If you want to reduce your losses and increase your winnings in your accumulators then here’s how to bet doubles on football.
I suspect this will not be my path to riches. Don’t get me wrong, I have very few ethical or moral quandaries about living the Instagram lifestyle of fast cars and exotic holidays. Sign me up for that, I am all in.
I just don’t think that betting £6 a weekend on the football is going to achieve that. Not even a Fiat Cinquecento.
However, I do finish in profit each season and I’m not particularly great at picking the results. I’m even worse at playing the odds. I just know a trick to half my losses and double my wins.
Jeff Stelling shouting good news
Each Saturday afternoon I dare to part with £6 of my hard earned cash to make the football results more interesting. I have been successful enough to withdraw £100 from my betting account and treat myself to a pair of headphones. Not just any headphones, wireless headphones. If I hook them up to the TV then Jeff Stelling can shout at me in stereo.
But the key point is that I turned £6 into £100 without really being that good at predicting football results. I did it through placing a second bet that both reduces my loses if the bet doesn’t come in and increases my winnings if it does come in. Here’s how to bet doubles on football.
How to bet doubles on football
You may have spotted that I bet an unusual amount of money: £6. Not a round £5. There’s a reason for this and it’s not OCD.
Each weekend I pick three matches where I think I know the outcome. I keep it safe and look for when a team near the top of the table is playing a team near the bottom and back the better team to win.
I stake £3 in my accumulator and if the bet comes in I might win – to pick a number for easy maths –£24. That would mean odds of 7/1 (seven times £3 is £21 plus my £3 stake back is £24).
The key is that I put on a second bet to cover this. I also bet doubles for £1.
Here comes the science bit. Actually it’s the maths bit, but no one once said that in a shampoo advert.
Double your wins and halve your losses
Betting doubles is where you place a bet on each of the two game combinations within your accumulator. As my accumulator is for three matches, that’s three combinations:
- Game 1 and Game 2 coming in
- Game 1 and Game 3 coming in
- Game 2 and Game 3 coming in
My £1 doubles bet will actually cost me £3. I’m placing £1 on all the available two game combinations in the accumulator, of which there are three.
So I am spending £3 on my main bet and £3 on my doubles bets. £6 in total.
Why this works
If one of the three games in my accumulator doesn’t go the way I want it to, for example game 2 fails me, then I’ve lost my accumulator. I’ve also lost two of my doubles. In the example above, the first and third combination has failed.
But my doubles bet of Game 1 and Game 3 has still come in. I haven’t won £6, but I’ve probably won about £3 and halved my losses.
Obviously if two games fail then I’ve lost all my money, but that’s why I play it safe by backing the teams near the top of the table to beat those at the bottom; it usually happens.
If I bet doubles in a ten-game accumulator there’s going to be hundreds of combinations so the bet is going to be extremely expensive. It also has a high chance of not coming in – my bet only covers me if one game fails. In a ten-game acca there’s a good chance that more than one game will fail. Let’s stick to three.
How to bet doubles on football
If I predicted the results correctly then my accumulator comes in and every game in my doubles comes in. I win my £24 plus all the doubles, which is probably closer to £33-£35.
So, by placing betting £6 I still earn some money back if my accumulator fails and I win even more money if my accumulator comes in.
I need less wins and can suffer more losses to finish in profit by the end of the football season.
Keep it sensible
You may be thinking ‘well bet £60 instead of £6 and you’ll finish the season with another zero on the end of your winnings’.
Maybe, but I’m also aware of how powerful a grip gambling can have on people. I just want to make my results interesting. At the point I’ve decided to rely on betting to fund my holidays or household expenditures I’m in Trouble Town.