Notes on backing/laying accumulators / multiples / combi bets / doubles etc

[munk]

Had a bit of a basic intro to accumulators today (thanks Tom!) after wanting to lay the England / Scotland double that Andy kindly offered as a no loss bet. For what it's worth, here are my notes on what I found out today. May help someone else perhaps

Here are my ‘newbie notes’ from today for backing/laying accumulators:

Calculating Accumulator Odds
To calculate the odds of an accumulator, multiply the decimal odds (ie fractional odds +1) of each selection within the accumulator by each other. So for example if there are two selections in the accumulator (a ‘double’), one at odds of 2.1 and another at odds of 1.07, you would multiply those together to get odds of 2.247 for the double. These are the odds you'd put in your matcher spreadsheet etc for the back odds.


Laying Accumulators
You can lay accumulators on Betfair, either using the Multiples markets or by using an accumulator market (thanks Tom!):

Accumulator Markets (on 'regular' Betfair site) - note this is the preferred option if you can find an acca market that covers all your selections within the acca

• The odds on the accumulator markets are better because they’re made by other Betfair users, but there may not always be an accumulator market that covers all the selections you require in your accumulator.
• The accumulator markets are part of the ‘normal’ betfair site (ie not on the multiples site) – as such you can queue a bet as normal, so it’s always worth queuing your bet first at a lower/higher price than that on offer, as you might with any other Betfair market.
• You pay your commission rate as normal on the accumulator markets - ie 5% less your current discount rate.

Betfair Multiples Markets (on the Betfair Multiple site)

• The odds on the Betfair Multiples markets aren’t quite as good as for the accumulator markets because the bets are placed with Betfair itself and they presumably take a cut for themselves for offering the market.
• On the plus side though, there are a larger number of selections available in the Multiples markets to choose from and add to your accumulator than there are on the basic accumulator markets on the normal Betfair site.
• You do not queue bets on the multiples market, as soon as you place the bet it is accepted since Betfair itself is effectively acting as a bookmaker in accepting your bets, no other Betfair users are involved as with the normal Betfair markets.
• The prices on the Multiples market are based on the prices found on the corresponding markets on the normal Betfair markets for each of the selections in your chosen accumulator.
• You always pay 5% commission on Multiples markets, discount rate is not applied (thanks for pointing that out Tom).

Finding the Lay odds for an accumulator
To find the lay odds for an accumulator, start of by deciding which way you want to lay the accumulator - on a specific accumulator market (on the normal betfair site) or on a Multiples market (on the Betfair Multiples site). You may not have a choice in some instances, generally if there's an accumulator market available it's better to go for that because you're trading with other Betfair users so the prices will be more competitive, but other times you may not have a choice and have to use the Multiples market way.

Finding the lay odds on the normal acca markets
This is trivial since the back/lay odds are displayed automatically for each combination in the acca market you choose - you just back/lay in exactly the same way as you would on any other Betfair market except in this instance you're backing/laying more than one selection - ie Man Utd / Arsenal to BOTH win if you're backing or either of those to lose if you're laying.

Finding the lay odds on Betfair Multiples site
IMPORTANT NOTE - make sure you are using 'full view' otherwise you won't see the option to lay multiple selections.

1. Choose each of the selections you want to lay in your accumulator - do this as you would normally on any other normal betfair market and importantly click on the 'back' button (this seems counterintuitive but read on below!). Once the selections are made it should look like the image below with the selections highlighted in blue.
2. Once you have all the selections you want in your acca, toggle the 'lay' radio button in the 'place bets' tab on the right of the page to indicate you want to lay this accumulator. If you can't see an option to lay the selection, double check you're using the 'full view' option.
3. Finally enter a nominal stake of £2 in the lay stake box and then submit the 'view odds' button to see the actual lay odds of your custom acca.

So, now you have all the elements you need to make your match bet on the accumulator - the back price, back stake and lay odds. Now you can go away and calculate the ideal lay stake from each of those in your matcher spreadsheet or w/e.

Important Notes
Accumulator/multiple markets on Betfair close as soon as any one of the selections within the accumulator starts. Accumulator markets do not go ‘in play’, so it’s important to note what time the first event within your accumulator starts so you can place the lay/back bet accumulator on Betfair in good time.

IMPORTANTLY remember that if you're using the Multiples markets, the commission is 5% regardless of your normal betfair commission discount.

These notes are correct to the best of my knowledge, maybe seems a bit disjointed this info, mainly because it's an extract from my diary really but I thought it could be useful maybe for someone in the same position as myself not knowing head from tail with accumulators.

Laying Multiples / Accumulators 'Manually'
http://www.thegamblingtimes.com/boar...-manually.html

[tom]

Great stuff. One additional point - commission on multiples is always 5%, regardless of what commission discount you may have. Another reason for using the accumulator markets if available.

[madmick50]

Great info. Many thanks munk. I've been meaning to sort Betgun out for a while now but keep putting it off because not sure how to go about accumulators. Will get them done now thanks to your information.

[robster999]

Thanks Munk. Been off the scene a little while and just getting back into things. Your info will be of great help. Cheers

[munk]

Cheers guys, especially to Tom for the info on the other thread which got me looking in the right places

[Jono258]

Great post thank Munk, loads of useful info

[Makybe]

nice info here ... even though I'm struggling with it

[dk7]

Has anyone got an idiot guide on how to lay accumulators individually?

For instance if i picked one firday game, one saturday game and one sunday game for the accumulator bet surely i could lay them individually and probably at better prices than on BF accumulator or multiple markets.

[munk]

Has anyone got an idiot guide on how to lay accumulators individually?

For instance if i picked one firday game, one saturday game and one sunday game for the accumulator bet surely i could lay them individually and probably at better prices than on BF accumulator or multiple markets.

http://www.thegamblingtimes.com/boar...-manually.html

There's a link to it in the first post in this thread. Admittedly it is at the bottom of the first post which is quite long, perhaps I'll move it to the top.