Accumulator
Most people will be familiar with the concept of placing a bet where some money is wagered on an event in the hope of a return greater than the initial outlay. There are many forms of betting and gambling and the practice has been in existence as long as there have been things to bet on. There is a myriad of different ways to place bets too and various forms of multiple bets which can either increase your chances of a return, such as spread betting, or increase the amount you win, should the necessary outcomes go in your favour. An accumulator is one such method.

Accumulator, inside rail Today it is something which attracts people from all over the world and has become synonymous with the various methods, practices and the educated guesses adopted by punters to place a winning bet. Be you the kind of punter who just likes to place a nominal sum on a horse to win, place or show, or a serious punter who has a great deal of experience with handicapping and will attempt the tricky art of a Super Yankee or Goliath, there are quite a few different ways to go about placing a bet, just are there are quite a few bets.

Newcomers to horse racing would probably prefer to stay away from accumulator betting and other complex betting methods, at least not until they fully understand the changing odds and complex betting techniques designed especially for the experienced gambler. Once they are comfortable placing standard wagers they can then begin to learn and fully understand more complex betting schemes.

Betting takes place on a grand scale in regular events such as the National Lottery, bingo and pools. The outcome of many events, such as the lottery, will be pure chance where every ticket has the same probability of returning a desired outcome. In other events such as football matches and horseracing different outcomes have a different likelihood and the odds of each outcome will have a certain value. These values are estimated by bookmakers and presented as 'fixed odds' to the customer.

In order to use accumulator and other multiple betting systems to your advantage, it is essential to understand how fixed odds are presented and calculated and what happens when they are combined.

In the UK, fixed odds are traditionally represented as fractions and so a particular horse may have odds of 4/1, spoken as, and sometimes written as 4 to 1, to win a certain race. What this means in money terms is that for a £1 stake, should the horse win you would receive £4 back plus your £1 stake totalling £5. In probability terms it means that for every five bets of the same value you place at 4 to 1 odds you need one winner to break even.

To complicate matters further, in the example above it would be 4 to 1 odds 'against'. Other times the odds may be 1 to 4, which are odds ‘on’, commonly referred to as 4 to 1 on. This is where the term 'odds on favourite' comes from, referring to the high likelihood (and short odds) of the favourite winning. For the bettor this means they must place a bet of £4 to get £1 winnings and £5 back in total. 		Accumulator, winner

Within other countries such as those in continental Europe, Canada and Australia, decimal odds are used in favour of fractional odds. The essential difference is that the odds are based on the initial stake rather than fixed beforehand. So for odds of 4/1 using a £1 stake this would mean decimal odds of 5, which is the £4 you win, plus your stake. The decimal odds for 1 to 4 or 4 to 1 on would be 1.25, i.e. for a £1 stake you get that back plus 25% of it i.e. £1.25.

Accumulator, photo finish It is worthwhile recognising both fractional and decimal odds since in many modern betting systems and digital betting machines in the UK, decimal odds are used. It is also useful to know the decimal odds because it makes it easier to calculate the potential returns of an accumulator since all that is required is to multiply the numbers together. The return on a winning bet of this kind then is the product of each winning bet within it.

The most important aspect of an accumulator to note is that it is dependent on all the results and so even if you have one based on 10 different outcomes and 9 of them come through; if the other fails then you get nothing back. If any of the component plays within the bet are pushed e.g. a non-runner within a horserace then the remainder of the multiple still stands with the odds reduced accordingly.

Taking all this into account we can then assess which combination of bets makes for a good accumulator. These types of bets are generally good for accumulating a number of events with short odds. If we place the bet on 5 horses, each with odds of 4 to 1, and all win then for a £1 stake in each component part, we would win 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = £3125. If however we choose four horses with short odds and one at 100 to 1, whilst the payout should that horse win would be very nice indeed, the chances of it winning are very small and we would stand a very good chance of ending up with nothing.

Most commonly, accumulator bets are placed on horseracing and football, with the latter example being particularly popular since there are fewer likely outcomes. There will be odds for each game for home win, away win and draw and with a reasonable knowledge of football and the teams involved it is a relatively straightforward practice to work out the possible permutations and bet on the likely outcome. Some bettors for example simply place an accumulator bet on the same three, four, or five, teams to win every week.

Accumulator bets provide a popular option for bettors and sports fans for a number of reasons. Not only does it increase the potential returns on what would be short single odds but it also provides an extra level of excitement in following the results as they come in. Most of the time this type of bet will just form a small part of a betting strategy and while it may return rarely, when it does it makes it all worthwhile.