The Pros and Cons of the Draw No Bet Accumulator

Few markets in the world of football betting are as polarising as the Draw No Bet. Some punters find the added safety extremely helpful, while others see little point in protecting yourself by shortening odds. In this post, though, we’ll be dealing with a very specific use – Draw No Bet accumulators.

Draw No Bet is a fairly simple betting market in which the bet is voided if the match ends in a draw. A void bet means that the full stake is returned to the player. This, of course, comes at a price of lowering returns.

Why Use the Draw No Bet Market?

First of all, let’s consider the numbers behind this market. As a baseline, a simple Result bet has three possible outcomes – Home Win, Draw, or Away Win. That means that each one has a roughly 33% probability before betting odds are considered. Now, odds are pretty important, so this number is misleading. Still, it’s important to keep this in mind because most punters imagine 1X2 bets to be a choice between 2 options rather than 3. The Draw result has always been the middle child of football betting, which tends to skew perceptions a bit.

With this in mind, combining a 50/50 Draw No Bet with accumulators seems like a logical move. However, you may now be asking – why not just use any other market with two possible outcomes? Surely the good old BTTS bet can achieve the same thing?

Yes, but we must also keep in mind how bookmakers work and how the best betting tips work. Not all events and betting markets are treated equally. It takes time and knowledge to price betting odds (or make winning betting tips.) Major online sportsbooks need to price hundreds of markets each day. To keep things manageable, they have to prioritise.

In short, 1X2 bets on major European leagues will always be the first priority. These are the most popular football bets, and they get the most attention. Additionally, because these are the first odds potential new customers check, they have to be the most competitive. The odds for a Draw No Bet wager are based on the 1X2 odds for the same match, so they get to share some of the attention.

Of course, the downside is that finding betting value can be a lot harder. This fact, however, will only seriously impact the most skilled of punters.

Draw No Bet in an Accumulator

More importantly, we’re interested in how this wager interacts with accumulator bets. Accas are inherently risky, as you’re no doubt aware. Any way to manage this risk is a boon in our book, and it should be in yours. However, one of the main contributors to this fact is because of how accumulator bets work. You need all your selections to succeed if you want any sort of payout. That’s the bit that is most painful – you could win 5 selections and trip up on the 6^th one.

Which brings us to the most important fact – a voided bet does not count as lost. As such, if one selection in your Draw No Bet accumulator bet ends in a draw, the acca keeps going. The downside is that the acca now counts as if the voided bet never existed in the first place. This can seriously impact your returns, but it’s better than straight-up losing the whole thing.

Is it worth giving up the odds, though? Well, that entirely depends on your priorities. From where we’re standing, though, an accumulator bet stands to win a lot of cash either way.

There’s one more point we’d like to point out, though it’s admittedly less concrete than the others. Unexpected draws happen a lot more often than major upsets in football. Look at it this way – most bets in accumulators will be rather safe and with short odds. This means that you’re betting on the favourites, more often than not. Now, a favourite can drop the proverbial ball and finish with a draw, but it’s a lot less likely that they’ll actually lose. Our point is that a Draw No Bet wager might be more protective than it seems at first glance.

Alternatives

Now, we’ve given you the basic idea, but it’s up to you to decide how far you want to take it. Mixing and matching Draw no Bet in accumulators with other markets is often a good idea. Sometimes, staving off the draw result is really not that useful.

Also, there are other ways of achieving the same thing. For starters, you could opt for a +0 Asian Handicap. This is functionally identical to Draw No Bet, though. A +/-0.5 Handicap, on the other hand, presents interesting possibilities. Essentially, this will end the match according to the handicap instead of voiding it. It is either riskier or worse in terms of returns but will keep the overall odds of your acca intact.