Our easy to follow Acca guide takes you through the process of placing your first accumulator bet online. We also provide tips and advice for avoiding common mistakes.

Now, I did say the guide was easy to follow, but I didn’t say it was short! Stick with it, as you’ll find everything you need to know about making Acca (Accumulator) bets. All you need to do is follow our step-by-step instructions.

If you have access to an online bookmaker that’s great. If you don’t, try either Paddy Power or Boylesports. Both offer promotional deals for new customers and give enhanced benefits on football accumulators. There’s nothing stopping you joining both bookmakers and checking which offers the best deals and odds. Of course, you can join any bookmaker, this guide isn’t dependant on you being a member of any particular site.

This guide explains the ‘four-fold’ football accumulator, which is the smallest Acca you can do. Essentially, you’ll be predicting the outcome of four matches. Decide if each game will be a home win, away win or a draw.

You can pick any football match your bookmaker is quoting odds on. However, the most popular games with fans are Premier League or top European fixtures. Nevertheless, you’re not restricted to those leagues, good value can be found in the lower divisions too. Stick to leagues where you have a good knowledge of the teams and their abilities.

Most punters select games which are due to be played within a few hours of each other. Nothing is stopping you choosing games that take place weeks or months apart, just be aware that your money will be tied up longer.

Now the difficult part – making your selections! It’s worth studying trends and form before making your selections. To help you do this I’ve listed websites that you will find useful: SoccerStats is a free collection of footballing stats which covers all the important data. Football365 is another site with a huge amount of information on trends & stats. Many bookies websites also offer head-to-head stats on individual games. Fixtures can be found on the bookmakers’ sites, but if you want a list of games which will be shown live on TV then try this Live Football on TV Guide.

Remember to bet with your head and not your heart, stay objective. We know you love your team, but if they’re bottom of the table with no fit strikers, are they really likely to win away at Man City?

Don’t discount home advantage. In the Premier League last season, the home team won 45% of the time. Away teams triumphed in 31% of matches and 24% of games ended in a draw.

One of the biggest mistakes I see new punters making is overestimating top teams away form. Winning on the road is still difficult, even for the best teams. Don’t worry though, there are options for accumulator insurance which can reduce the risk of one team letting you down.

You’ve done your research, you’ve picked your selections… now you need to place the accumulator bet.

Login to your bookmakers’ website and navigate to the football section. Here you’ll see a list of fixtures with odds boxes next to the team names. Usually, three boxes – Home, Draw and Away. Just click on the odds box to select that option.

Below is an illustration of how to do this at Paddy Power. The game features Brazil Vs Croatia in the world cup and as Brazil is the home team their name comes first. Croatia is the away team and their name comes last, the draw box is usually found in the middle.

For this example we’re going to assume you’ve selected Brazil to win and you’ve click the 1/3 box under HOME (1/3 being the odds you’ll get). Once you’ve click the box that selection is added to your virtual betting slip.

At this stage, your bookmaker doesn’t know if you want this selection in your Acca bet. So leave the betting slip open and DO NOT enter a stake. If you enter a stake amount now, you’ll be betting on the match as a single and not an Accumulator!

Go back to the fixture list and pick your next match. For this example, we’ll assume you’ve clicked on Mexico (home), Holland (away) and Chile (home). Your Acca now consists of Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Chile – by the way, it doesn’t matter the order in which you select the teams. You’ll have four picks in the virtual betting slip and it will automatically update and give you the option to make the Acca bet (see image below).

Now you must decide on the size of your bet and enter the amount in the small box next to where it says ‘Accumulator’. I would advise anyone betting for the first time to keep the stakes small. Accas can be hard to land, that’s why the odds are so good – so keep it fun and bet small!

In the image below you can see where to enter your stake and how that automatically shows the potential returns. At this stage, you can change the stake amount and see how that affects the returns.

All you have to do now is click the BET NOW button. Usually at the bottom of the virtual slip. You’ll then be asked to confirm the bet before it’s placed.

That’s it! You’ve placed your first accumulator. If you’d like to give it a go then visit Paddy Power.

A fourfold accumulator is won when your four predictions come in. If you’ve selected four home wins and all the home teams win, you’ve won! If one or more teams lose then the bet is dead. Your stake is now in the hands of the bookies 🙁 .

The mechanics of the accumulator bet are both simple and complicated. You get bigger odds as your small stake grows with each win. If £1 is bet on a team at odds of 10/1 and that team win, then you’ve got £10 riding on the next game, instead of £1.

If the second team wins you’ve got a bigger pile of money on the third game and finally the whole lot is placed on the last game, giving you a potentially massive return. With the accumulator bet, this all happens automatically.

It’s essentially no different than walking into the bookies on Friday and placing a £1 bet on Wrexham F.C., you return to the bookies on Saturday and place the Wrexham winnings on Arsenal. You come back again on Sunday and place the Arsenal winnings on Chelsea and so on.

Doing those bets separately or as an accumulator is really the same thing but of course the benefit of doing it as an accumulator is it saves you all that walking! And more importantly, the games can be taking place simultaneously and you still get the multiplier benefit.