What Are Bet Builders And How Do They Work?

bet builder promo example

If you’ve spent any time looking at betting sites then you’ll doubtless have seen reference to Bet Builder tools. Bet Builders essentially do what they say on the tin, allowing punters to build their own bets for football matches (sometimes other sports too, like tennis). The key thing about them, though, is that they allow you to include related contingencies within your personalised bet, which is what sets them apart from similar things such as accumulator wagers.

Bookmakers that offer Bet Builders will present you with a series of markets that you can choose from, combining them together to essentially make your own accumulator wager from said markets. As with all accas, the more markets you add to your bet the higher the odds will be on it coming true. It’s a way of creating a bet that is unique to you without needing to go down the road of requesting a bet from the bookie via social media or similar.

related contingencyElsewhere on the site you’ll be able to read an in-depth piece on related contingencies, so we won’t go into too much detail on the topic here. That being said, we’ll definitely be referencing the idea of related contingencies during this piece so it makes sense to give you a brief outline of what, exactly, they are. In short, a related contingency refers to a scenario in which one part of a bet affects the final outcome of the rest of the bet.

An easy to understand example of a related contingency is an accumulator that includes Liverpool winning 2-0 and Liverpool also winning the match. Were Liverpool to win 2-0 then they would obviously also win the match they’re playing in, so bookmakers won’t allow you to place that as an acca as the two bets are linked. If the outcome of one part of a bet contributes to the outcome of another, whether wholly or partly, you can’t place it in a normal wager.

Bookmakers invented some markets years ago to get around some of this problem.  You’ve no doubt heard of a scorecast, wincast or timecast wager that allows you to pick a goalscorer and correct score / result / time of goal? This is an example of a packaged bet for two related contingencies.  All a bet builder does is take this further and allow you to add many more different markets to one bet within one match.

Why Bookies Offer Bet Builders

bet builder market examplesWith related contingencies out of the question when it comes to adding legs to an accumulator bet, the obvious question is why would bookmakers allow you to add them as part of a Bet Builder wager? The answer comes in the form of the margin that such bets provide bookmakers with. The more legs that are added to a Bet Builder, the longer the odds will be but also the higher the percentage cut for the betting site and therefore the more money the bookie stands to make whether it wins or not.

Because bookmakers know that using a Bet Builder or similar service is the only way to get the combination of markets that punters want, they don’t need to worry about being competitive when it comes to their odds. Instead, they can pretty much offer bettors whatever they want and they either have to like it or lump it. This is the perfect combination for bookmakers, offering punters something that they’ve craved at prices that work in their favour.

It is one reason you see so many features and promotions for bet builders, like accumulators bookies want you to use them as they are high margin markets for them, i.e. they are profitable.

How Bet Builders Work

Website BuildNow that we know what related contingencies are and why bookmakers are happy to offer Bet Builders to their clients, let’s have a look at how they actually work. When looking to use such an offer, you need to find the market that you wish to bet on and then the Bet Builder option. From there you’ll be given a list of markets that you can add to your wager, usually up to a maximum of six different choices. The following are usually offered for a football match:

  • Both Teams To Score
  • Half-Time Result
  • Full-Time Result
  • Total Number Of Goals
  • Number Of Corners
  • Player To Score Anytime
  • Player To Score First
  • Player To Score Last
  • Player To Score 2 Or More Goals (Or Similar)
  • Player To Be Carded
  • Red Card In Match
  • Total Number Of Cards

That list is obviously not exhaustive, but it gives you a good idea of the sort of markets that will be on offer in a Bet Builder. You can also see how the related contingency aspect of the wager comes in. You’ll usually only be able to add markets from the same football match and they will max out at six, but any six of the above markets will soon see the odds of your Bet Builder wager reach decent heights and present you with a chance to make good money.

Things To Bear In Mind

odds tradingAs well as the fact that Bet Builder bets are offered because bookmakers known that they can diddle you on the odds, the other key thing to think about when it comes to deciding whether to use the system is that you’ll often find that other offers from bookies won’t be applicable to Bet Builder wagers. That is to say, a bookmaker that promises to pay out early on bets if a team goes 2-0 up, say, won’t be willing to do so on Bet Builder bets.

Similarly, you won’t be able to Cash Out a wager placed with the Bet Builder service. Instead, you pretty much just have to let the bets ride once you’ve placed them. If any of the legs fail then the entire bet will be a losing one, so you won’t get insurance against your punt as you do when you get Acca Insurance, for example. You might well feel that that’s a fair sacrifice to make, but it’s something that you at least need to think about before placing your bet.

Given the manner in which the market is set up in the bookies favour, you might want to consider if an already pre-packaged bet such as Scorecast or Wincast makes more sense than using the Bet Builder service for you. Also, at the time of writing, Bet Builders are limited for sports other than football (although a few have started offering this for tennis, NFL and others). This might suit you down to the ground, but if you’re a big fan of betting on darts matches or the outcome of rugby games then you’ll need to find another way to place your bets.