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If you’ve ever placed a bet online, you probably know what accumulators are. Punters are no longer restricted to placing single bets – they can bet on doubles, trebles, and accumulators at will.
In this banker bets review guide, we’ll tell you more about this exciting bet and how to place it at the top bookies online.
The definition of a banker bet says that it is the selection that is most likely to win. Think of it as the most reliable leg of multiple options on your slip. It’s the least expected bet to cause trouble for you and is commonly a short-priced selection.
This form of betting involves 3 or more selections, with punters being able to pick their banker bets straight from the slip. It’s different from accumulators that include all the selections into a single wager. It differs from combinations bets that have some or all possible combinations across several pay lines. Football banker bets allow you to choose the ‘banker’ yourself, meaning pick the selection you’re sure will win.
Banker bets are simple to place and are commonly used when you’ve done your research correctly. You can’t just pick a banker randomly. This bet works best when you believe you’ve got a sure winner to back up from the multiple selections.
For example, you can place a Bet365 banker bet by highlighting the bankers on the slip with a single click. These must win if your stakes are to come in. If any of the bankers lose, you lose the full slip.
When placing a banker bet, review your options carefully. It would help if you only chose to use bankers when you’re sure those selections are worth backing up. That is why they’re usually short-priced, although there are exceptions. If you believe a horse is a safe bet or a football team wins its match at great prices, those are the times when banker bets make sense.
An important thing you need to note about banker bets is that not every sportsbook offers the option. Also, those with the option don’t provide it by default. You must add the necessary selections to your betting slip before the banker option can appear.
Once you find a sportsbook that provides the bet, here is the step-by-step process on how you can place it:
| Steps | Instructions |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Choose the sports market you are interested in and add it to the betting slip. You will need at least three selections for you to get access to the banker bet feature. |
| Step 2 | Once the selections are on your bet slip, you must switch your wager to the “Banker” bet. This feature’s location typically differs from one sportsbook to the others, but you will usually find it under the “System” bet section. It will show as “Banker” or just “B.” Once you have switched to the wager, you will see “B” appear next to every single selection on your betting slip. |
| Step 3 | The next step is to choose the banker. Tick the “B” feature next to the selection you want as your banker. (Note that you can select more than one option in your bet, but at least two options must remain as standard non-bankers). It’s best to consider only the selection with the most significant probability of winning as your banker. |
| Step 4 | The last step is to decide the wager amount you want to stake on the bet. When you select your banker, the betting slip will reveal the different system bets you can back, and you are free to choose any option you want. Remember that what you back will determine your wager amount and potential winnings. |
Banker bets can be used in other types of multiple selections bets. Let’s see how they work in the most popular ones.
Accumulators include 4 or more selections on a single line bet. Depending on the bookies, the maximum number of choices varies. Bwin and Bet365, for example, allow up to 20. Since the number of selections is so significant, adding a banker bet or two is smart. Check out today’s banker bets at an expert tipster site like ours and build the Acca around them.
For those unaware, forecasts are a particular type of horse racing bet. It allows you to bet on runners that should finish first and second in any order for your bet to win. In this case, you can use a horse with the best chances of winning as a banker’s top element in a forecast.
When betting on doubles and trebles, it would be wise for the first element to be a banker. In that case, you’ll minimize the risk of losing the full bet and get at least something in return.
System bets are pretty complex, often combining accumulators with trebles and doubles. With this bet, only 1 or 2 legs are enough to return. Make those legs a banker bet, and you’ll build a slip that can pay nicely.
Let’s use a horse race at bookmakers as the basis for a banker bet. With the banker bet working best with 3 selections, you identify the horses most likely to win. One of these selections is chosen to win the race – usually the shortest price.
The other 2 selections are boxed to finish second or third. In this case, the banker must win in all possible combinations. This type of bet has numerous possible combinations, but the banker must prevail in all of them.
As long as he wins the race, it doesn’t matter which horse finishes second or third. It’s the same if you pick a banker to finish in the top 2 or 3. As long as it ends on the 3 top spots, there will be numerous other combinations for you to receive a payout. That’s the banker bet explained in the simplest way possible.
|
Total Stake
|
Bet combinations
|
Odds & Payout
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Banker + 1/3 | £30 (£10 per bet) |
A + B
A + C
A + D
|
1.5 x 4.0 = 6.0 x £10 = £60
1.5 x 3.0 = 4.5 x £10 = £45
1.5 x 5.0 = 7.5 x £10 = £75
|
| 1 Banker + 2/3 | £30 (£10 per bet) |
A + B + C
A + B + D
A + C + D
|
1.5 x 4.0 x 3.0 = 18.0 x £10 = £180
1.5 x 4.0 x 5.0 = 30.0 x £10 = £300
1.5 x 3.0 x 5.0 = 22.5 x £10 = £225
|
| 1 Banker + 3/3 | £10 | A + B + C + D | 1.5 x 4.0 x 3.0 x 5.0 = 90.0 x £10 = £900 |
Any punter in the betting scene for a while would have heard the term “banker of the day” being thrown around. This term essentially refers to the bet that is a near-certain winner (i.e., the banker). This banker is expected to be the most reliable winner of the day. Due to the perceived high probability of winning, bookmakers typically offer low odds on these wagers. It can go as low as 1.20 or even lower.
