- Fact-checked by Josh Miller
- Edited by Diana Westfield
What is an acca? It’s the Saturday ritual: four or five teams on one slip, a fiver down, and a return big enough to make you check the scores every ten minutes. Technically, an accumulator is one bet on several selections where every one has to win, and each winning leg’s return rolls on to the next. Four teams at 2.0, 1.8, 1.5 and 2.2 make 11.88, so £10 comes back as £118.80. Then one of them draws in the 89th minute and it’s nothing. The free CasinoCalcs acca calculator settles any accumulator, including each way, void legs and boosts.
What is an acca worth? Working out accumulator odds
You just multiply the decimal odds. If your slip shows fractions, add 1 to each: 4/5 becomes 1.8, 6/4 becomes 2.5 and evens is 2.0. So 1.8 × 2.5 × 2.0 × 1.6 × 2.1 = 30.24, and a £5 acca pays £151.20.
The chances multiply too, and that’s the part nobody prints on the slip. Give those five legs real chances of 52%, 37%, 47%, 59% and 45% and the whole thing comes in about 2.4% of the time. Once in 42 Saturdays. “Bankers” don’t rescue it much either: five teams you rate at 70% each land together only 17% of the time.
Why bookmakers love accumulators
Every price has the bookie’s margin built in, perhaps 5% on a single football match. Stack legs and those margins stack with them. Four legs at 5% leave you 0.95 × 0.95 × 0.95 × 0.95, about 81% of fair value, so you’re really paying a margin of around 19%. Ten legs and you’re near 40%. No wonder the acca is the most advertised bet in the shop, and no wonder it comes with boosts and insurance attached.
By eight legs at a 10% margin you’re down to about 47p in the pound. The full table for every acca and full-cover bet is in what every multiple bet really costs.
Acca insurance, boosts and cash out
Insurance normally gives your stake back as a free bet if just one leg lets you down, usually with a minimum number of legs and minimum odds on each. It has real value, roughly the free bet’s worth times the chance of exactly one loser, and the acca insurance calculator puts a number on it. A boost adds a percentage to your winnings; see whether it beats the margin in the profit boost calculator. Cash out ends the bet early at a price with a bit more margin tucked in, and the cash out calculator tells you if the offer is fair.
Fed up with one late goal wrecking everything? Full cover bets such as a Yankee or Lucky 15 still pay with a couple of winners. They cost more to place, though.
Big prices come from small chances. BeGambleAware.org has free support if weekend accas are taking more than you planned.