If you have read our feature on fourfold or fivefold bets then you should have a very good idea what a sixfold bet is. Whether you call it a sixfold, a 6-fold, a 6 fold or any other variation, this is a straight accumulator bet that includes six separate and unrelated legs (which you may see referred to as selections, predictions or bets).
As with all accas, all six legs must win or you will lose your stake. This bet is all or nothing and you either win big, or you lose, with nothing in between. We have covered all the essential points about accas and similar multiples in a wide range of articles, starting with our piece about the simplest accumulator of them all: a double. For that reason, in this article, we keep our explanations brief when it comes to the more elementary points. Instead, here we will focus more on showing you some alternative betting options you can use when it comes to sixfolds, and we will also offer an illustration of what sort of wins you can land when you get things right.
Sixfolds Explained
Before we do that, however, let us very briefly explain what a sixfold is, for those who do not want the greater depth of information offered in our other related features. As said, a sixfold is a wager in which you make six predictions and all must win. One stake covers all the legs of the bet, with winnings rolling over, or accumulating, from one leg to the next.
The legs of your 6-fold can be from a range of sports or markets, or all from the same sport and/or market (of different individual matches/events). Popular options might be six football teams to win at the weekend, or six horses, either from a single meeting or spread over a day’s action. However, you can get as creative as you want, including six different sports if that’s what takes your fancy.
The only exclusion is that the legs must be unrelated to each other. Where selections are related they are called related contingencies and you can read more about that elsewhere on the site. Typically this means legs for which the probability of one thing happening affects the probability of another leg cannot be combined. If you attempt to place such a bet online, the bookmaker’s technology should make this impossible; but if you have any doubt check with customer services before you place the bet.
In general, markets or selections on the same event cannot be added to an acca. As a simple example, you could not make a double bet from the same match using over 2.5 goals and both teams to score. Clearly, if both teams score, the chances of over 2.5 goals are far greater and so the double artificially inflates the odds in a way that is unrealistic and unfair to the bookie.
Each Way 6 Folds
Just about all accas and multiple bets can be made as straight win wagers or as each way bets. The former is more common but the latter is a good option, especially for horse racing fans. Landing six winners at the races is no easy task but getting six places is far more realistic. Of course, one option would be to use the bookie’s “To Place” market and place a sixfold acca on that. However, as with any each way bet, an each way sixfold gives you the added bonus of the chance of the really big win as well as a very tidy win should only the each way portion of your bet be successful.
To place an each way 6-fold you just make your six picks as normal and at an online betting site these will be added to the electronic betting slip. Assuming all picks are eligible for each way (such as in a horse race) you will be presented with the option to back the acca each way, usually via a tick box. As with all each way bets, this doubles the stake, such that a £10 each way sixfold will cost £20 in total.
You then essentially have two bets: a sixfold win acca and a sixfold place accumulator. To win both bets all six of your selections must win their race, whilst to win the just the place portion of the wager, you must have a win or a place in all six races. If any one of the six legs fails to at least place, you have automatically lost both the win and place part of your each way sixfold.
In terms of the place part of the bet, it makes no difference to your payout whether you get six places, or five winners and one second-place finish. However the six “places or better” are made up, you will only win the each way part of the bet. The each way terms are specific to each individual leg though. By this we mean that if your first race is a quarter of the odds for a top-four finish, these are the terms that will be used to calculate if that leg is a winner (your horse must finish in the top four) and what contribution (a quarter of the odds) it will make towards the acca.
Example Winnings from Each Way Sixfold
Let us imagine you back the following acca for £10 each way:
- Race 1 – 5/1, 3 Places, 1/5 odds – horse wins
- Race 2 – 10/1, 3 Places, 1/5 odds – horse finishes third
- Race 3 – 4/1, 2 Places, 1/4 odds – horse wins
- Race 2 – 20/1, 4 Places, 1/5 odds – horse finishes fourth
- Race 1 – 16/1, 3 Places, 1/4 odds – horse finishes third
- Race 2 – 10/1, 5 Places, 1/5 odds – horse wins
Although three of the six horses have won, because the other three did not, the win portion of the bet is a loser and you are £10 down. However, all six horses met the place requirements and so the place portion of the each way sixfold is a winner. The winning legs pay out as follows:
- 1/5 of 5/1 = even money
- 1/5 of 10/1 = 2/1
- 1/4 of 4/1 = even money
- 1/5 of 20/1 = 4/1
- 1/4 of 16/1 = 4/1
- 1/5 of 10/1 = 2/1
Winning each way sixfold acca is effectively based on selections at evens, evens, 2/1, 2/1, 4/1 and 4/1. That means that a £10 bet would pay out a total of £9,000, for an overall net win of £8,990. As said, that net win would be the same whether you had five winners and a second or all six horses scraping their final place spot by a nose.