Identifying a banker is not the most straightforward task. It requires a deep understanding of the sport you are interested in and the teams and players involved. Interestingly, different sites offer services for banker of the day predictions and tips to help punters find the most reliable options.
Here are some key factors that can help you identify a banker bet of the day:
You should note that while these factors can be helpful and the predictions given by tipsters can be beneficial, sport is inherently unpredictable. There is never a guarantee that a wager will succeed. However, it is a great way to significantly reduce the risk of losing.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
The most significant and obvious advantage of a banker bet is that you don’t need to pick specific winners of events besides the one you set to be a banker.
For example, putting a banker with 4 Premier League matches reduces the risk of losing significantly. You will choose the most likely team as a winner on that kind of slip, and the matches you’re not that sure of can then add to the value of said slip. As mentioned earlier, it works best when you’re sure a selection wins and unsure of how others will perform. |
The glaring disadvantage of banker bets is that they cost more than a single. No profit is guaranteed with banker bets, even if your banker wins.
In that case, you might win, but you may also lose profit depending on the odds. It would be best to do it smartly when placing soccer banker bets of the day. Don’t just pick a banker and surround it with random selections. In that case, you might not win a single penny, which can be devastating. |
The cost of banker bets is determined by the number of selections on your slip and the chosen bankers. The more you pick, the higher the wager. Keep this in mind when going for bankers. In this case, all the selections on your slip are separate bets, and you must pay for them.
The good news is that bookies such as Paddy Power make calculating the profit and cost of banker bets easy. Just select your bankers and enter the stake; everything will instantly be calculated for you.
Banker bets can deliver solid profit if you pick your selections carefully and others win. However, they can also provide no profit. For example, if your banker wins at short odds and the other bets lose, you would have spent way too much money on odds that bring no profit back.
One of the beauties of banker bets is that it applies to various sports and markets. As long as a sport or betting market supports accumulators and system bets, it can include a banker wager. So, whether you are utilizing “1×2,” “Over/Under,” “Handicap,” “Double Chance,” “Race Winner,” “Forecast,” or any other markets, you can place banker bets on football, tennis, horse racing, and many others.
Another major highlight of this option is that punters can combine it with different markets across multiple sports.
Football is undeniably the most popular sport globally, which remains the same in the betting scene. Every sportsbook offers betting markets on loads of football leagues, competitions, and tournaments to punters worldwide. You will find events in the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the German Bundesliga, and many others.
Punters can place a banker bet on any event they want within any football league, especially when there is a clear difference in skills and team form. For example, let’s say that a punter is interested in the following football markets:
Based on the odds and your analysis, you are sure that Bayern Munich is guaranteed the winner, and you believe Manchester United and Real Madrid also have a good chance of winning. You can easily place this betting option by making Bayern Munich your banker bet and choosing the other two selections as standard.
Naturally, if Bayern Munich loses its game, your entire wager loses. But if they win and at least one of the other two teams selected wins, you will win your wager and get a payout. You will, of course, receive the maximum payout if all three win their games.
As one of the most popular sports, bookmakers offer odds on nearly all major horse racing events worldwide and other less popular ones. Punters have many betting opportunities, with numerous competitions happening throughout the year in the National Hunt, Cheltenham Festival, the Triple Crown, etc.
As such, horse racing also offers excellent chances for banker bets, especially in races where you have a clear favorite that may dominate an event. Plus, with exciting markets like place bets where your selection doesn’t necessarily have to come first for you to win, you can easily find good options for banker bets.
For example, let’s say you have three events at a sportsbook with the following odds on jockeys to win a race.
If your research and analysis reveal that Frankie Dettori will win his race, you can back his selection as your banker bet. Frankie Dettori and at least one of the other selections must win their races for your wager to yield a profit.
Tennis is a head-to-head sport between two players and almost always has a clear winner and a loser. With grand slam tournaments, the ATP tour, the WTA tour, and other competitions and contests, tennis offers a wide range of events for punters to find banker bets.
With tennis, you will usually find many events with a clear difference in skill and form between two players. For example, a seed player faces an unseeded opponent. In these situations where the outcome is almost guaranteed, there is room for a banker bet.
Let’s say that you have these tennis selections in a sportsbook:
With these selections, you can choose Djokovic as your banker as he has the lowest odds and, therefore, the one with the perceived likelihood of winning. Of course, this selection and at least one of the two standard selections must win for your banker bet to win and payout winnings.
As mentioned, punters can use a banker bet on any sports that support system betting. So, aside from the popular sports mentioned above, you can place a banker wager on many others. Some of them include:
The best way to use a banker bet is when you’re confident in the result of one match and have valuable odds on others. The banker bet meaning explains it perfectly – you’re banking on something to happen for sure. You’ll always get short prices on the banker, which isn’t ideal, but if the other selections have good odds, you can make a solid profit.
Surround it with good options at great prices, and you can win pretty solid returns at the top football bookies.
