10 HUGE Mistakes that Accumulator Punters Make

Here at WhatAcca.com, I pride myself on putting together expert recommendations on a regular basis. Not all of my accumulator bets win, although I’ve got a very healthy track record when it comes to assembling football accas and the stats back this up.

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However, that’s not to say I haven’t made a few mistakes along the way. After all, sometimes you have to fail to succeed and I’ve also seen plenty of other punters make some rookie errors when they’re putting together their latest multiple bet on the football.

Here are the biggest 10 mistakes that accumulator punters make and how you should try to avoid doing the same. You’re welcome!

1. Adding Too Many Selections to Their Acca

This is easily the number one mistake and something that everyone has done! It’s easy to get carried away and try to turn £1 into £100 by loading up your accumulator betting slip with all manner of selections. You might start off with the idea of picking out a handful of teams and then decide to pimp your multiple bet and create a potentially bigger return.

When I see a football accumulator with ten or more picks, I always wish the person in question the very best of luck – they are going to need it based on the probability of it actually winning! As regular readers will note, I find that the optimum number of accumulator picks is generally four or five. It provides a nice return and there’s a realistic chance of the bet winning.

If you’re placing a football accumulator at a bookmaker website, you should have a firm idea of the selections you want to back rather than making picks on a spontaneous basis. We also advise you going through the bet slip and removing the picks where you don’t feel particularly confident.

2. Choosing the Wrong Betting Accumulator Betting Market 

Now what I’m about to say might shock you. It’s often a good idea to avoid the Full-Time Result market when placing a football accumulator. Yes I know many of you like putting together an acca with various teams to win, although these are three-way betting markets where the draw or the team’s opponents are the other potential outcomes.

There’s sometimes a case for putting a 1×2 acca together although betting markets such as Over/Under 2.5 Goals, Both Teams to Score and Asian Handicap are two-way betting markets where you narrow things down to your advantage, even if the odds are shorter in the process.

As for betting markets such as Correct Score and First Goalscorer, we would strongly advise against selecting these options for accumulator bets. Yes, there’s an eye-watering return if you place a winning four-fold on these markets although it’s hard enough to win with these bets as singles let alone multiples.

3. Backing Too Many Favourites

If a winning accumulator simply involved loading up favourites into a bet slip, then how come the bookmakers allow you to do this every weekend? Many customers might put teams like Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Juventus into their acca every weekend, but how many end up making a profit?

Most favourites are artificially priced short and at least one will usually let you down along the way. It might seem sensible to boost your acca odds by throwing in a 1.10 shot, although it’s usually not worth taking that risk. Bookies love customers who essentially place these “mug bets” and we can always do better than put together thoughtless accas which is like playing the lottery.

4. Cashing Out Your Acca Too Early

Unless you have a determined game plan which involves cashing out your accumulator at a certain stage, then there’s little point looking to close out your bet before the majority of games have been played. While it might seem advantageous to make a profit, it’s also massively annoying when you Cash Out only for your original bet to win.

You have to accept that you will get some near misses with accumulator bets, although it’s also important to realise that a bookie always wants you to Cash Out so that they avoid paying you a maximum amount should the bet end up winning.

If you’re going to Cash Out, at least wait until you’re closer to the finish line than simply getting one selection in your acca correct. Otherwise, you would have been better off simply punting that selection as a single rather than going through the Cash Out rigmarole.

5. Adding Selections For the Sake Of It

You might start off with a couple of strong fancies and decided to build an accumulator around them. However, there’s no point adding extra selections to turn your bet into an acca if you don’t feel equally strongly about the outcomes.

There’s nothing wrong with placing a single or double where you would win a smaller amount but have a much stronger chance of winning compared to an acca where your strong original fancies win but the “acca fillers” end up letting you down.

Every accumulator pick that you make should ultimately be an appealing price and represent “value”. If you’re adding an even money shot to your acca, you should feel this has at least a 51% chance of winning and hopefully a bit more.

6. Don’t Try to Win a Certain Amount

You might want to place a £5 accumulator on the weekend football and your aim could be turning this into £50. Therefore, the ideal scenario could be to put together a football acca which pays at odds of around 10/1. While this is all well and good, you can’t force a particular betting price and you should always feel confident with each selection.

I would much rather place a 5/1 acca for a smaller potential return than try to aim to create a multiple bet at a certain price like 10/1 or even 20/1. Winning money against the bookies is a real battle and the last thing you need is to set yourself difficult targets and take unnecessary risks.

7. Watch Out on Those In-Play Accumulators

Ah the wonderful world of In-Play! Yes, it’s an exciting way to bet and yes, punters do win money placing In-Play accas although the live odds are generally less competitive than the pre-match prices and we would advise you to tread carefully when it comes to betting on various selections when the matches are taking place.

Ultimately, a pre-match acca gives you time to consider each option with a calm head, while an In-Play acca involves trying to assess multiple matches while they’re all taking place. At the very least, you might want to wait for a simultaneous half-time around the grounds so you can take stock of what is happening.

8. Less is More

Not only can it be preferable to add fewer selections to your accumulator in order to win, it’s also advantageous not to get carried away and place a whole stack of football accas with the mindset that “one of these has got to win”. That viewpoint is simply not true and we would always prefer to put together one football accumulator which has been carefully researched rather than opt for a scattergun approach.

Think of it as quality over quantity. All the professional punters we’ve met make their money by placing occasional bets where they feel as though the betting odds about a selection are bigger than the probability of that outcome winning. You should be the same with your accumulator picks and not head around your favourite bookmaker website like a bull in a china shop.

9. Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket

I’ve lost count the number of times where a punter really fancies a team to win and therefore creates several accumulator bets featuring this selection as the “banker”. While that team winning could set off a number of winning wagers, the bottom line is that the team failing to win means all bets are down.

Honestly speaking, if you fancy one particular selection so badly, do me a favour and back it as a single or alternatively just put it in some of your accumulator bets to spread the risk. There is no such thing as a dead cert and you shouldn’t talk yourself into thinking that any betting selection is definitely going to win.

10. Withdraw Your Accumulator Winnings

Now this might seem like a really obvious ploy to some readers, although the bottom line is that some customers never make a withdrawal from a bookmaker website. They obviously make a deposit to bet in the first place, so it essentially means that they can’t be anything but down against the house if they don’t get any funds returned to their bank account.

It is clearly a brilliant feeling when you’ve won a football acca and theirs is NOTHING wrong with playing up some of your winnings in a bid to land another accumulator triumph. However, it’s very important to get into the habit of making a withdrawal. Simply experience the sensation of moving that money from the bookmaker account back to your personal funds.