If you’re new to betting on Sporting Events on the web, you may be confused by the many bets that modern bookies and sportsbooks advertise. Amongst the most confusing to a novice gambler are Multiples. Although multiples can offer great returns, they can be notoriously hard to make a consistent profit with..

Almost all pro gamblers view multiple betting as the domain of the amateur/novice gambler, it is rare to see a bookie advertise a single bet as this is where Pros concentrate their betting efforts.

However, accumulators can still be played cleverly if you are prepared to make a little effort and not go over the top with the number of selections you include in your bet.

Multiples & Accumulators – What are they?

Multiple betting allows you to put one bet on the outcome of two or more events. The bookmaker places the bet on the first event; if this wager wins, the winnings are put on to the following event in the accumulator. The bet continues until all the selections have either won or lost.

Any loss in the sequence will mean that the bet has lost and all winnings and stake are lost. Usually a bettor will place a series of well fancied selections combined together in order to improve the odds and return.

This is a simple made up example of a accumulator bet. In this case a simple Treble:

Selection One

Arsenal v West Ham odds of Home Win = 1.16

Selection Two

Man City v Fulham odds of Home Win = 2.37

Selection Three

Aston Villa v Newcastle odds of Home Win = 1.5

The cumulative odds of all three above events occurring, works out to be 4.15.

This is a significant improvement on the price and possible return. If any of the three parts of the bet fails, you lose.

Multiples – Best Practice

There are certain restrictions put in place by the Bookies on multiples, you can’t choose bets from the same market ie Goal Scorers and Half Time Score and Over 2.5 Goals for the same market. The choices must be from different games but not necessarily from different Sporting Events.

Generally you should use very small stakes when gambling on multiples. See it as a fun way of having a bet with the chance of a small stake bringing back a large return.

However, if you are serious about gambling and are prepared to put in a little more effort, it is possible to structure a series of multiples so that you have many more possibilities of winning the bet. This generally called Parlay betting or dutching.