What is an Accumulator Bonus?
Accumulator bets have gained enormous popularity over the past decade, with punters looking to win big even from a relatively small stake.
And this massive interest in accas has resulted in a serious business battle for bettors, with online bookies offering attractive accumulator bonuses as they fight for your attention and custom.
A range of different acca bonuses are available, from your regular acca boosts on specific sports, through to acca insurance and acca odds boosts.
So What are These Acca Bonuses and How Do They Work?
First off we should probably explain what an accumulator is.
An acca is a wager made up of two or more bets, also known as legs or selections. The player bets a single amount on multiple legs and the bet is only paid out if all of the legs are winners.
For example, if you place an acca bet on 3 legs: Liverpool to beat Man United and Bournemouth to beat Hull and Chelsea to draw with Manchester City, then you’ll need all these results to come off or you win nothing.
The advantage of accas over regular single bets is that they pay out more than if you bet on each event individually. Of course this is because the risk is far higher, because all of the legs need to win for you to get your winnings.
Bookies do their best to encourage you to bet on accas because the odds are much higher than single bets, so there is a higher chance you will lose.
That’s why they heavily promote special acca bonuses.
The most widespread type of accumulator bonus is the classic acca boost, which you can find at dozens of bookmakers across the internet.
This is where the bookie adds an extra percentage onto your winnings if your acca comes off. The more legs included in the bet the more your winnings will be boosted.
For example a bookie may add 3% to your winnings if your 3-leg acca comes off but pay 70% extra if your 14-leg acca is a winner.
Aside from acca boosts, you can also find other acca-related bonus offers at many bookies.
Acca insurance offers are those where you get your stake back as a free bet if one leg lets you down. For example if you place £10 on an acca with 4 legs and 3 of the 4 are winners then you’ll not win any money but you’ll receive your £10 stake back as a free bet to use on another bet.
Many bookies also offer special boosted odds on specific accas, where you simply get better odds than expected as they try and convince you to place the bet on their chosen selections.
Bookies That Give the Highest Acca Bonuses
Trawling through all the sports betting websites to find the right offer can be both frustrating and time-consuming. But fear not, we’ve checked out all the best acca offers to find those that will give you the highest bonuses.
Our current favourites are the acca bonuses from Bet365 and 10bet. Here are the details you need to know:
Bet365
One of the international kings of online sports betting, Bet365 currently has no less than three different acca boosts available:
- Soccer Accumulator Bonus
- Tennis Accumulator Bonus
- Multi-Sport Accumulator bonus
All of them work in basically the same way, with the extra amount paid out automatically as cash. But, as the names suggest, they can only be used on specific sports.
To claim the Soccer Accumulator Bonus you need to place a pre-match accumulator of 3 or more legs on the Full Time Result, Both Teams To Score or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for any game in their list of leagues and competitions.
If your bet’s a winner you’ll get 5%-70% added on to your winnings depending on how many legs you include. The 5% added to 3-folds (accas with three legs) is one of the highest acca boost bonuses you’ll find online, although the 70% added to bets of 14+ legs is an industry standard.
Bet365’s Tennis Accumulator Bonus is similar to the Soccer Acca Bonus, but this time you’ll get a 5% boost with 2-leg accas, known as doubles. This bonus is available when you place an acca on most major professional tennis matches.
The Multisport Acca Bonus, meanwhile, is granted when you place an acca bet which includes at least 3 selections from the major American sports: American Football, Basketball, Baseball and Ice Hockey.
10bet
10bet may seem like a fresh faced newcomer to the online betting scene, but it’s actually been around since way back in 2003. The brand went through a complete rebrand a few years back and has gone from strength to strength since then.
As well as offering very competitive odds on over 30 sports, one of 10bet’s most popular promotions is its Acca Boost, previously known as Acca Jacker.
Unlike the Bet365 offer, 10bet’s bonus can be claimed on almost any pre-match accumulator bet with 3+ legs, as long as the total odds are at least 1/2.
However this extended coverage means 10bet have limited the boost – you’ll get 2% on 3-folds, up to 50% on 16-folds.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Acca
For the most part, accumulator bonuses are that rare thing that all punters are looking for: a real, actual bonus amount bookies will give you with almost no strings attached
That’s most definitely the case with the Bet365 and 10bet offers, where the additional percentage is simply added automatically to the betslip whenever you place a qualifying acca and the money is paid out in withdrawable cash as part of the winnings.
Winning a 10-fold would be reward enough, but add an extra bonus of 45% on top of your winnings and you’ll be smiling from ear to ear.
So the clear advantage of acca boost bonuses is that they make placing an acca bet even more enticing than it already is. But that is also one of the disadvantages! Acca boosts seem so attractive they can lure you into placing a bet with higher odds than you might have otherwise.
However, as with any bet, as long as you are aware of the potential losses and are sure you can afford the bet, then you can go for it.
Other disadvantages depend on the offer. Some only pay the extra cash out as a free bet, meaning you’ll have to bet the extra amount a number of times before you can withdraw your winnings. And it’s always important to check the boost percentage or you could be disappointed.
Acca Common Rules & Terms
While all acca boosts work in basically the same way, there are significant differences in the promotions offered by each bookie. So it is essential to read over the terms and conditions before placing your bet.
The first thing to look out for is the actual percentages added to your winnings with the acca boost. Some bookies, such as Bet365, add as much as 5% even with a four-leg acca, while others add only 2% to start off with.
