Combo Betting Complete Overview
Combination betting can be a some way of improving your odds of success when betting. This hinges on you making smart decisions with your selections, knowing the variables (players, teams, and competitions) inside out, and, of course, no small amount of luck is required. However, if you were to explore the ins and outs of combo betting online, you’d realise that there are ways you can bet smartly. That’s what we’re going to look at today.
What Is a Combo Bet?
At its most basic level, a combo bet is a way of wagering on several selections on the same ticket. All your selections form part of the same wager. Crucially, though, unlike some multi-bets, like accumulators and parlays, you won’t necessarily need to land every bet to see a return on your stake. Generally, combination betting involves placing wagers on the different outcomes of sporting events. You are, in effect, covering your bases.
Parlay Bets and Accumulators Explained
By contrast, accumulator bets and parlays often involve wagering on one possible outcome for each selection on a single ticket. To get a return here, you’d need to hope that every single outcome is correct, as the winnings from one successful bet will form the stake for the next, and so on. It is not uncommon for parlays and accumulators to feature in combo bets.
● Parlay Bet: Basically, it is the American name for accumulator bets that involve two or more selections, and the success of the bet depends on hitting each individual bet.
● Accumulator Bet: The term “accumulator” is more commonly used in the UK and across Europe. It works in the same way as a parlay and is sometimes shortened to ACCA at online sportsbooks.
How Combination Bets Work
Most combo bets involve singles, doubles, or triples. A single bet is a wager on a single selection. A double bet involves wagering on two separate selections (different matches) while trebles – well, you get the idea. The way you set up a combo bet can differ, featuring varying numbers of singles, doubles, or triples, depending on how you wish to set it up.
Below, you will find a selection of the most common combo betting options regularly offered at online sportsbooks, along with a brief explanation of what choosing each one entails. Let’s start with some of the simpler combos:
● Trixie: Trixie bets are some of the most popular combo bets you can make online. It features three selections, spanning a total of four bets, namely three double bets and a treble.
● Yankee: Yankees are placed on four selections via four bets. Once more, you’re looking at three doubles and a treble.
● Patent: With a patent bet, you’re effectively betting on a Trixie, but with three single bets thrown in for good measure.
● Lucky 15: Lucky 15 bets go one step further and involve a Yankee with four single bets.
● Lucky 31: Lucky 31 combination bets are built on top of a Lucky 15, albeit with a Yankee and five single bets.
● Double Combo: Another more simplistic option, the Double Combo, involves wagering on two singles but combining the odds into a single stake.
If you want to crank up the heat, there are plenty of other combination betting options you can consider. These are a touch more complicated (and long-winded) to get to grips with, but they can include:
● Canadian: Spanning twenty-six bets across five selections, a Canadian features ten double bets, ten trebles, five four-fold bets, and a single five-fold ACCA.
● Heinz: So-called because it features fifty-seven selections (like Heinz’s 57 varieties slogan), Heinz bets involve fifteen doubles, twenty trebles, fifteen four-folds, six five-folds, and one six-fold accumulator.
● Goliath: While rare, these bets are the largest in terms of the number of selections. You’ve got two-hundred and forty-seven of them, across twenty-eight doubles, fifty-six trebles, seventy four-folds, fifty-six five-folds, twenty-eight six-folds, eight seven-folds, and, of course, an eight-fold accumulator stake.
● Lucky 63: With a Lucky 63 bet, you’re playing with a Heinz and six singles on the side.
● Super Heinz: This gargantuan bet features one-hundred-and-twenty selections. It is made up of twenty-one doubles, thirty-five trebles, another thirty-five four-folds, twenty-one five-folds, seven six-folds, and a single seven-fold parlay.
