What Does 4 Folds Mean in Betting? – Get the 4 fold Bet Explained

Jamie Clark

Jamie Clark

Senior Editor

Jamie Clark has been with www.bettingsites.co.uk from the very beginning and penned the very first pieces of content that appeared right here. Known for his horse racing expertise, his strong gambling knowledge comes from childhood where he was surrounded by both horses and betting. The godson of a former on-track bookmaker at Market Rasen Racecourse, Jamie ended up working in the same industry and became Sports Editor of heavyweight bookies Coral for three years before they merged with Ladbrokes. After a successful spell freelancing for other big names in the business, he helped us launch this site with his skills, experience and ability coming in useful. Read long form content across a range of betting subjects from Jamie right here.

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The answer to what does 4 folds mean in betting terms is one of the more basic types of accumulator with four selections in it on different events. There are various ways you may see this wager written down. It can be all one word as in fourfold, or hyphenated like 4-fold or four-fold. You can also encounter it as two words, i.e. four fold, or a combination of the number and the word, namely 4 fold.

In this guide, our experts discuss what does four folds mean in a betting sense. With this wager, you need to choose selections from different sports events. An accumulator, or acca for short, is also known as a parlay bet in North America and technically one with four or more picks in it. There are specific names for wagers that have just two or three selections in them.

We’re not dealing with Doubles or Trebles here, but what does 4 folds mean in betting, so let’s get it clear in your minds. You put four picks together as a single wager on the same betslip. Why on earth would you want to do that, we hear you ask? Well, the great thing about a 4 folds bet is that the odds accumulate from leg to leg meaning you can win much more than if wagering on the outcomes individually.

How Does a 4 Fold Bet Work?

There’s some maths involved with the 4 fold meaning in a betting sense, then. You take the price of your first selection and multiply it by the odds for the second. That cumulative total is then multiplied again by the price on your third pick and then once more with the last selection on the betslip.

When asked what is 4 folds in betting, you may be tempted to answer with a large potential payout from the bookies online in the UK. If you want that big win, however, then you need lots of luck. All four picks from your 4 folds bet must win for this wager to succeed. Without a clean sweep of winners, you lose.

There are ways of insuring your stake against the risk, but more on that later. Right now, we’re concerned with the 4 folds meaning in its wider context of how such a bet works. What should help you truly understand this wager is working through an example.

4 Folds Betting Example

Let’s say that you fancy four teams in the latest Premier League betting on an upcoming round of matches all to win their games away from home. They are West Ham United on the road at Bournemouth at 6/4 (2.50), Crystal Palace away to Sheffield United at 13/8 (2.38), Tottenham Hotspur on their travels to Brentford at 11/8 (2.62) and Liverpool visiting Chelsea at 7/5 (2.40).

These individual prices from the 1X2 betting don’t make for big wins on their own as single wagers. Multiplying the above prices together for the respective selections, and it’s easier using the decimal odds in brackets to do this, if all chosen teams win, a 4 folds bet works out at nearly 36.5/1 (37.41).

For every £1 wagered on West Ham, Palace, Spurs and Liverpool put together on the same betslip, then, there’s almost £36.50 of potential profit. That illustrates what 4 fold betting is all about for punters. There are large returns available off small stakes, because how betting odds work here is they combine and accumulate from leg to leg.

What Does 4 Folds Mean in Football Betting?

We’ve just used the beautiful game to help you understand what does 4 folds mean in betting circles. The rise of the football accumulator in general runs parallel with increased coverage and globalisation of the sport. With so many matches televised nowadays, placing a multiple bet like this can be a fun way to engage with the action.

It’s also useful to get your head around what is acca betting with the 4 fold a typical wager of these types of bet. In relation to this accumulator, all you have to do is pick four teams you fancy, just like in our example above, and bet on them together. If they all win, then you’re quids in.

While it’s true that football betting sites provide more markets and ways to wager on matches than ever before these days, it can pay to keep things simple. Predicting the right results for games is much easier than getting the correct score, for example. Your 4 fold betting is most effective in the markets that suit the type of punter you are. These are some of the most popular included in football accas by punters today:

What is a 4 Fold Bet in Horse Racing?

When discussing what does 4 folds mean in betting, there’s more than just football to consider. They date back long before when that was the most popular gambling pastime in the UK. The origins of accumulators like the 4 fold bet lay in betting on horse racing, typically multiple races from the same meeting.

Just like backing your favourite football teams, popular and fancied racehorses can be combined together in accas to boost the total returns and profits. You only have to look at today’s racecards on average day in the UK and Ireland, and you’ll see plenty of events in this sport to wager on. Horse racing is a busy and more competitive sport.

