In the world of multiple selection betting, the accumulator remains very much the most popular option for punters seeking to string a number of winners together to increase the value of their win.
However, accas are not the only multiple selection bet available at bet365 Sport as we have discovered when looking at bets such as Full Cover Bets and Banker Bets in the past.
Given that all these bets cover multiple selections made on a single coupon at bet365, there is a good question to be asked about which of the three options are the most fitting to use based on your research and betting account?
To investigate this more fully, we are going to look at an example of each type of bet using the same five selections from bet365.
The Five Selections
All five selections are from the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League Semi Final 1st leg ties that are being played this week and all are from the Full Time Result market.
Our selections are:
- AC Milan v Inter Milan – Draw – 21/10 at bet365
- Juventus v Sevilla – Draw – 13/5 at bet365
- AS Roma v Bayer Leverkusen – Home Win – 11/10 at bet365
- Fiorentina v FC Basel – Home Win – 2/5 at bet365
- West Ham v AZ Alkmaar – Home Win – 11/20 at bet365
Let’s now explore the differences in backing these five selections using a standard accumulator bet, a full cover bet (with and without singles) and a selection of banker bets with a different number of banker options.
For all bets, we are going to use a unit stake of £10.
The Five-Fold Accumulator Option
- Number of Lines to Cover – 1
- Winning Requirement – All five match result predictions to be correct.
- Total Odds – 49.86/1
- Total Cost of bet – £10
- Total Potential Return – £508.56 (£498.60 winnings, £10 returned stake)
As you can see, the accumulator option is the simplest to understand. There is just one line to cover and you need all five games to be correct in order to land a win.
If you do win, then you will win almost 50x your bet stake in winnings.
However, the negative side of the accumulator is that picking five results correctly is deceptively difficult so your chances of landing the win, even if the selections you make seem entirely plausible, are still relatively low.
The Full Cover Bet Option
A Full Cover bet with bet365 is called a Canadian.
- Number of Lines to Cover – 26
- Winning Requirement – Any two results or more need to be correct to earn a win
- Total Cost of bet – £260 (26 lines at £10 per line)
- Total Potential Return – Minimum Return – £21.70 – Maximum Return – £3450.62
As you can see, the initial cost to cover all possible combination bets with five selections is £260 as there are 26 possible combinations with the five selections.
With this bet, you will earn a win if two or more of the five selections come in, however there is no guarantee that your winnings will exceed the amount spent on your stake.
The more of your selections that win, then the more lines that you backed will win and hence, the greater the amount of money you will get back from the bet,
This is a much more flexible bet than an accumulator bet as you only need two or more of your selections to win to generate a return but given the cost of the bet to cover all the lines, you may need at least three, if not four of your selections to win in order to stand any chance of generating a profit.
- Full Cover Bet With Singles (Lucky 31)
If in addition to the 26 lines of two or more selections you would cover for the Canadian bet, you wanted to back each of your bets singly too, then this Full Cover Bet with Singles is called a Lucky 31.
- Number of Lines to Cover – 31
- Winning Requirement – Any one results or more needs to be correct to earn a win
- Total Cost of bet – £310 (31 lines at £10 per line)
- Total Potential Return – Minimum Return – £18.00 – Maximum Return – £4281.74
As you can see, the Lucky 31 option offers you a higher maximum return, and a lower minimum return, and the size of your stake increases to £310 (31 lines at £10 per line).
The positive here is that you need just one of your selections to win to generate a return, but the down side is if that is the case, you are likely to lose a lot of money if just one or two selections come in.
The Banker Bet Option
With the Banker Bet option you need to select one, or more, of your bet options to be your banker. Any selection you make as a banker must win and one other selection must win in order to generate a return.
If any banker bet fails, or only your banker bet or bets win, then the bet is a loser.
With a banker bet, the number of lines covered differs depending on how many banker selections you make for the bet.
For convenience we have said we want 2 banker selections (the two shortest odds selections listed in the five games above) plus we want to cover all other possible combinations of bets with the two bankers.
- Number of Lines to Cover – With Two Banker bets, to cover all possible combinations would see you need to cover 7 lines. (2b + 1/3 is 3 lines, 2b + 2/3 is 3 lines and 2b + 3/3 is 1 line)
- Winning Requirement – For this bet both banker selections plus any one or more of other selections must win to generate a return.
- Total Cost of bet – £70 (7 lines x £10)
- Total Potential Return – Minimum Return – £45.57 – Maximum Return – £2722.68
When Should I Use Each Type Of Bet?
That depends on the circumstances for the bet you want to make and the value of the selections you have added to your bet slip.
If you don’t want to wager more than a single unit stake, then the accumulator bet is your best option by far. This is by far the lowest cost option and it offers a decent return on that bet.
However, if you are prepared to wager more then the Full Cover and Banker Bet options are worth a look.
Banker Bets are best when you have at least one, if not more, selections that you are very confident will turn out in favour of one of the options you bet on. Make these bets your bankers as they have to win in order for your bet to stand any chance.
You can then cherry pick which lines you want to cover with your bankers and the other selections to get a good mix of value bets, and a potential for decent returns.
Full Cover Bets are the most expensive option but are very flexible and can generate a good return if you can pick the winners, and if you find you are placing accumulator bets and only missing out by one result frequently, then Full Cover and Banker Bets may be a good option for you, even if you have to reduce the size of your unit stake to make them affordable.