Biggest Ever Football Accumulator Wins Based on Return on Investment

We’ve all been in the situation where our betting account funds have dipped below £1 and it says a lot about a punter’s style as to how you react in such a scenario.

Do you place what little funds you have on ‘banker’ after ‘banker’ to try and build it up to a stake level that’s worthwhile, or do you throw it all on a mega accumulator with one throw of the dice?

Many of us fall into the latter category and, sometimes, it can actually pay off. That has been the case for a string of football bettors who have taken football betting sites to the cleaners by risking nothing more than small change.

Here, we rank the biggest football accumulator wins we’ve ever come across based on that all-important metric – the Return On Investment (ROI), defined by Forbes as ‘a simple ratio that divides the net profit (or loss) from an investment by its cost’.

* Return on Investment = (Net Profit / Cost of Investment) x 100

1. £157k from a 60p Stake

Return on Investment = 26,310,831.7%

Ladbrokes is known as one of the biggest betting sites and one of the most recognised outlets on the high street in the UK and Ireland, but even an enormous bookmaker like them must have been taken aback by the scale of this achievement.

The anonymous punter correctly predicted all 16 results across the Premier League and Championship on April 30, 2022. The odds equated to 263,109/1, meaning the 60p investment provided an ROI of 26,310,831.7%.

Ladbrokes spokesman Alex Apati said: "What makes the acca even more impressive is that there was just one draw across all 16 games, and our customer managed to pick it out; truly remarkable stuff."

2. €421k from a €5 Stake

Return on Investment = 8,419,900%

Sometimes, it pays dividends to make the one selection you have the most faith in go a little further. That’s what this Irish punter did in December 2014 when a 20-fold accumulator came in on Boxing Day having been placed in a Paddy Power outlet just before Christmas.

Nineteen of the 20 selections were outright match result winners, but one leg of the bet gave the punter’s slip a bit of oomph with Manchester City having been backed to beat West Brom by at least two goals.

This handicap betting manoeuvre provided odds of 7/5 on a comfortable afternoon for City rather than 1/2 on a win of any nature – they duly won 3-1. That ensured a €421,000 return from a €5 stake, a return on investment of 8,419,900%.

3. £13k from a 42p Stake

Return on Investment = 3,176,161.9%

On a May Bank Holiday weekend in 2022, a William Hill customer landed an audacious 15-fold football accumulator which saw him win £13,340.30 off a 42p stake. Not bad eh? That equates to an ROI percentage of 3,176,161.9!

The games the punter predicted were in Scottish and English leagues, with St Mirren beating St Johnstone the biggest call at 11/5. Crucially, there were no draws selected – all picks were either home or away wins, often the key to success when betting on an acca.

4. £28k from a £1 Stake

Return on Investment = 2,799,900%

Backing the result with both teams to score is an increasingly popular selection when compiling accumulators on betting apps. 

Not only does it give your odds a boost, but it also adds an extra layer of intrigue as you’re constantly checking the scores to see if both teams have found the net yet in your chosen games.

In April 2021, a savvy William Hill customer used their knowledge of European football to pick out the results and both teams to score in seven matches across England, France, Italy and Sweden. 

Just £1 was staked on wins and BTTS on the likes of Metz vs Monaco, IFK Goteborg vs Varnamo and Atalanta vs Napoli. 

It can pay to look overseas for betting value and, given the volume of statistics available online, a little bit of homework can reap serious dividends. This punter collected £28,000 from a £1 bet, a 2,799,900% return on investment.

5. €451k from a €20 Stake

Return on Investment = 2,255,312.35% 

As mentioned above, sticking to either home or away wins are key to winning big on football accumulators, with draws notoriously difficult to predict. 

That’s what makes this enormous win all the more remarkable as an Irish punter successfully predicted eight wins and FIVE draws. 

Indeed, it was actually one of the draws which sealed the deal at the death. This bet took place in 2014 when Sunderland and Cardiff were in the Premier League and fighting for survival. 

The Bluebirds had been leading 2-0 until the 83rd minute, but Steven Fletcher set up a tense finale by pulling one back. 

Then, in the fifth minute of added time, a deflected strike from Jack Colback brought Sunderland level, arriving 12 seconds before the final whistle! 

It was enough to earn this plucky punter a €451,082.47 windfall.

6. £21k from a £1 Stake

Return on Investment = 2,187,404%

In October 2021, Cardiff City were in a rut. An eight-game losing streak was compounded by a rotten run of luck in front of goal with just one scored in that sequence of defeats. 

