How you pick not only your bets, but the type of bets you play will depend a lot upon your attitude, outlook and ambition. For some punters, gambling is a dream, others think of it as a hobby, and some treat it as a business.
Then there are the ones who let their heart get the better of their head. Who hasn’t been a mug at least once? Ultimately only you can decide what a good bet looks like, but it doesn’t hurt to know what other punters are up to and how they approach their betting.
ACCAs
Probably the most common type of football bet is the trusty old accumulator. Accumulators tend to attract the most casual of betters since they are easy to understand, easy to lay and they offer big returns for low stakes. They are notoriously difficult to land however.
If you put on a lot of 5+ team ACCAs and your bets are coming in regularly you’re doing well. One way to minimise the selections on your ACCA is to pick match result and both to score or utilise the handicap markets. The best way to boost your ACCAs is to have a few different bet types in them.
Multiples
What’s the difference between a multiple and an ACCA? Not a lot, except for the number of selections you make. We’ll call a multiple anything between 2-4 selections, although there’s a certain amount of grey area. Some punters consider 4 selections an ACCA and some don’t. Multiples tend to attract higher stakers and high rollers, because you need serious bankroll to make them worthwhile. A selection at short odds of 2/1 won’t look fantastic to most punters, but when you’ve got £100 to lay down you’re looking at a return of £300 and £200 profit.
For example, if you’re examining the odds at BetVictor this weekend you’ll find that Chelsea are priced at 13/20 to beat Everton and Man Utd are priced at 17/20 to beat Leicester. Both are away from home.
A £100 double on these teams would return £305.25, which is just slightly over the 2/1 mark. A tidy profit for a reasonable bet.
Multiples don’t only attract the high-rollers though. Multiples are common bets for gamblers who bet across a range of markets. These punters also play the more complicated multiples including Yankees, Trixies, Patents and Lucky 15s. These are very typical for horse or dog punters but it is far more uncommon to see these bet types in football.
The single bets in multiple selections can often look like a waste of time and money for short odds matches, so when selecting massive favourites choose the Trixie over the Patent and the Yankee over the Lucky 15. Unlike horse markets which have longer odds for a winner, football multiples which include single bets are nothing more than betting against yourself.
Correct Score Doubles
One bet that can be a lot of fun to play with in addition to your usual flutter is the correct score double as it offers high returns for only a few selections. In this example we will hedge our bets slightly and show how simple a correct score double can be. The first step is to find two matches for which you believe you can pick the correct score with some degree of certainty. Instead of simply picking one scoreline you pick two in order to increase the chance of your bet coming in. For example:
You pick Everton v Chelsea at 0-1 or 0-2, both in Chelsea’s favour.
You also pick Leicester v Man Utd at 0-1 or 1-2 in Man Utd’s favour.
Simply put, pick two matches and two score lines for each match. You then make four separate doubles bets of £5 pounds each, costing of a total of £20.
Looking at BetVictor we see that Everton v Chelsea are priced at odds of 6/1 for 0-1 and 7/1 for 0-2. Man Utd are priced at 13/2 of 0-1 and 8/1 for 1-2.
If either one of your selections is correct in both matches your £5 winning bet (£20 staked) will see you return a minimum of £262.50 and a maximum of £360. It’s a simple yet elegant little punt.
Advantages of this type of bet are that you only need to follow two matches to know whether you are onto a winner or not. If you want to select staggered games it is possible to watch both matches in full, although the second may be a bust. A correct score double is a long shot, no doubt about it, but it makes for an enjoyable side bet.