As you can see, you’re inundated with options if you’re prepared to back multiple options. It is also worth noting that it is almost impossible to land a win on every single wager involved in a combo bet. If you’re wagering on multiple outcomes in the same selection, only one of them can be true and yield a return; however, while that might ruin an accumulator, its part and parcel of combo betting. Depending on how you bet, you can afford to take a hit on one or two elements of your bet and still come away with a win. In fact, you’re expecting it. Allow us to explain how this works below.
Show Me How It Works
Let’s keep things simple and stick with one of the easier combo bets to master – the Trixie. Given that football is the most popular sport on the planet, and the Premier League is the most watched competition, we’ll use those for our example.
Let us pretend that you’ve just popped over to your favourite football sportsbook, and there are some matches and odds that tickle your fancy. For the sake of argument, they are:
● Manchester United are 2.00 to defeat Burnley
● Manchester City are 3.00 to beat Liverpool
● Arsenal are being backed at 4.00 to beat Chelsea
If you were to back a Man Utd win, a Man City win, and an Arsenal win in an accumulator, you’d need to get every outcome correct to see a return. That isn’t the case if you stump for a Trixie, though.
● Trixie bets are some of the most popular combo bets you can make online. It features three selections, spanning a total of four bets, namely three double bets and a treble.
Trixie bets involve three selections and four bets – three doubles and a treble. To utilise those three selections with a Trixie bet, you might consider doing the following:
● Place a double bet on both Man Utd and Man City to win.
● Place another double on Man City and Arsenal to win.
● Place a final double on Man Utd and Arsenal to win.
● For your treble bet, wager on all three teams to win, the same as you would with an accumulator.
What you’ve done here is ensure you’ve minimised the risk of walking away with nothing. If just one selection lands or none of them do, you’ll still win nothing. However, the odds of that happening are greatly reduced compared to, say, an accumulator or basic treble.
Combo Bets vs Accumulators
What’s the difference between combos and accumulators (or parlays) you may ask. Well, combo bets involve accumulators, and the latter are often considered to be a form of combination betting. In reality, we tend to call accumulators multi-bets rather than combo bets. In fact, there are many who would argue that an accumulator should only be called as such when it features four bets (four-fold bets). Any two or three-bet accumulators would simply be called doubles and trebles, as explained above.
As for the technical differences, they are quite considerable. ACCAs, or multi-bets, combine multiple selections into a single wager, and the success of your bet hinges on every single variable being correct. It is a high-risk bet, so naturally, it features larger wins. Of course, the more selections you add to your ACCA, the greater the risk and reward.
By contrast, combo bets, or system bets, offer a greater degree of flexibility. You can bet on several outcomes across multiple selections. Again, they are all tied up in a single bet, but you won’t be required to land them all, as the way you’ve bet effectively provides insurance (to a degree) against losing everything. That all depends on the combinations you’ve chosen, of course.
Best bookmakers with combo bets
Virtually every bookmaker on the market offers the possibility to place single, double or parlay bets. Combo bets are encountered less frequently. Sometimes they are also only available for different leagues, or they are possibilities available temporarily, as part of the bookmakers promotional offers. However, there are bookmakers who offer an extensive and permanent offer for combo bets.
Among this group of sites with a high reputation, it is worth mentioning PENTA88, which has a lot to offer for players interested in this betting strategy. They have an above-standard option, bonuses, so we said they should be listed first in the combo betting topic. As for sports brokers, on the other hand, it looks a little weaker, due to the nature of these sites, there is more emphasis on single bets. However, despite this, there are also some opportunities, but they are limited.
The Benefit of Placing Combo Bets Online
As detailed earlier, there are definitely perks to wagering with accumulators if you’ve got guts. The riskier your bet, the richer the reward. However, if you want more stability and a little bit of insurance and security when betting on multiple events, combo bets are the way to go. Not only are you not required to land them all to win, but you can also wager on multiple outcomes on the same selections. This represents a significantly lower risk if you’re careful about what you bet on. No, the winnings aren’t going to rival those of a proper ACCA, but most of us would take an almost guaranteed win of some kind, over a far-flung stab in the dark.