Very few punters were backing the Bluebirds for any sort of positive result at that time, but one astute Ladbrokes customer never lost faith. 

Even with Cardiff being 3-0 down away to Stoke, and all nine of the other selections looking home and dry, this bettor never took up the offer of a cash out. 

The reluctance paid off as, somehow, Cardiff mustered fresh belief and stunned the Potters with three goals in six second-half minutes.

They hung on to earn a much-needed point and one very happy punter whose 21,875/1 acca came in.

7. £30k from a £1.50 Stake

Return on Investment = 2,037,650% 

In November 2022, a William Hill punter netted £30,566.25 from just a £1.50 stake thanks to a flurry of late goals in the Champions League.

Backing Liverpool to beat Napoli 2-0, Tottenham to win 2-1 at Marseille, Ajax to beat Rangers 3-1 and Bayern to win 2-0 against Inter, the customer’s correct score betslip looked dead and buried heading into injury time.

However, goals from Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Darwin Nunez, who both scored with the last kick of the game, as well as an 89^th minute strike from Francisco Conceição for Ajax, completed an astonishing turnaround.

The cumulative odds for correctly predicting the four correct scores were 13,584/1, which the punter staked £1.50 to generate returns of £20,377.50. 

However, thanks to William Hill’s Bet Boost feature, which allows customers to enhance the odds of their choosing on a football accumulator of three selections or more, the punter netted an extra £10,188.75.

8. £308k from a £20 Stake

Return on Investment = 1,544,300%

It takes a lot of guile and patience to stick with a season-long ante-post bet, but it paid off big time for a certain William Hill customer who correctly predicted the winner of six leagues in England and Scotland in the 2021-22 season. 

An investment of just £20 on Kilmarnock to win the Scottish Championship (4/5), Cove to win Scottish League One (3/1), Kelty Hearts to win Scottish League Two (4/6), Fulham to win the Championship in England (9/2), Wigan to win League 1 (11/1) and Forest Green to win League 2 (12/1) yielded an incredible return of £308,880.

Having placed the bet in August 2021, it was settled a winner before the season had come to its conclusion, the punter collecting his winnings on May 7, 2022, with an 80th minute equaliser from Forest Green’s Josh March sealing the deal. By our calculations, that’s an ROI of over 1.5million per cent. Decent!

9. £30k from a £2 Stake

Return on Investment = 1,491,330.5%

Backing draws on football accas is generally unadvisable. Creating a list of eight results featuring nothing but draws is simply unthinkable. Or is it? 

That’s precisely what one Ladbrokes punter did in September 2022, successfully picking eight draws in England’s lower leagues.

It can certainly pay to know your Championship betting and Football League betting, and Reeco Hackett’s header in the 94th minute for Plymouth against Portsmouth ensured this shrewd gambler predicted all eight draws in the Football League on September 17, 2022. 

It netted them precisely £29,828.61 from a £2 stake, a return on investment of 1,491,330.5%.

10. £63k from a £5 Stake

Return on Investment = 1,257,833.8%

Betting on over/under markets is immensely popular in both UK and US betting circles, but it takes an ambitious punter to group 18 of them on the one betting slip. 

That’s what one Ladbrokes customer did in the early stages of the 2022/23 football season, using their expert knowledge of England’s lower divisions to take the bookies to the cleaners. 

Just £5 was staked, but with 18 matches riding on the bet with individual predictions on over 2.5 goals, over 3.5 goals and over 1.5 goals, the odds added up to over 12,500/1.

Imran Kayani’s last-minute winner for Slough Town against Hampton & Richmond in National League South – the sixth tier of English football – secured a full house of correct predictions, earning the bettor £63k off a fiver.

11. £520K from a £43 Stake

Return on Investment = 1,210,672.09%

In May 2021, an Irish punter signed off the football season in style by scooping over half a million from four whopping accumulator bets placed in a Ladbrokes outlet.  

The Galway-native placed four separate accumulator bets – needing a staggering 22 or 23 results in each acca to correctly go his way – and all four wagers relied on a late winner between Sevilla and Alaves to land a life-changing £520,632.

The four bets saw £43 staked in total and the optimistic punter's teams spanned across several European and South American leagues, requiring a mixture of victories, both teams scoring and under 3.5 goals.

One accumulator was cashed out for £88k with the rest left to ride it out until full-time. Indeed, had the customer let all four bets run he would've picked up an extra £46k! 

Needing over 20 results to go your way is no mean feat though, so hats off to this bettor regardless of the cash out faux pas.

Do you know of a mega accumulator win that should feature on this list? Hit us up with the details at newsdesk@gdcgroup.com.