Combined Betting on Sports: Strategies, Advantages & Risks

Combination bets are non GamStop bookmakers’ big promise of really big winnings. It’s no wonder, since anyone who simply includes all nine matches on their ticket on a normal Premier League weekend can quickly reach dizzying total odds in the high three-digit range. It‘s not uncommon for even a stake of just one euro to yield a four-figure win.

This is partly due to the fact that some providers and non GamStop sportsbooks for UK players pay out various additional bonuses, i.e., additional multipliers, for those who place a certain number of bets. While one sports betting platform requires at least five bets, another will require three or more for the initial small boost.

In today’s sports betting guide, we aim to find answers to these questions. To do this, we’ll not only provide you with an explanation of exactly how accumulator bets work, but we’ll also show you your specific chances of potentially making a profit with a Premier League accumulator betting strategy.

How Combination Bets Work at Non GamStop Bookmakers?

If you want to bet on a single game or a specific event, the only option is obviously a single bet. However, if you’ve identified several potentially attractive markets, you can place your bets separately by placing multiple single bets. Alternatively, you can combine all of the individual bets into a single bet. This is called a combination bet. A third option is system bets, which we will cover in a separate sports betting guide.

The central feature of a combination bet is that you’re essentially playing an “all or nothing” game. Assuming you have four picks on one ticket, you only make a profit if all four picks actually come true. If there’s even a single outlier, the entire ticket automatically collapses. The range of combination bets is accordingly very wide, and the potential for frustration enormous.

Surely any sports betting enthusiast can tell you a tale of woe about having a large combination bet with a high win that would have paid off right up until injury time, before a single last-minute goal ruined the ticket. Instead of a four- or even five-figure win, nothing at all came of it in the end, without a safety net or a backup plan.

But that’s precisely what makes a combination bet so appealing: even with a very small stake there’s the chance of big winnings. It’s almost like the lottery, where a game also costs just one euro but can theoretically make the lucky winner a multi-millionaire. With the small but important exception that with the lottery the numbers really are drawn completely randomly, whereas with Premier League bets with expertise you can at least find the best possible option. But every bettor should be aware that this doesn’t necessarily work out.

All the more so because football is a team sport in which an infinite number of factors can tip a game. Sometimes all it takes for an underdog to win is a rash move by an individual who causes a penalty, is sent off early or even scores an own goal.

But let’s briefly address the question of why accumulator bets are so appealing. This is because the odds of all the events needed to win the bet are multiplied together. And anyone who has ever dealt with exponential growth knows that beyond a certain multiplication, veritable quantum leaps are possible. Let’s look at two calculation examples – one on a small scale and one on a large scale.

How Are Combination Bets Calculated? A Clear Example

Let’s say you want to place three bets. Bet A has odds of 1.50, Bet B has odds of 2.00, and Bet C has odds of 1.90. For simplicity, let’s say that all three bets have a positive expected value (i.e., they are value bets ), and let’s say that your money management has shown you would bet €10 on each bet. If the individual bets were to come in, the following would result:

Tip A: 10 x 1.50 = 15 euros; subtracting the ten euros stake results in a profit of five euros.
Tip B: 10 x 2.00 = 20 euros = ten euros profit.
Tip C: 10 x 1.90 = 19 euros = nine euros profit

This would result in a total profit of €24. Let’s now compare this with the combination bet. The three odds are first multiplied:

1.50 x 2.00 x 1.90 = 5.70

For direct comparison, we’ll play this bet with exactly the same stake. Instead of three times ten euros, we’ll bet 30 euros.

30 x 5.70 = 171 euros; minus the 30 euros stake, the winnings amount to a whopping 141 euros. This is almost six times the winnings you would have achieved with three individual bets.

This is precisely what the peculiarity of this betting type demonstrates: If all the predictions come true, the cash register will really ring. However, a single incorrect prediction would mean the loss of the entire stake.

Let’s assume that only Tip B, at odds of 2.00, fails. Then the first player, who placed three single bets of ten euros each, makes a combined profit of 14 euros on Tip A and Tip C. Subtracting the ten euros for Tip B, which didn’t win, leaves a profit of four euros. Meanwhile, the second player, who placed all three bets on one ticket, loses the entire 30 euros.

Let’s say only bet A, with the lowest odds, comes in. Player two again loses €30, while the first player still makes a profit of €5 with one bet, meaning he only loses €15 overall—and thus only half of what the bettor who relied on the combination bets lost.