In the ever-competitive world of online sports betting, acca insurance has now become almost a must-have for all sportsbooks, as punters go in search of greater value. Here’s your guide to betting sites that offer acca insurance, how it works, its benefits, and the terms and conditions to be aware of so your acca insurance kicks in.
The Benefits of Acca Insurance
Given this guide is all about finding the best acca insurance offers and knowing how to best take advantage of them, it’s worth remembering the benefits behind acca insurance.
- You get rewarded for coming close: One day, John and Peter both place five-fold accas made up of five Saturday UK football matches, with both coming to odds that are very close to 5/1. Just one of John’s selections wins, while four out of five of Peter’s selections win. In normal circumstances, they’d just both be settled as usual as losers because neither acca won. But though Peter’s acca didn’t win, it came very close. Hence the reward for him and not John.
- A second chance: In almost all cases, the acca insurance will see you refunded with the full value of the stake you placed on the acca, assuming, of course, the accumulator insurance kicks in. The refund is normally in the form of a free bet. That’s a second chance you wouldn’t normally have. This will be particularly useful when you’re low on funds, meaning you won’t need to make another deposit.
- You might end up winning at bigger odds: Let’s say you were going to place a 4-fold at odds of 4/1. Then you notice an acca insurance offer that promises to refund your stake if you have five or more selections, where just one lets you down. So, you add a fifth selection, and the acca now comes to 6/1. Not only could the acca insurance kick in if just one selection lets you down, but the acca could go on to win at bigger odds than what you had originally planned.
Criteria for Choosing Your Ideal Acca Insurance Offer
All the best betting sites have some great offers out there, including, of course, some of the best acca insurance promos. But all promos have requirements you need to be aware of. Here are common ones for acca insurance.
Minimum Acca Odds
Sportsbooks need to protect themselves against bonus abuse and one way of doing so is to make sure that the punter is taking sufficient risks with their acca. Accas coming to odds of just 1.5 (1/2 as fractional odds) where one leg letting the punter down resulted in a refund, could prove pretty costly to the sportsbook offering it.
So, in general, the acca as a whole needs to come to odds of at least 3/1 or 4/1 to be eligible for acca insurance.
However, there are exceptions. At some betting sites, you need to have at least four selections in your acca, but each one only needs to be at odds of 1/5. So, if you found four selections at those exact odds to put in your acca, they’d come to just 2.07 (1.2 x 1.2 X 1.2 X 1.2= 2.07), and you’d still be eligible for acca insurance.
In some cases, the sportsbook will specify that both the acca as a whole and each selection, must be at certain odds.
Minimum Number of Selections
This is another way of bookies insuring themselves against…acca insurance! Even when betting each selection at short odds-on, it still follows that the more selections in your acca you need to have, the less likely it is that your acca as a whole will win, or that the sportsbook will need to pay out on acca insurance.
Some acca insurance offers (see above) say you need at least four selections, while others say you only need three. At some sportsbooks, you can get a free bet if one selection lets you down, but you need at least five selections, for example. So, the minimum number of selections depends on the betting sites and their offers.
Type of Refund and Refund Value
As is the case with most offers, refunds are rarely paid in cash. They’re generally paid out as free bets. Often, the free bet needs to be placed on another acca, though that’s not always the case. For example, a bookie’s accumulator insurance offer gives you a refund, but the free bet must be used as a single, not as an acca.
In most cases, the stake of the free bet won’t be included in any winnings; only the profit. That said, it’s rare for there to be wagering requirements on winnings from the free bet.
One thing to pay special attention to is the shelf life of the free bet. Most insurance offers give you just seven days to use your free bet, or it will expire.
As regards the value of the free bet, it’s generally somewhere between £10 (most of the acca insurance offers mentioned here already were capped at £10) and £25. But in rare cases, there is no limit on the refund. It will depend on the value of your bet, but it’s good to keep in mind that insurance offers without a maximum limit exist.
Minimum Stake
Most acca insurance offers don’t mention minimum stakes. One of the reasons why accas are such a popular betting feature is they’re perfect for playing with low stakes and that’s what most customers do. So they don’t want to have to significantly increase their usual stakes just to be eligible for acca insurance.
Besides, the lower the stakes punters are betting on their accas, the lower the refunds being paid back on ones that qualify for insurance.
Sports Eligible for Accumulator Insurance
Football is king when it comes to accas and acca insurance offers, so you’ll (almost) always be able to include football selections that are eligible for insurance. That said, in some cases, only a limited number of different football markets are eligible.
However, some offers state that only accas made up of football selections qualify for insurance and only from specific leagues.
Other sportsbooks specifically exclude selections from horse racing and greyhound racing, so make sure you don’t include any of those in your acca, or you won’t be refunded.
But these are exceptions and you can generally include selections from whatever sport you’re betting on in your acca; but always check the Ts and Cs to be sure.
How to Claim Acca Insurance
As we’ve seen throughout this article, such things as minimum odds, minimum number of selections and eligible sports mean that no two acca insurance offers are the same. So, the first thing you need to do is make sure you understand all the requirements of the particular sportsbook where you’re looking to get your acca insurance. After that:
- Log into your account
- Choose your acca selections
- Re-read the Ts and Cs to make sure your acca fulfils all the requirements
- Make any changes to your acca if necessary
- Choose your stake
- Process the bet
- If acca insurance kicks in and you don’t get your free bet/refund, contact customer service
- Make sure you use your free bet within 7 days or whatever the shelf life of the bonus is
All you have to do is find a licensed and secure sportsbook that gives the best acca insurance offer for your betting preferences and make the best of it.
