Multiples

Well, not my biggest accumulator wins, that would be too good to be true, right? Instead I’ve trawled the archives for examples of accumulator bets that saw punters come away with a cool £1 million plus (or in the ballpark of).

1) Steve Whiteley – 5-fold accumulator

Plumbing engineer Steve Whiteley of Tawton in Devon sure knows how to make a couple of quid go a long way. Having recently acquired a bus pass, he’d enjoying heading down to the course to watch the horses. The plucky punter placed a paltry £2 accumulator bet on the Exeter Tote Jackpot in 2011. These were his selections:

Semicolon (2/1), Black Phantom (12/1), Ammunition (16/1), Mr Bennett (16/1), Lundy Sky (5/1), and Lupita (12/1).

Coming into the last race, he was the only punter left with a chance to getting a clean sweep of wins. Jockey, Jessica Lodge brought it home for him (I think he owes her a drink!). The win saw a cheque worth £1.45 million heading his way. Not bad for a few minute work!

 

2) Fred Craggs – 8-fold accumulator

If you thought winning well over a million with £1 was impressive, then you’ll be doubly impressed by thrifty fertiliser salesman Fred Craggs from Thirsk who placed an 8-fold accumulator with William Hill with selections from races around the world. It was a bet he made on his 60th birthday and as luck/skill would have it, all of the selections won (with selections including  Isn’t That Lucky and A Dream Come True perhaps it was written in the stars) and he was £1,000,000 better off (betting odds of 2 million – 1).

Craggs clearly wasn’t counting the money in advance and saw his bet as more ‘hit and hope’ style. So much so in fact that he didn’t even check the result and was instead informed of his staggering win when he went to place another bet.

“I had quite a glowing feeling in the shop but none of the other customers seemed to notice.” said Craggs, of finding out about his win.

He then went home and sat through a meal with his family without telling them. Come of Fred, spit it out!!

 

3) Anon Punter – 5-fold accumulator

 

In April 2017 a £19 accumulator bet was placed on five horses running at Punchestown by an anonymous Leicestershite punter.

The accumulator bet was placed on:

1. 10/1 Das Mooser
2. 9/2 Woodland Opera
3. 7/1 Definite Ruby
4. 10/1 Bacardys
5. 33/1 Canardier

and consisted of five £3 fourfold accumulators and one £4 fivefold accumulator. The anonymous gamber had previous interest in racing in that he used to be a bookmaker himself. He stated that he never places single bets, and since this bet came up he must be rather pleased to operate by that ethos. Due to the substantial betting odds of some of the selections, he won big this time around, to the tune of £823,000. Not quite a million pounds, but we didn’t stipulate which currency did we? Let’s call it euros ;).

 

 

If you’re a fan of betting on Overs (such as Over 2.5 goals during football games) you’ll just love the story of this guy’s accumulator win. In December of last year one plucky punter decided to bet that there would be a goal by every team playing on Tuesday and Wednesday’s Premier League fixtures.

 

 

 

The odds of both teams to score in the ten-fold accs is as follows:

Bournemouth v Huddersfield 17/20
Brighton v Crystal Palace 1/1
West Ham v Cardiff 31/40
Watford v Manchester City 10/11
Burnley v Liverpool 6/5
Everton v Newcastle 1/1
Fulham v Leicester 2/3
Wolves v Chelsea 5/6
Manchester United v Arsenal 1/2
Tottenham v Southampton 10/11

Some games went down to the wire. An injury time goal by Cardiff’s Josh Murphy ensured that the bet stayed alive. Southampton’s last gasp consolation goal against Tottenham courtesy of Charlie Austin sealed the deal, turning the lucky punter’s £30 stake into a cool £15,000. As a matter of interest, this was the first time that all 20 teams have scored in a single game week for over 8 years. A nice pre xmas win for one lucky individual.

Multiple bets – that is, doubles, trebles, accumulators – are popular with betting shop and stay-at-home punters alike, mainly because they offer the prospect of high returns for small outlay when compared with single win bets. Essentially, the winnings from each successful leg of a multiple bet, including the stake, become the stake for the next leg and so on; the bettor is, in effect, combining a series of single bets into one bet, at the combined odds.

 

The allure of multiple bets is plain to see but, while there’s a great deal of satisfaction in relieving your bookmaker of tens, hundreds or even thousands of pounds for a stake that’s a fraction of that size, there are one or two things to remember when building your multiple bet.

 

Each leg of a multiple bet is, by definition, a separate bet requiring a separate stake. The multiple bet known as a “Yankee”, for example, combines four selections in six doubles, four trebles and an accumulator, making 11 bets in total. The total number of bets for five and six selections, in a “Canadian” or “Heinz”, remains fairly manageable, at 26 and 57, respectively, but beyond that starts to become a little unwieldy. The so-called “Super Heinz”, which combines seven selections, requires 120 bets, while the “Goliath”, which combines eight, requires 247 bets. Remember, too, that you’re betting at combined odds, so expect long losing runs and loss of control of your betting bank, in terms of how frequently it is turned over.

 

You can, of course, build a multiple bet with as many selections (within reason) and to whatever stake you like, but it’s probably best to make your selections first and then choose the most appropriate multiple bet. You’re betting at combined odds, after all, so it’s wise to include only selections that you feel confident about. If you’re a stay-at-home punter, you may be tempted to include selections in all the races shown on terrestrial television on a Saturday; this not only serves to increase the number of bets, but may lead to wishy-washy, indecisive selections that actually reduce your chances of winning.