All You Need to Know About 5-Fold Betting | Parimatch

The Definition of a Five-fold Bet

A five-fold bet is essentially a five-leg accumulator. It includes five picks within the bet slip, all of which must be successful for the overall bet to win. Even if four of your five picks win and one loses, your overall five-fold will still be classed as a losing bet. 

In most cases, five-fold bets must include five bets on separate races or games. Building the same game five-fold bet using prop bets may be possible, but this will be at the bookmaker’s discretion. 

A five-fold bet works by rolling over your stake and winnings from each successful leg to the next. Your returns, therefore, snowball as the winning legs rack up. Calculating the potential returns from winning five-folds is easiest using decimal odds. Let’s say you submitted a five-fold bet on five horses to win five races at the following odds: 

• 2.00 
• 4.00 
• 5.00 
• 7.00 
• 4.50 

All you need to do is calculate 2 x 4 x 5 x 7 x 4.50 to get the expected payout from one betting unit, e.g., £1. 

2 x 4 x 5 x 7 x 4.50 = £1,260 or odds of 1,260/1. 

Which Sports can you Place Five-fold Bets on?

Horse Racing 

Horse racing odds are one of the most popular choices for five-fold bets. It lends itself nicely to multiple bets, especially if you enjoy sitting down and watching an entire racecard at a meeting. 

Most racecards will typically have seven races at a meeting, so you can sift through the races and pick five strong candidates to win five of the races on the card. 

A five-fold horse racing bet doesn’t have to include races from the same meeting either. You might decide to cover one race from five different race meetings on the same day. You’ll have total flexibility to build your 5-fold as you see fit. 

Greyhounds 

It’s a similar story with greyhound accumulators. Five-fold greyhound multiples are very popular, too, with so many races held day and night in the UK and beyond. As with horse racing 5-folds, your greyhound picks could be at five different dog tracks; there are no restrictions on the make-up of your bet. 

Football 

Football accas are one of the most popular ways to get involved with football betting for the first time. Scour through the upcoming fixture lists and pick five teams you think will win their next games. If all five teams win, your five-fold pay out. Five-fold football bets can cover games in the same league if you want, but they can also cover games in different leagues, even games in different countries. Ultimately, it depends on how good your football knowledge is! 

Tennis 

Five-fold bets are also useful for betting on the opening rounds of significant tennis tournaments like the Grand Slams. There are dozens of matches to choose from, and if you can hand-pick five in-form players to win their next matches, you’ll be onto a five-fold winner. As with five-fold football bets, five-leg tennis bets don’t have to cover games in the same tournament. You can include five matches in five separate tournaments, but they all need to win. 

Esports 

Esports is one of the fastest-growing betting markets online. With Esports leagues and tournaments held seemingly weekly in all four corners of the globe, there’s always an event to bet on Esports. If you’ve got know-how on a specific Esport – be it FIFA, Call of Duty, DOTA 2 or League of Legends – you can use your expertise to pick five teams to win their next matches and get a great return if they fulfil their end of the bargain. 

Pros and Cons of 5-fold bets

As with most types of sports bets, there are advantages and disadvantages to five-fold betting. It’s important to be aware of these before you dive headfirst into the markets:  

Pros 

• There’s the potential for returns from minimal stakes since the odds and winnings from each leg are multiplied by one another. 
• You can bet on multiple sporting events within a single bet. 
• You can mix things up with your five-folds too. You don’t have to bet on the same market type with each pick. In football, you could pick a few games Under 2.5 goals, another game where both teams need to score and a winning team in the 1X2 market of another match. 

Cons 

• The downside is that the likelihood of all five outcomes happening is much slimmer than betting on a single event or even a treble where only three outcomes must go in your favour. 
• If you prefer a sports betting strategy with a relatively high strike rate, regularly backing five-folds is unlikely for you. 

Top tips for five-fold betting beginners

1. Take advantage of any welcome bonuses or promotions at Parimatch. You could use a sports betting offer towards speculative bets like five-folds. 
2. Spread your risk across multiple markets. By diversifying your approach, you’ll be less reliant on 1X2 or Over/Under markets as freak results will rear their head. 
3. Do your research first. Get up-to-date statistics on player or team form to try and find value odds to add to your five-fold. 

Alternative Multiple Bet Types to 5-folds

If you’re interested in trying other multiple bets across our sports betting markets, check out these four popular alternatives to five-fold bets: 

• Heinz betting
  A Heinz bet requires you to make six picks, then split across a whopping 57 bet types. This includes bets on 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, six five-folds and one six-fold across your six selections. You’ll be in luck if at least two of your picks can win. Ideally, you’ll need at least four of your six selections to win to return a profit. The biggest disadvantage of this multiple-bet type is the expense. If you want to cover each bet at £1, all 57 bets in a Heinz will cost you £57 in total.
   
• Lucky 63 betting
  Lucky 63 bets are even more intense than a Heinz bet. You’re still required to make six picks across your chosen sports events, but a Lucky 63 bet also includes singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds, five-folds and a six-fold. As the name suggests, you must place no less than 63 bets across your six selections. If you want to return a profit from all 63 bets on your selections, at least three of your picks will usually need to win if not four.

  If you use a Lucky 63 for horse racing bets if one of your six selections is a non-runner, your Lucky 63 isn’t affected. Non-runner doubles are converted into singles, and trebles become doubles. The potential winnings are calculated without this pick.
   

• Yankee betting
  Yankee bets require you to make one less pick than a five-fold, but you’ll still be required to place 11 bets across those four selections. You’ll place six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold bet. Most sports are eligible for use with a Yankee bet, although horse racing is the sport that most bettors use it for.
   
• Super Heinz betting
  If you’re feeling extra bold, you might want to go the whole hog and try a Super Heinz bet for size. Make seven picks across your favoured sports and markets, and you’ll then need to place 120 bets across those selections. This includes 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four-folds, five five-folds, seven six-folds and one seven-fold acca.

  It’s said that you can return a profit with just two winning picks out of the seven, but this ultimately depends on their pre-game odds. You’re likelier to win bigger with three or four successful selections at good odds. 

How to Place a 5-fold bet at Parimatch

If you’d like to give 5-fold bets a try, you can build five-fold multiples within Parimatch bet slips with ease. It’s easy to create an account at Parimatch. Just fill out a few details, and we’ll verify your identity so you can start depositing and building value bet 5-folds on desktop or mobile devices. 

Check out our A-Z of sports betting markets, and you’ll soon discover a host of sporting events and leagues suitable for 5-fold bets. 

Before you get started, we recommend first-time customers at Parimatch dive into our Safer Gambling Portal. This hub contains all our responsible gambling tools available to you so that you can stay in control while enjoying the thrill of finding those five-fold winners.