Whereas acca insurance is a security feature if you lose, accumulator bonuses are promotions with enhanced terms if you win. Basically place a qualifying accumulator and if it comes in you will get a percentage enhancement on your winnings. Acca Free bet clubs are even better for regular punters, rewarding you with a free bet for placing a set number of multiples in a given time, often these bets also qualify for other bonus and insurance offers too.
Is it better to go for an acca insurance offer or an accumulator bonus offer? Well this all depends on how confident you are. Lets say you pick four bankers and one selection at long odds then go for the insurance offer but if you honestly believe all of your picks are going to come in then back yourself and go for the acca bonus offer.
Accumulators are popular because they give punters the opportunity of turning several lower odds selections into one bet with higher odds. Accumulators actually predate single match betting and are the most common bet type on UK football. Each year someone wins tens or hundreds of thousands by hitting a big 10+ line accumulator.
It is a fact that accumulator margins are higher than single bets (as margins are additive) and this is one of the main reasons bookies have acca offers, because they can afford to. Therefore as a punter if you enjoy multiples betting it really does make sense to utilise acca offers to help mitigate against higher margins.
Accumulator Free Bets
Virgin Bet’s weekly acca rewards will give you a £5 free acca bet if you opt-in and place four or more £5 accas at 2/1+ (total) each. The period runs from Monday to Sunday and you can add selections from any sports markets and mix and match.
The £5 free acca bet when awarded is then valid for 7 days and can be used on any 4+ accumulator. As with all free bets the stake itself is not returned but any winnings are cash. If legs are voided leaving you with less than 4 legs in the multiple they won’t count towards your qualifying bets. If you cashout those bets will also not count. Price boosts and specials are also excluded.
General Free Bet Clubs
The offers described below on this page are specifically for multiple bets. There are however several unrestricted free bet clubs available where you only need to stake a set amount each week to qualify for a free bet, this can be both multiple bets and single bets and are usually not restricted to specific sports or markets.
These weekly offer clubs can often prove better value and more flexible as you can still place accumulators to meet the requirement but you also have the option to place single bets and wagers on multiple sports.
Accumulator Bonuses
bet365’s fantastic Soccer Acca Boost includes over 80 leagues and competitions including the group and knockout stages of the Champions League. You can earn up to a 70% boost on successful accumulators on selected competitions including the Premier League, Serie A, Primera Liga, Bundesliga 1 and French Ligue 1, Champions League and Europa League. Place a pre-match accumulator with bet365 of 2 or more selections and, if successful, the relevant boost will be added to your returns.
This boost is only available to new and eligible customers.
This boost applies to winnings on pre-match accumulators of 2 or more selections on the standard Full Time Result, Both Teams to Score or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for selected leagues and competitions as listed on site.
The maxiumum boost that you can receive is £100,000 or currency equivalent.
Bets placed on the Full Time Result – Enhanced Prices market do not apply to this boost.
Where a Bet Boost is offered for a multiple bet (for example a pre-built Treble), Soccer Acca Boost will not apply.
This boost will not apply where a bet has been fully Cashed Out. Where a bet has been partially Cashed Out, the boost will be calculated based on the remaining active stake. Where all selections within the bet have been marked as won and this has been Cashed Out for the full return value, the boost will apply.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the boost will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the boost will no longer apply.
Bets placed with Bet Credits, Jackpots, Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s etc. will not qualify for this boost.
The latest in a long list of great accumulator offers from 10bet, this acca bonus pays out up to 100% in bonus cash with high maximum extra winnings of £5,000. The bonus is tiered: 5% on trebles, 10% four-folds, 15% 5 and 6-folds and then subsequently tiered in increments for each additional selection up to 100% on 15 & 16+ fold accumulators.
The promotion is available for all sports, all leagues and markets except partial or full stake return bets (e.g. draw no bet or Asian handicaps). Minimum odds are low at just 1/2 (1.50) for each leg and there is no minimum cumulative odds for the multiple bet as a whole. All bonus winnings are paid in real cash too.
The Pools acca bonus applies to the first three cash bet accas in any given day with 5+ legs and a £10+ stake.
The bonus starts at 10% for 5 & 6-folds, 15% 7-fold, 20% 8-fold, 25% 9-fold, 30% 10-fold, 40% 11-fold and 50% for 12 or more legs. You can add any sports market to the acca with odds of 1/3 (1.33) or more to qualify.
You can win up to £2,000 extra per day, the offer only counts for pre-match bets only. Bonus cash is credited the next day and the offer cannot be combined with other promotions.
With Unibet you can boost the odds any 3+ selection racing accumulators (horse racing and greyhound racing) up to three times daily. No minimum odds apply to each leg or the multiple overall and you can apply the boost to stakes up to £20. Note that each-way bets only the win part of the bet is boosted.
