutely love football ACCAs because they attract the dreamers and wishful thinkers, and they rarely need to pay out. Yes, bookies are often hit by wonder-ACCAs and big wins, but these are so few and far between that they happily take the hit.
When football coupons were actual pieces of paper, the standard Saturday matchday coupon may have been the only option, but now we have far greater choice thanks to the internet. Everyone has their system, but one tactic is to try and reduce the number of selections being made. Think of each selection in your ACCA as holding an inherent amount of unpredictability. It’s what we love about sport in the first place, but not so much when there’s money involved. The idea is simply that by reducing the number of selections you make, you also reduce the chances of a sending off or a dodgy offside decision ruining your day.
Supercharge your ACCA
The most typical way to increase the profitability of an ACCA is to add more teams, which is completely at odds with less teams means less risk. Let’s take a look at William Hill for an example of the prices on offer and how we might approach your typical Saturday accumulator. Take the following five matches from last weekend, the teams in bold as the obvious picks to win.
Leicester v Crystal Palace 19/20
Chelsea v Southampton 4/11
Arsenal v Newcastle 1/4
Man City v Tottenham 1/2
West Brom v Man Utd 11/20
A £20 bet on those teams at those odds would have offerd a return of £154.55. For some that’s a very decent return on your weekend betting, and it looked a fairly reasonable bet – £150 might be enough money to take your significant other out for a meal, or more likely, to have a night on the town with the lads. Of course, when the ACCA bug gets to you the temptation is always to dream big. If £150 won’t cut it you could have added:
Watford v Huddersfield 8/11
Bournemouth v Liverpool 1/2
Everton v Swansea 3/4
£20 on the 8 teams now gives you £700.79 if they all come in, and since each of those team selections on their own looks alright then why not go for it? There are no crazy bets there, and each individual selection reflects the result you’d expect to see the majority of the time. The point is that each match is an unknown, and each selection increases the amount unknown quantities in your bet. It is these things which stretch most ACCAs beyond breaking point. In the first five choices, you’ll note that four came good, meaning it’s always best to slim down the options.
Handicaps
Since you’re here we can safely assume you’re not the average Joe punter just in off the street. Firstly, let’s look at just how much more you can put in your pocket by utilising a -1 goal handicap on the favourites in each match. Then let’s take a look to find out exactly how much a £20 bet would return.
Leicester -1 v Crystal Palace 12/5
Chelsea -1 v Southampton 19/20
Arsenal -1 v Newcastle 7/10
Man City -1 v Tottenham 13/10
West Brom v Man Utd -1 8/5
The bet now returns a whopping £1,348.01 which is probably enough to make most punters hit the brakes. What if Chelsea and Arsenal struggle to beat the competition by two clear goals? Both teams are good at grinding out results when they need to. Your £20 now returns £693.13. That seems a bit more like it, but if you believe that Leicester will struggle to break down Crystal Palace beyond a goal that would leave your coupon looking like this:
Leicester v Crystal Palace 19/20
Chelsea v Southampton 4/11
Arsenal v Newcastle 1/4
Man City -1 v Tottenham 13/10
West Brom v Man Utd -1 11/20
Your £20 stake now returns £397.53, which is more than double the original bet of £154.55. In fact, the amount is greater by £242.98.
Whether you think that is a good bet or not is another matter, but it proves that by tinkering with your bet to include handicap markets (even if it is only in a game or two) you will certainly put some extra cash in your pocket without making your coupon longer than the grocery receipt after the weekly shop.
Who wants to be a millionaire?
As a final thought you may be aware that one high street bookie offers a 15 team ACCA coupon with a guaranteed payout of £1million pounds. With the stake being £2, the price you are being offered by the bookmaker is 500,000/1. That price does NOT offer good value for money, because the odds of your successfully picking 15 results are much longer than that. It’s okay to dream big, but don’t let the bookie use your ambition against you. Using handicap markets is one great way to boost your ACCA and make much smarter bets.
