What is Acca Betting? A Comprehensive Guide for UK Bettors

Peter Addison

Peter Addison

Sports betting writer

Peter joined the BettingSites.co.uk team in 2023, having previously worked for many high-profile gambling-related sites such as RightCasino, JustSlots, WhichBingo and Gambling.com. An experienced head when it comes to all aspects of iGaming, Peter is a fanatic fan of sport, including football and US sports such as baseball and American football. He is also a multi-published fiction writer, although sadly, not a wealthy one.

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In the world of sports betting there are numerous options available to punters looking to increase their potential winnings. One such option that has gained popularity among bettors since wagering ventured onto the internet is the accumulator bet, commonly known as an acca. But what is acca betting?

In this article, we will explore fully the acca meaning, explaining its concept as well as informing you of acca strategies, acca bet tips and potential pitfalls to help you make the right decisions. Whether you’re an experienced bettor or new to the wagering scene, understanding what an acca bet is, how you can place one and how it works can greatly enhance your betting experience and hopefully your bankroll too.

Acca Bet Explained

So, what is acca betting – well, it’s short for accumulator betting, involves combining multiple individual bets into one wager, with the aim of increasing the overall odds and potential returns. To win an acca bet, all the selections within the accumulator must be successful. Even if one selection loses, the entire bet is considered a loss.

The number of selections in your acca is up to you, but to be a true acca, the number of selections must be more than three. Three selections is a treble and two selections is a double. The maximum number of selections is up to you as well, but once you start getting past double figures, the chances of your acca returning anything begin to diminish significantly.

When you chain together several separate bets to make an acca, the returns of one bet (if it wins of course!) become the stake of the next, and so on. So if you bet £1 on ‘Bet A’ at 2.00 (Evens) and it wins, you’ll be putting your returns of £2 on ‘Bet B’.

All your selections in an acca do not have to have a linear timeframe, i.e. you don’t have to wait for Bet A to be settled before Bet B begins. You can even add selections that take place at exactly the same time – it is only when all bets are settled within your acca (and they win) that your winnings are calculated.

The order in which your acca bets are calculated doesn’t matter either. If you have five selections ABCDE it doesn’t matter if they are calculated in the order ABCDE or ACEBD or EDCBA – the amount of money you win if all legs of your acca are successful will always be the same.

Acca bets are popular on football and horse racing, but you can place an acca bet on any sport, and can even combine different sports on the same acca bet.

How to Build an Acca Bet

Building an acca bet involves selecting multiple outcomes from different matches or events and combining them into a single wager. Let’s take an accumulator football bet as an example. You might choose to combine the results of five different football matches into one accumulator bet. This means that all five teams you select must win their respective matches for your overall bet to be successful.

Here are a selection of upcoming international matches at bet365. We’re going to build a five selection acca, with ‘to win’ bets on Denmark, France, Greece, Turkey and England. To build our acca bet, we just click on the ‘win’ odds of all five selections to add them all to our betslip.

The bet at bet365 comes up as a ‘5 Fold’ but that is just the name of the bet with the number of selections we have chosen. We have set out stake at £5, and if all selections come in, the bet will return £20.46. There are two extra things we have to note:

Early Payout – this is a policy that bet365 is famed for, and some other betting sites have also adopted. If a team goes 2 goals up at any time during the match, then the bet is settled in their favour immediately. The actual final score of the game is immaterial.

Accumulator Bonus – this is something that plenty of sites have adopted. Acca winnings are typically boosted – at bet365 a 5-fold acca generates a 12 percent bonus. The more selections you add to your acca, the biggest the boost. Here, all our selections winning will generate an extra £1.65.

Exploring Different Acca Variations and Strategies

Accumulator bets come in various forms, allowing bettors to experiment with different strategies and increase their chances of winning big. Here are a few popular variations and strategies you need to understand when contemplating what is acca betting:

Calculating the payout from a winning acca is easy. You just work out the returns (note, not winnings) from the first bet in your acca, then use them as the stake for the second bet, and so on. We recommend using decimal odds to work out your acca winnings, as the mathematics is made simpler. If you don’t want to do the calculations at all, why not use our faultless acca calculator instead?

Acca Insurance Offers

Acca insurance is a popular promotion offered by many bookmakers. It acts as a safety net for acca bettors, providing a refund or a free bet if only one selection within the accumulator lets you down. This offer gives you an added layer of security and reduces the risk associated with acca betting.

You do not usually have to do anything extra to obtain acca insurance if a site offers it. As long as the number of selections in your acca breaches a specified threshold, then acca insurance is automatically added to it. In some circumstances, you many have to ‘opt in’.

Please note that a free bet with terms and conditions applied is the most likely ‘reward’ from an acca that is covered by acca insurance. Check the T&Cs of your return if your acca fails by one selection and acca insurance has been applied.

Acca Bet Tips

To increase your chances of success when leaning what is acca betting, consider using the following acca bet tips, which have been collected via our site betting experts:

Pitfalls to Avoid When Placing Acca Bets

While acca betting can be rewarding, it’s essential to be aware of the potential pitfalls. Here are a few common mistakes to avoid while you are thinking about what is acca betting:

Pros & Cons of Acca Betting

Acca betting, like any other form of gambling, has its pros and cons. As we learn what is an accumulator bet, let’s take a look at both sides:

Top UK Online Bookmakers that offer Acca Betting

Every single online bookmaker in the UK will offer acca betting (and many will offer acca insurance too) but not all UK online bookies are the same. Here we have picked out five of the finest UK sports betting sites that qualify, in our opinion, as the best acca betting sites.

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Conclusion

Acca betting offers an exciting and potentially rewarding avenue for sports bettors in the UK. Understanding the concept of accumulator bets, exploring various strategies and variations and practising responsible gambling are key to maximising your chances of success. Remember to conduct thorough research, manage your bankroll wisely, and take advantage of acca insurance offers when available. While there are risks involved, acca betting can add a new level of excitement to your sports betting experience.

Now you know what is a betting acca, and how does an accumulator bet work, why not give it a shot and place it at one of the best acca betting sites, as recommended by us?

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Peter Addison

Sports betting writer

Peter Addison

Sports betting writer

Peter joined the BettingSites.co.uk team in 2023, having previously worked for many high-profile gambling-related sites such as RightCasino, JustSlots, WhichBingo and Gambling.com. An experienced head when it comes to all aspects of iGaming, Peter is a fanatic fan of sport, including football and US sports such as baseball and American football. He is also a multi-published fiction writer, although sadly, not a wealthy one.

All posts by Peter Addison