The boost is tiered depending on the number of legs from 3-7+, as follows:
- 3 legs – 10%
- 4 legs – 15%
- 5 legs – 20%
- 6 legs – 30%
- 7 legs+ – 40%
All winnings are cash, including the boosted payout, if you cash out your bet however you will lose the boosted odds and will be paid out at the original price. Selections in the acca boost are not eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) and if any selection is made void the boost will drop down to the next tier, e.g. if you have a 5 selection bet with one selection voided and the acca wins you will be paid out a boost on 4 selections. The bonus also does not apply to ante-post bets or specials.
Parimatch have always aligned themselves as being a football bookie and back that up with an acca bonus offer that gives extra cash winnings on 5+ football accas. You need to opt-in to claim this weekly. It applies to all professional English leagues (EPL, Champ, League 1 & 2).
The acca only needs odds of 2/1+ to qualify and must be pre-event. If it wins you will receive a bonus up to £500 extra per day. This ranges from 10% on five leg winning accas, 15% six legs, 20% seven legs, 25% eight legs, 30% nine legs and 40% ten legs.
For all 5+ accas where each selection is 1/5+ and the stake is at least £0.05 Boylesports will give you the option to either boost or insure your accumulator as part of their acca rewards package.
If you choose to boost your acca this will give you extra winnings from 10% on a 5-fold tiered up to 100% on 14-folds if your multiple is successful. The maximum extra payout is £1,000 in cash per acca. This applies to 33 different sports at the time of writing, although it is worth noting that horse racing is not one of them.
The boost tiers are as follows: 5 Folds – 10% Boost, 6 Folds – 20% Boost, 7 Folds – 30% Boost, 8 Folds – 40% Boost, 9 Folds – 50% Boost, 10 Folds – 60% Boost, 11 Folds – 70% Boost, 12 Folds – 80% Boost, 13 Folds – 90% Boost, 14 Folds – 100% Boost.
NetBet have a new acca bonus for this year that pays from 5% on trebles tiered up to 50% on 13+fold straight accumulators. The bonus applies to all accas with three or more picks from Football, Tennis, Basketball, Ice Hockey or Baseball. These can be mixed accumulators with the only restriction being a minimum odds limit of 1/5 (1.20) or more for each leg in the multiple bet and pre-match bets only.
This bonus has a low entry threshold (trebles or more) and the top threshold to claim the full 50% bonus is not as high as other similar offers (just 13+ picks). All extra winnings are paid in cash up to a maximum of £10,000.
Common Acca Bonus T&Cs
No two offers are equal so check the terms before you place your acca bonus bet. Did you read the story of the 18 year old lad who thought he’d won a 14 fold accumulator with Ladbrokes only to find out he had filled the both team to score accumulator in instead, gutting. Here are a few points to look out for.
- Number of legs – Acca bonuses will either have a minimum number of selection or a tiered bonus system based on the number of legs.
- Minimum Odds – These are not common with acca bonus offers as the bonus is relative to the wining amount, if your accumulator has low odds then your bonus will simply be lower. Still don’t take this for granted, some bonuses, especially those in combination offers may have min odds requirements.
- Void Bets – If a selection is voided then the number of legs in your accumulator will be reduced, this is important if there are a minimum number of legs required for the offer. If you are betting in a tiered bonus system you will drop down to the next tier.
- Sports and Markets – Most acca bonuses are for football but you can regularly find them for tennis and other sports. Be careful though the bonus may be restricted to a certain market. For example if the acca bonus applies to UK matches only a European match will not count towards the wagering requirements.
- Maximum Payouts – It sounds really attractive to win a 14 fold accumulator but beware these bets and related bonuses are usually capped so don’t get too carried away and try to optimise your bet to maximise your bonus amount without hitting any limits.
- Bonus – Bonus amounts are usually returned on top of winnings as cash but it is worth checking. Some past promotions have returned money as promo cash that cannot be withdrawn or even as a free bet.
How To Compare Acca Free Bets
Being honest accumulators are necessarily the best value for money bets. Bookmaker margins are compounded in multiple bets and therefore pound for pound bet bookies make more profit from multiple bets compared to single bets. You can read more about this in our accumulator betting guide.
It is for this reason that most good betting sites offer some sort of offer for multiple bets, whether that be insurance, a bonus or a free bet. This way they are giving you some of that margin back, and over time this will add to your winnings, or at least reduce your loses.
Here is a brief guide to finding the right free bet offer club for you.
- Sports Available – In general multiple sport acca clubs are better as this gives you the flexibility to bet on what you like allowing you to mix and match selections between sports. Even if you bet most of the time on footy an all sports club gives you the means to still claim your weekly free bet out of the usual football season.
- Markets Available – Most acca clubs are restricted to pre-match bets and W-D-W lines, some clubs however allow you to use in play selections or bet on multiple lines such as both teams to score. Again the more options the better in my opinion.
- Leagues / Tournaments Available – All the free bet clubs described on this page are open to all major European leagues and tournaments however if you bet more widely it is worth checking whether the league, tournament or match you are adding into your multiple bet qualifies. If you like placing combination bets on Iranian football for example you may need to shop around or use a general free bet club.
- Minimum Selections – Most acca specific clubs require 4 or more picks although if you using a non-acca free bet club then you can bet on as many selections as you like, from a basic single line upwards.