Calculating Combination Bet Winnings
If you’re a mathematics wizard, there are equations and formulas you can use to guestimate how much you could receive if your selections come good. However, this is very time-consuming, and there’s always a margin for error. Instead, it is a lot better to let a pro calculate your possible combination bet winnings ahead of time.
One of the best ways to do this is to use a combo bet calculator. You’ll find many of these available online. Obviously, it may be tempting to use such a calculator after placing your bet, but we’d encourage you to do so ahead of time.
Firstly, head over to the online sportsbook where you’ve found reasonable odds that interest you. Decide how you would be likely to set up your combo bet and what kind of combination betting wager you want to make – a Trixie, a Heinz, and so on. Don’t place the bet yet, though. Instead, head over to a combo bet calculator. From there, you’ll be able to input the odds and your stake into the calculator and let it work its magic. You should get a very good idea of what you can win if some of the selections land and what odds you’ve got of success if they all do.
We personally recommend that you tinker around on the combination betting calculator to get a good idea of what you could receive if Match X goes one way and Match Y goes the other. Only place a bet at your online bookmaker after exploring what possible returns you could land, and the level of risk involved.
Top Tips for Betting on Combos
Before we let you get on with placing combination bets at leading sportsbooks, we’re going to provide you with our top tips for betting on combos. In our years of experience, we’ve learned the hard way at times and come up with a definitive do’s and don’ts guide to combination betting. Here’s what you need to know:
Find Good Value Odds
We recommend signing up for several online sportsbooks. This way, you’ll be able to browse several at once to ensure that you get the best value odds on the marketplace. Tipsters at online betting sites can often provide advice and direct comparisons about which bookmakers are offering the best odds.
Don’t Include Too Many High-Risk Selections
It is important to have a few high-odds games in your combination bet. However, don’t include too many high-risk selections. As each combination bet is generally considered its own separate ACCA bet, the level of risk won’t necessarily increase when you place bets on high-odds games, but if you add too many of them, they simply won’t be very likely to land.
Use a Betting Calculator Before Wagering
As mentioned earlier, there’s little point in using a betting calculator after you’ve already placed your bet. Instead, it is better to use these tools earlier on so you can get an idea of what you can win and your chances of success before you splash your hard-earned cash at an online betting site.
Don’t Add Too Many Selections That Could Go Either Way
One of the mistakes we often see is inexperienced bettors wagering on selections that could go either way. Your combo bet is going to be more successful if there is a clear favourite and the underdog doesn’t triumph often. That doesn’t mean you can’t add a few games where draws or giant killings are a realistic possibility but keep them limited. Again, the trick to being successful in combo bets is to cover your bases and not get crazy with too many wild odds.
Stick To What You Know - Don’t Get Ambitious
We can assume that since you want to know about combo bets, you’re a bit of a sports fan. If so, we implore you to use your knowledge of the game. Play what you know – always. The more you know about the players, the matches, teams, leagues, competitions, sports and so on, the more successful you’ll be. Study stats centres, and keep an eye out for injuries, form, morale, and even the weather. If you’ve got a wealth of data at your fingertips, you should be using it to improve the accuracy of your bets. In short, only include selections that match up with your knowledge of the market.
Combo betting summary
Combo bets can be good entertainment if they are used judiciously and there is no betting beyond the player’s capabilities. On the other hand, however, they are not simple accumulator bets, which can actually be used just for fun, without much chance of success, excluding the gambling factor, because the occasional hit on long tickets is not a confirmation that it is a reasonable strategy when the purpose is other than betting for fun. However, combo bets do have some value, and thanks to their complexity, they can be used for many purposes, for fun as well as for a well-thought-out strategy with defined goals.
So, that’s the end of it, we hope that this guide, has cleared your doubts about all aspects of the described strategy and combo bet no longer has any secrets from you!