Football is more than just a game, it’s a cultural phenomenon that brings countries and communities together. Watching your favourite team score the perfect goal or a nail-biting penalty shoot-out can be a thrilling and exciting experience. But have you ever considered adding a little extra fun to the mix?
Sports betting is a popular way to enhance your football watching experience and add an extra level of excitement to the game. From placing a simple bet on the outcome of the match to a more complex wager on the number of goals scored, or even an accumulator bet consisting of several selections, sports betting can provide a new level of entertainment that will make watching football even more enjoyable. So let’s dive in and explore how to get some extra fun from watching football with the help of sports betting.
Bettors have many choices when it comes to the types of bets that can be made. Some are more common than others, and on this page, we will look at a couple of those, the straight win single bet and the accumulator. For punters sizing up options from new betting sites in Nigeria, it’s worth taking some time to understand the differences between the two types of bets. They may have a common place in future betting practices.
Single Bets
Regardless of your favoured sport, be it football, tennis or golf, the most common type of bet that you are going to play is probably going to be a win single. That is one stake placed on one specific outcome of a match or an event.
For example, it could be a pre-tournament selection for the Africa Cup of Nations winner, or for Real Madrid to win the UEFA Champions League. The great appeal of single bets is that they are uncomplicated, so beginners can jump straight in.
But even seasoned bettors still rely heavily on the single bet. A single bet can be played on any market, as long as it is just one selection that is backed to prevail. It could be a 2-0 Correct Score pick, or an Under 2.5 Goals option for example.
Accumulators
The accumulator bet is a special breed. Whenever a big sports bet win hits the news, it is generally from an accumulator bet. Why? Because they can produce some staggering profits. An accumulator bet, or an ‘acca’ as it’s commonly known, needs at least four selections.
The progression of bet terms are:
- Single – One selection
- Double – Two selections
- Treble – Three selections
- Accumulator – Four+ selections
There is technically no difference between a double, a treble or an accumulator, it’s just terminology. An accumulator needs every selection that is put into the bet to win for the wager to be successful just as a double or a treble does.
If you have built a six-fold accumulator and just one leg loses, then the entire bet is wiped out. So for such a risky bet, where numerous selections are crucial, where is the big appeal in building an accumulator? The answer is in the odds.
Single and Acca Odds
The odds you see for a win single is what you get paid back. If you have selected a winning 3.0 decimal odds underdog then you get 2 units of profit back for every 1 staked.
In an accumulator, the odds of each selection are multiplied towards the overall odds of the bet. So if you had a fourfold acca bet with each selection at 3.0, then it would simply be 3.0 x 3.0 x 3.0 x 3.0 to calculate the profit.
The odds are cumulative as the bet rolls along and that is where the big potential profits happen.
3 x 3 = 9
9 x 3 = 27
27 x 3 = 81
For just one unit of stake, there would be a profit of 80 units coming back (81 including the 1 unit of stake) from such a successful accumulator bet. To get to the equivalent of 80 units of profit from a 3.0 win single, 40 units of stake would need to be played.
Single and Acca Stakes
There are, therefore, major differences between a single bet and an accumulator. It is a trade-off between the lower risk option of a single, which needs only one outcome to be correct but for less potential profit, compared to the higher risk acca option of combining multiple selections into one bet.
There is no right and wrong when it comes to this. It is down to the balance of risk that the individual punter assesses.
Down to Earth Acca
Accumulators can be very appealing for punters, especially people new to betting who get blinded by the big potential returns. But they are one of the most difficult types of bets to actually pull off, and it’s why they make headlines in the news when they happen.
The more selections that you put into an accumulator bet, the exponentially more difficult it becomes to win. A way to think about that is, for example, trying to pick out five match winners from an afternoon of football from the English Premier League.
It’s not that easy to do at all. Even if it is all odds-on favourites that are put into the bet, there are absolutely no guarantees that everything is going to fall favourably. It is worth keeping your feet on the ground when it comes to expectations about accas.
In Conclusion
Both single bets and accumulators have their pros and cons, and you can’t come down on either side as to which one is better as opinions will vary greatly between bettors. But for risk aversion and uncomplicated betting, the win single is preferable.
However, it is not likely to touch the excitement levels that an acca bet can deliver. They can be a thrilling rollercoaster to follow along with. Risk is involved either way, so some bettors mix both types of bets in their portfolio, depending on the opportunities and situations they encounter.