That is sometimes, but not always, reflected in the prices available at the bookies. There may at a meeting be four conditions races and three handicaps making up the card or vice versa. When doing a spot of 4 fold betting, you can focus on one type of event or another, or bet on fancies across the different sorts of races taking place.

How Does a 4 Fold Each Way Bet Work?

Another thing particularly with horse racing in relation to the 4 folds bet you should learn about is what does each way mean in betting terms. Thanks to the nature of this sport, it’s not just about finding thoroughbreds who win on the track.

There is place betting too and, together with an outright win, you can combine the two outcomes in an each way wager. There are strict rules governing what minimum industry standard place terms are available with the bookies.

While you may find so-called Extra Place Races available, The Jockey Club and Tattersalls Committee created Rules on Betting that outline these. If there are four or fewer runners in a race, then no each way betting is available. For events with more entrants, the fraction of outright odds paid will either be a quarter or fifth depending on the race type and size of field.

Rule 3 also states that in race with five, six or seven horses, only two places will be paid. Eight or more, meanwhile, is three. Big field handicaps with 16 or more runners have four places. What this means for your 4 fold betting is you could end up with different place terms on each leg of your bet. You also fork out double the unit stake in your total outlay on an each way wager to cover both the win and place parts.

Pros & Cons of the 4 Folds Bet Explained

However you write 4 folds, there’s no getting away from the fact that risk and reward exist in equal measure. Just like any accumulator of any size, there are great upsides to them if you win. At the same time, what you could win shouldn’t blind you to the drawbacks. Here are both the advantages and negatives attached to a 4 fold bet:

4 Fold Bet Calculator

Maths isn’t everybody’s strong suit. That’s why an accumulator bet calculator can come in handy. Any tool that takes the hassle out of the multiplication involved with such wagers is most welcome. A fourfold bet calculator is simply a version of this. With the one we have here on www.bettingsites.co.uk, simply select four from the dropdown menu for number of legs.

After that, all you have to do is put essential information in our free bet calculator like the odds for each selection you took and your stake. You can then view potential returns and see what your next 4 folds bet is worth. This user friendly device is convenient. We made our 4 fold bet calculator easy to work with, so figuring our your next acca is simple.

Alternative Wagers to 4 Fold Betting

There are other multiples containing four selections available to you besides the 4 folds bet. These are combination and system wagers that involve greater outlay than a straight accumulator. First of all, the Yankee bet is 11 different wagers on the same betslip. Besides the 4 fold, there are six Doubles and four Trebles in the wager. While you must multiply your unit stake by 11 here, the advantage is that only two of the four selections need to win in order to get a return from the bookies.

That’s not all, though, as a full cover bet called a Lucky 15 is also available to punters. This works exactly the same as the Yankee, but the four selections go on as singles as well. The total outlay, then, is 15x the unit stake. That’s where the 15 in Lucky 15 comes from. Just so you’ve got it clear in your mind, this wager is a 4 fold bet, four Trebles, six Doubles and four singles. You also have the option, if you wish, of putting Lucky 15s and Yankees on each way if place terms are offered.

Bigger Multiples Including the Fourfold Bet

That’s not all with multiples either. There is also 4 fold betting done in larger combination and system wagers, plus full cover bets, with more than four selections. It’s a constituent part of such gambles that some punters take. These are six other popular multiple bets that contain a 4 folds bet in there somewhere:

4 Fold Acca Tips & Strategy

You may understand what does 4 folds mean in betting fully now, but we’re going to take things to the next level here. Where and when an accumulator of this size is most useful to you is important information too. These are some effective betting strategies and tips tried and tested by our experts for the 4 fold acca:

Best Bookies for Fourfold Betting

Any bookmakers that accepts accumulator bets will include 4 folds as standard. The same goes for all variants of multiples that include this wager as a constituent part. Chances are that your accas, especially on weekend football action will probably be bigger and have more legs in them. It’s still reassuring to know that 4 fold betting is readily available with the only advantage one bookie has over another in this respect is with the odds for the selections included.

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Jamie Clark

Senior Editor

Jamie Clark

Senior Editor

Jamie Clark has been with www.bettingsites.co.uk from the very beginning and penned the very first pieces of content that appeared right here. Known for his horse racing expertise, his strong gambling knowledge comes from childhood where he was surrounded by both horses and betting. The godson of a former on-track bookmaker at Market Rasen Racecourse, Jamie ended up working in the same industry and became Sports Editor of heavyweight bookies Coral for three years before they merged with Ladbrokes. After a successful spell freelancing for other big names in the business, he helped us launch this site with his skills, experience and ability coming in useful. Read long form content across a range of betting subjects from Jamie right here.

All posts by Jamie Clark