SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
While the weekend’s headline result was Everton’s demolition of Chelsea at Goodison Park thanks to Stephen Naismith’s hat-trick, this unexpected outcome actually disguised the fact that the bankers are starting to make a comeback.
The start of the football season has seen a series of erratic results as the football clubs and punters get into the swing of a new season. However now it seems that those placing football accumulators at the weekend have taken the trends shown so far and are using that knowledge to good effect when choosing which games to feature in their accas.
Using data from AccaTracker, the app developed by Team FA to help people keep tabs on their multiple bets, only one of the top five most popular matches ended in a draw, with Man City’s late win against Crystal Palace and Arsenal’s easy dispatch of Stoke City featuring in a large number of bets.
Fortunately for bookmakers Watford’s home win against high flying Swansea also featured in around 10% of accumulators, with the Hornets’ unexpected victory no doubt sparing some blushes in the industry’s trading rooms. When supplemented with a draw in the unexpectedly popular match between Charlton and Rotherham, it would appear that honours are even between punters and bookmakers this weekend.
Team FA director of Marketing Tim Pindar commented: “Everton’s defeat of Chelsea would have been a coupon buster at the start of the season, especially given the 6-3 result last year in the Champions’ favour, but punters have already marked Chelsea’s card this year, with the match way down our top ten of popular acca games.
“As the season settles into its rhythm, expect the punters to start becoming more accurate and a few more close shaves for the bookmakers. This is where the data from our AccaTracker app can come in so useful – it can quickly signpost how good a weekend it is for bookmakers… or punters.”
Most popular matches selected by individual AccaTracker users for their accumulators and the percentage of accumulators featuring those matches
| Match | Unique Users | Unique Bets | Result |
| Crystal Palace v Man City | 11% | 12% | 0-1 |
| Arsenal v Stoke | 10% | 11% | 2-0 |
| Watford v Swansea | 9% | 10% | 1-0 |
| Charlton v Rotherham | 7% | 7% | 1-1 |
| Middlesbrough v MK Dons | 7% | 7% | 2-0 |
| Norwich v Bournemouth | 7% | 7% | 3-1 |
| Everton v Chelsea | 6% | 6% | 3-1 |
| Man Utd v Liverpool | 6% | 6% | 3-1 |
| Cardiff v Huddersfield | 6% | 5% | 2-0 |
| West Brom v Southampton | 5% | 5% | 0-0 |
| Birmingham v Bristol City | 4% | 4% | 4-2 |
| QPR v Nottm Forest | 4% | 4% | 1-2 |
| Leeds v Brentford | 4% | 4% | 1-1 |
| Bolton v Wolves | 4% | 4% | 2-1 |
Users may have more than one accumulator bet registered with AccaTracker.
Accatracker has been downloaded over 750,000 times, and is the only UK betting app to be listed as a ‘Featured App Store Favourite’