On top of this, the way you get the offer can vary. Some bookmakers require you to opt in by clicking on a “Boost” button on the betslip before you place an acca, while others add the percentage to your winnings automatically. If you forget to click boost you’ll miss out on the extra percentage.
Other brands offer a limited number of acca boost opportunities during a specific period. E.g. you might be able to take advantage of an acca boost only three times a week by using a token provided by the bookie.
Another difference is about the winnings: many of the bookmakers simply add the boost percentage on to the winnings as cash. But some pay the additional amount as a free bet which then includes extra conditions such as wagering requirements.
How Big Are the Acca Bonuses?
We all love a big bonus, especially if it’s given in real, withdrawable money. But just how much can you get from an acca boost?
Well, there are two main factors that impact the potential size of the bonus: the boost percentage and the maximum winning amount.
The boost percentage is the amount that’s added to your winnings if your acca comes off. Generally, if you place an acca with just a few legs your winnings will only be boosted by a few percent. But if you make a bet with many legs you can get your winnings boosted by up to 70% or even more, depending on the bookmaker.
The second important condition to keep an eye out for is the maximum amount you can win. It’s one thing to place a massive 12-fold acca assuming you’ll receive 30% extra if it wins. But if you don’t check the TnCs you might end up disappointed to find out the maximum additional amount you can win is much less than you expected.
For example, 10bet’s acca boost pays a maximum of an extra £5,000 whereas Bet365’s soccer accumulator boost can give you up to a massive £100,000.
Make Sure Your Bet Counts
Whenever you go for an acca boost you obviously need to make sure the bet you place qualifies for the promotion. Otherwise you could end up expecting your winnings to be boosted but then discovering you didn’t fulfil all of the requirements and not receiving any bonus at all.
The first thing you should check for is the minimum odds. The betting sites won’t allow absolutely any acca to qualify for a boost. To protect themselves they include minimum odds to increase the likelihood that you will lose and they won’t have to pay out.
For example, with the 10bet acca boost you need to make sure that each leg of the acca has odds of at least 1/2.
Another condition that’s almost universal in acca boost offers is that you have to use your own money – acca bets placed with free bets will not be boosted. Free bets are a different kind of promotion, often granted when you sign up to a new bookmaker online. Unlike regular withdrawable cash, free bets are an amount that can only be used in a single bet and have conditions placed on the withdrawal of winnings.
One more condition that you need to consider is cash out. If you cash out a bet before the events have finished you will get a smaller amount than if you wait till the end of the games. But even if you would have qualified for the boost when you placed the bet, you usually won’t get the extra amount if you cash out.
On the upside, if you only partially cash out your bet, the remaining stake will most probably still qualify for the boost bonus.
What are Void Bets?
A void bet is when an event or the result is cancelled, meaning that it is as if the event never occurred in the first place. This can often happen due to adverse weather conditions, such as if a horse race or football match is cancelled or postponed because of a frozen course or pitch.
If the void bet is one of the legs in an acca, usually it is simply removed from the acca and the odds are recalculated as if the void bet was never included.
For example if you place a 4-fold acca on Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea to all win and then the Liverpool match is called off due to a snowstorm, your 4-fold will automatically become a 3-fold with the same stake.
When this happens with an acca which has qualified for an acca boost the winnings will still be boosted, but you’ll only get the additional percentage according to the new number of legs.
So in the above example, if your 4-fold becomes a 3-fold and an acca with 4 legs is boosted by 4% but a 3-fold is boosted by 2% then you’ll receive the 2% boost on your winnings should the acca still come off.
Payout & Bonus Limits
Payout and bonus limits are among the terms and conditions in the small print that you should take notice of.
The payout limit is the total maximum amount the bookie payout irrespective of the amount won. And the bonus limit is the maximum bonus amount the bookie will pay out.
For example, if you place a £50 bet on a 16-fold at odds of 250-1 your winnings would be £12,500. The acca boost for a 16-fold is 50% of the winnings – which works out as an additional £6,250, But because the bonus limit is £5,000 you will only get an additional £5,000.
Examples
Bet365’s accumulator boost offers are some of the best examples of a classic acca bonus promotion. Let’s take the Soccer Accumulator boost for example. In this case the bookie automatically pays out an additional percentage on any acca which includes three or more Full Time Result, Both Teams To Score or Result/Both Teams To Score markets selections from one of the football leagues listed in the TnCs.
As we know, the percentage paid out depends on the number of legs. Place an acca with three legs and your winnings will be boosted by 5%. Or place an acca with 10 legs and you will see an extra 35% added to your winnings
So how does acca work in practice?
Let’s give a simple example – say you place a £10 bet on an acca featuring three matches where you predict Liverpool 2, Chelsea 1, Manchester United 1, Southampton 1 and Brighton 2, Crystal Palace 2.
If in this case the total odds for the acca are 50-1 and you predicted all three correct results you will win £500 (£10 x 50). These winnings will be boosted by 5%, so you will receive an extra £25 making the total payout £525.
Conclusion
Acca boosts are undoubtedly one of the most profitable and attractive sportsbook bonuses out there, especially when you don’t need to opt in and the additional winnings are paid out as withdrawable cash.
The great thing in these cases is you don’t even need to do anything extra. Just place the acca and if it wins you’ll get the extra money added on to your payout.
It is very important to read all the terms and conditions, otherwise, your bet might not qualify for the boost and you’ll not get an extra payout. That’s why it can actually be useful if there is an opt-in requirement because then you’ll always know when you’ve qualified for the boost.