- Minimum Odds – The main thing to be aware of here is the minimum price for the total accumulator or for each leg? It is easier to meet minimum cumulative odds than a minimum price for each selection.
- Minimum Stake – Some clubs will have an overall minimum stake, e.g. £25+, and you simply need to place one or several qualifying acca bets withing a week to get your freebie. Some clubs have a minimum for each individual accumulator however, e.g. 5 x £5+ bets, beware of this and select the club that suits your betting patterns the best.
- Percentage Free – How much are you getting back for free? A bet £50 get £20 free deal will give you 40% back whereas a bet £25 get £5 free will give you 20% free. It all depends on what you want, if you want more for your money using those examples you would go for the 40% option, if however you are not going to stake £50+ then maybe the second option is better for you.
- Free Bet Restrictions – How long is the free bet valid for and is it restricted, i.e. can you use it on any sports or markets or is it restricted to football or just multiple bets, etc.? The more unrestricted a free bet is the more valuable it is. Also check if the free bet comes with minimum or maximum odds attached.
- Split Free Tokens – Some clubs will split your free bet into several tokens, e.g. bet £50 each week get 2 x £10 free. One token tends to be awarded first and this will expire before the second token is awarded. Beware of this as you will need to make sure you are available to receive and use your split free bets on different days.
- Qualifying Period – Most acca free bet clubs run for the whole week, usually start of Monday (00:01) to the end of Sunday (23:59). This is definitely worth checking this however. One downside to using general free bet clubs, such as the Coral bet and get club, is that while you can bet on what you like, single and multiples from all sports, the qualifying period only runs from Monday to the end of Thursday. Therefore if you place all of your accas on a Saturday for example make sure you are in a club where your bets will qualify.
- Opting In – Most clubs require you to opt in, but check whether you need to do this just the once or whether you need to do to each and every week.
How to Win An Accumulator Bet
Whether you want to know how to win a football accumulator or just an accumulator in general there are some general principles that can help you. Here we give you a few pointers to help you build your big winning accumulator, for a more detailed guide read our accumulator betting strategy guide.
Large numbers of selections carry more risk.
Just because there are 10 Premier league games every week doesn’t mean you have to back them all. Your chances of winning are increased by doing a few trebles, 4 or 5 folds rather than one massive accumulator. Obviously your winnings would be lower but you will win more often. When placing a £10 football acca bet for example I would bet on two non-overlapping 4 fold accumulators wagering £4.50 each and then one accumulator on all 8 selections with remaining £1. This way if the big bet did come in I wouldn’t be kicking myself for not doing the big one but I am still giving myself a great chance of winning on the smaller accumulators.
Use the news, stats and results features available.
Most of the big bookies go to a great deal of effort to give customers regular news, statistics, latest results and form guide features so use them. A little bit of research goes a long way especially when placing multiple bets where risk is magnified. Most of these bookie features are free so if you have a favourite feature with one bookie but prefer to bet though an offer with another then do whatever will maximise your chances.
Don’t just bet on the win.
Bookies love the draw, they make a ton of money when results end in a stalemate as so few people bet on this type of result. Getting the odd draw result into your acca will serve you double, not only will you feel like you’ve beaten the betting site but you also tend to get much better odds on draws, especially where there is a particular favourite. Remember the first ever footy accumulator was all about draws, the football pools.
Cash Out / Edit Rarely
Cash Out and bet editing are great features for giving you more control of your bets. It doesn’t however come for free, with margins charged both when you place a bet and when you cash out or edit it. Therefore the laws of average say the more times you use these tools rather than leave your bet alone the worse off your will be over time. Of course this doesn’t mean don’t use them, just try to only use them when your are almost certain that your final bet will lose.
Always use a free bet and / or bonus.
There are so many acca bonuses about that you would be cheating yourself if you didn’t use the bonuses on offer. Either back yourself for a win and use a tiered bonus system or if your think one might let you down go for the money back acca insurance offers, or do both. Accumulators are generally poor value bets so take advantage of many offers as possible, especially those that allow you to combine insurance, bonuses and free bets.
Beef up the odds with both teams to score or correct score accas.
You don’t need to just bet on outright results you can bet on both team to score accumulators or correct score accumulators that have much greater odds. There offers associated with this too, see our acca insurance article. If you pick selections that you think will be high scoring games then why not back a both teams to score acca insurance accumulator?
Why not consider full cover betting?
Full cover bets are basically multiple accumulator bets and these give you so many more options to win. An example would be a Lucky 15. If you place a typical 4 fold accumulator and one selection lets you down then your bet is bust, and even if you have acca insurance you will only get your stake back. A Lucky 15 is a combination bet on 4 selections consisting of 15 bets, 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 4 fold accumulator. OK so this bet is 15 lines instead of 1 but instead of doing one £10 4 fold accumulator you could do £0.75/line on a Lucky 15 for the same amount. You only need one selection to come in to get some return and in the long run these bets can be safer than long shot accas.