Acca insurance is a facet of gambling that many bettors are always on the lookout for, but there are a number of punters that do not know what acca insurance is, how to use it, the restrictions that apply when using it and more. In this article, we will take a look at everything you need to know when it comes acca insurance.
What Is an Acca?
An acca, also known as an accumulator, is a bet that is comprised of multiple selections that are all rolled into one bet. The most important thing to remember when it comes to an acca is the fact that all of your picks must come in for your acca to win. The draw with an acca is the fact that you can really swell the odds you are betting with. Many punters will amalgamate some shorter odds picks into an acca as this will give better odds than backing them on their own.
For example, backing Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all to win in an acca will give you better odds than backing each team in a separate bet. For example, if Bayern and Chelsea could failed to win, this will have no effect on single bets. However, if Bayern and Chelsea were to draw their games and you picked them to win in your acca, then your acca will lose despite the other matches seeing your prediction come true.
This is the reason why an acca will have better odds. You have to balance the risk of one bet failing and ruining your whole acca with the fact that you have brought all of these odds together into one bet with longer odds. The reward in an acca is usually far bigger than backing the bets in a single wager, but the risk is far bigger as one wrong selection ruins your bet.
What Are the Different Types of Accumulator Bets?
Before we get into acca insurance and how that works, it can be handy to know what the acca jargon is before betting. The most popular types of accas, their names and how many legs there are include:
| Number of Legs | Type of Acca |
|---|---|
| 2 | Double |
| 3 | Treble |
| 4 | Four-Fold Acca |
| 5 | Five-Fold Acca |
| 6 | Six-Fold Acca |
| 7 | Seven-Fold Acca |
| 8 | Eight-Fold Acca |
There are acca bets that exceed the eight-fold and then some. Many of the most famous winners from an acca come from a huge list of selections that almost seems incomprehensible when you look at it.
Usually, the more legs you have in the acca, the bigger the odds will be. Of course, if you have a four-fold acca where each pick has very long odds, the total odds of backing that acca will likely be longer than an eight-fold acca made up of odds-on picks.
What Is Acca Insurance?
Acca insurance is a promotion that many bookies offer their bettors to help blunt the blow of missing out on nailing an acca. After all, there are few things more frustrating in a betting sense than seeing your acca lose because one pick has failed.
The acca insurance offer that a bookie will provide will usually refund players their stake if they are let down by a single leg. This means that if you placed a seven-fold acca, and one match that you picked to end in a win for Bayern actually sees Hoffenheim win, then your bookie will refund your stake. However, if Manchester City were held to a draw by Leeds and you picked City to win, then two legs have now let you down, meaning that acca insurance will not cover you unless it is provided for two legs, which is not the norm.
Also, keep in mind that acca insurance will refund your stake as a free bet, and not real cash. This means that if you lost due to one leg, you would get your stake back, but you will be unable to take that money out immediately after receiving it as it is refunded as a free bet.
What Restrictions Apply to Acca Insurance?
First of all, most bookies will only give you your stake back as a free bet if one leg lets you down. This means that whether you have nailed five out of seven picks or 28 out of 30 picks, if more than one leg has let you down, you will not get your money back. Of course, if is worth bearing in mind that some bookies may be more generous with this and provide a two-leg acca insurance, although this is not the norm. As mentioned, while you will receive your stake back if one leg losses, this will not be as real cash. It is most likely that your bookie will gift your stake back as a free bet instead.
Importantly, you need to know how many legs is the minimum you must select to qualify for acca insurance. Many bookies will ask you to have selected at least four legs in your acca to qualify. Of course, this does depend on your bookie of choice, as they may require you to have more or less legs in your acca to qualify. Some bookies may cap the number of selections you can have in an acca to qualify for insurance on it.
A bookie will also tell you the amount you can get up to a certain amount. This is often capped at £10. Therefore, if you staked £10 on your acca, then you stand to get £10 back in free bets. However, if you placed a £20 stake, then your bookie will only give you £10 back. The amount you get back in free bets will have a time limit attached to it. You will have to ensure that you have used the free bet amount within a certain number of days, with a seven-day time limit usually attached to them. These restrictions can quite often change depending on the bookie you are using.
How Do I Use Acca Insurance?
In a footballing sense, you simply need to head over to the football section of the site. Many bookies will show you which matches help to qualify you for acca insurance, with these almost always including the major leagues like the Premier League, Championship, Champions League, Europa League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga all covered.
To begin creating your acca, simply add each selection to your bet slip. After you have selected enough picks to see you qualify for acca insurance, you can place your stake amount. After ensuring that you have selected the right competitions and games to qualify, you need to confirm your bet. Next, you simply need to sit back and keep an eye on each of the games you have bet on. If you nail all of your picks, then you are quids in and can enjoy your winnings.
However, if your acca loses because one side falls behind early and fails to win the game or is denied in a last-gasp finish, then your acca insurance will kick in. As long as it is only one result that has let you down, your bookie will then refund your stake up to a certain amount.
What Happens to an Acca If a Game Is Postponed or Abandoned?
There are a number of different scenarios that will tweak what happens to an acca. If a match is postponed before kick-off, then many bookies will treat it as a void bet. A void bet is one that is canceled or simply made null and void. You will not lose anything from it, but you will also not win anything, with your stake being returned to your account. For an acca, this will not usually cancel the whole acca, but it means that specific selection will not count towards your acca. This means that your five-fold acca would become a four-fold acca, for example.
If a match is abandoned after kick-off, then most bookies will still count it as a void bet. However, some bookies may decide to keep the bet alive if the match takes place in a specific time frame, while others will keep the bet running if the game is rescheduled within 48 hours of the original kick-off. If the game is abandoned or canceled, then it will most likely become a void bet.
Is Acca Insurance Worth Using?
Using acca insurance is one way to give yourself some protection when it comes to making bigger bets. You will have seen the jubilant tweets and social media posts of the major winners boasting huge wins, but you will rarely see their losses.
Acca insurance will quite often have helped these bettors to stem the flow of defeats on these big bets. After all, what makes football so entertaining is how unpredictable it is. Betting on the league leaders and best teams from each league may look like a fairly good bet in theory, but shocks and surprises do happen. By ensuring you have qualified for acca insurance, you can help to make any potential losses smaller, and you can get some free bets for your trouble. All in all, if you are a huge acca bettor or a punter that just likes a dabble, acca insurance should be part of your betting armory.