Whilst that is clearly a very, very handsome win, it is worth noting that had all six horses won, the total returns would have been (in theory and subject to maximum payout rules) an insane £12,968,080! Or just shy of £13m in other words!
Example Wins at Different Odds Ranges
When you place a sixfold bet, any win is likely to be substantial. This is because the cumulative impact of six winning bets, even at short odds, where the stake is also rolling over, is dramatic. To keep our examples simple, let us assume that all six winning legs within each acca are all at the same price. In addition, we are now looking at simple win sixfolds, rather than each way bets, although we will retain the base stake of £10.
Even a sixfold of football “bankers”, such as over 2.5 goals in open-looking games, with all selections at odds of 4/7 would return £150.58. As we increase those odds we can see that returns rise quite dramatically:
- 6 fold at 8/11 returns £265.56
- 6 fold at evens returns £640
- 6 fold at 6/4 returns £2,441.41
- 6 fold at 5/2 returns £18,382.66
- 6 fold at 4/1 returns £156,250
When you look at the potential returns, it is easy to see why people love betting on accumulators. It should always be remembered though that landing such bets is far from simple. Even a bet at 8/11 only has around a 55% chance of success (roughly allowing for the bookmaker’s profit margin) and so when you string six of those together the reality is that the bet is probably going to lose.
You might think that individually all six legs have a great chance but anyone who has placed many accas knows that more often than not there is one leg that lets you down, one unusual result. That said, if you opt for a sixfold, you are not too far off the sweet spot where the potential for huge returns but a still-realistic chance of success lies.
6 Folds from More Selections
One way to increase your chances of success is to opt for a sixfold but one that uses more than six selections. This might seem a contradiction but six folds from eight selections, or sixfolds from 10 selections are bets that more and more punters are making. Once again, this is something we have looked at it in our other articles but in short, these wagers are multiples bets where you make, for example, eight predictions, and place bets on all the possible sixfolds that can be constructed using these eight legs.
With a standard sixfold acca you need to get six out of six to avoid a loss. That 100% strike rate is, obviously, tough to land. However, if you have eight selections on your betting slip, most major betting sites will list sixfolds as a possible bet. They will typically also offer the choice to back the eightfold acca, the eight possible sevenfolds and all the other possible combinations too (28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds and the all-encompassing Goliath too, this being 247 bets in total).
28 Bets in Total
If you select the sixfolds wager, you will see that this entails 28 bets in total. That means that using eight predictions as a foundation, you can create 28 different combinations of six. Each of these bets will require a stake of its own so a sixfolds from eight selections bet for £1 will cost £28 in total. In order to win all 28 of those bets, you must get all eight of your legs over the line. If you do that the returns will be truly huge, as you will have won not one sixfold bet, not two, but a massive 28 of them!
Get seven of your selections right and you will win seven individual sixfolds. That will still lead to a very nice win and even if you land just six of your eight legs, winning just one bet, the chances are it will more than cover your total stake.
Returns Vary According to Number of Winners
Your precise returns will vary according to whether you get six, seven or eight winners and, of course, what the odds of those successful bets are. However, the nice thing about opting for a bet like this is that you have the chance to win very large amounts from small stakes but at the same time you do not need to get every single leg spot on.
You do not need to stick with sixfolds from eight selections either. You can place similar bets using just seven selections, nine, 10 or even more. Of course, the more legs you include the bigger your margin for error but on the flip side, there are many more stakes to cover. For example, opting for a 6-fold from 10 selections increases the bets from a total of 28 to a massive 210! That means that your same £1 bet would now cost £210!