What Is A Banker Bet?

No doubt you are familiar with standard betting slips, where you choose one or more results and then hope that they all win. In this article we are going to take a look at a different way to place a bet, which is known as a Banker Bet.

The ‘Banker’ in question is not one of those gentlemen in suits who uses everybody else’s money to get rich. This definition of ‘banker’ should strategically refer to the bet that you are most confident about (there is no such thing as a guaranteed win in any betting circumstance – it’s important to understand that any wager can lose). But let’s go through the process of making a Banker Bet step-by-step so you can see why that’s the case.

An example Banker Bet

Let’s say that we want to make a bet featuring three English Premier League teams, as shown above. If this was a standard bet then we would be presented with a range of options regarding whether we want to be on the games individually or as a group. However we are going to change the bet type on our slip from ‘Standard’ to ‘Banker’.

Now that the Bet Slip has changed, each of our three predicted winners is marked in some way – with a ‘B’ or similar depending on the site you’re on. The ‘B’ stands for ‘banker’ (naturally enough) and we have to decide which one of these games is going to be our banker – in other words which result are we most confident about.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that we believe Manchester City are a certainty to win their match, so we click the ‘B’ button (or whatever it is) to make them our banker team.

Multiple bet options will up for our selections. In this case we chose only three teams, which is the minimum amount permitted for a banker bet at most online sportsbooks, and so we are presented with two possible options.

We are committed to our banker team winning, but we are free to choose whether we believe one or both of the other results will go our way, and can choose to select 1/2 or 2/2 accordingly. If we are not confident that both of our other chosen teams will win then we can hedge our bets by saying that one of them will win along with our banker.

Of course if our banker team loses then it’s game over, but if they win we then just have to hope that at least one of the other two manages to do likewise so that we can collect our winnings. The games don’t have to be happening on the same day, and they don’t even need to be the same sport.

You can choose any number of selections from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 14 across different events and times. Then it is simply a case of choosing one or more bankers and then selecting how many of the others you think will win. So theoretically you could make 14 selections from different sports, say that 4 of those are bankers, and say that any 5 of the remaining 10 will win.

Of course the big advantage of placing a banker bet is that all is not necessarily lost just because you have one bad result, as is the case with an accumulator bet. So long as you have chosen your banker wisely, your bet will remain live even if not all of the other picks in the selection go your way.

When to place a Banker Bet

Now that we have explained the ins and outs of making a Banker Bet you need to consider the best time to make use of this facility. In fact the Banker Bet option is one which is sorely underutilized by punters in general, as when it is used in the right circumstances it can greatly increase your chances of winning.

Everybody is familiar with the idea of the accumulator bet – whereby the win depends on the results of a series of games going your way. The Banker Bet greatly reduces the risk factor in such a wager, and the reduced odds are more than compensated for by the increased chances of getting a positive outcome.

To continue to use the example of football, there are plenty of occasions when the Banker Bet comes into its own when predicting the result of a series of matches. Although football is a game where unusual results are not uncommon, there is still a certain amount of predictability when it comes to the biggest teams in the sport.

Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG are going to win pretty much every game they play in their respective national leagues and as such are textbook models for the Banker Bet. By shoring up your wins with a couple of similar Banker Bets, this allows the punter to take more of a chance on the outcome of another game in the accumulator as this becomes a ‘shot to nothing’ type of bet.

The opposite is also true of course, as if you are choosing a number of games where the odds are pretty even then there is not much point in playing the Banker Bet card. Never make a game your Banker unless you really are very confident about the result, because otherwise you are reducing your odds unnecessarily without boosting your chance of getting a win.

Take the time to try out the Banker Bet feature at your sportsbook next time you are thinking about an accumulator bet. Start with a 3 or 4 game accumulator and make sure to choose your Banker wisely, and you may just start accumulating some very nice winnings!