Why Can’t I Combine Certain Bets Into Accumulator?

Some bets just don’t go together, and that’s because of something called incompatible events (or incompatible bets). This happens when one bet directly or indirectly affects the outcome of another.

For example, if you try to parlay «Team A to win» with «Team A to score over 1.5 goals» in the same game, the bookie might not allow it. Why? Because if Team A wins, there’s already a strong chance they scored at least two goals, making the second bet much more likely to hit. 

Most bookies have a rule against adding incompatible bets into an accumulator (parlay) or system bet, and if you try to add them, the bet slip will usually block the combination automatically.

Selections cannot be Combined at that Betslip

Other Types of Incompatible Events

Some bookies take a broader approach to incompatible bets, considering any bets from the same game as dependent — even when they don’t actually influence each other.

For example, say you want to parlay «Team A to win» with «Over 9.5 total corners» in the same match. There’s no clear connection between these outcomes — Team A winning doesn’t guarantee there will be 10+ corners — but some bookies might still block this combo. 

Incompatible bets can also pop up across an entire tournament. For instance, if you bet on a player or team to win a specific match and also place an outright bet on them to win the tournament, some bookmakers might see that as related and prevent you from combining them in an accumulator.

How Incompatible Bets Appear in Your Bet Slip?

You don’t have to worry about accidentally placing an accumulator with incompatible events — bookies won’t allow it. Some bookies, like 1win, explicitly show an error message when you add incompatible picks.

What Bookies Allow to Combine Bets from Same Game?

Some bookies actually allow you to build accumulators using multiple bets from the same match. Unibet and BetMGM are good examples, though they decide on a case-by-case basis which bets can be combined.

Combo at Unibet

In most cases, you can safely pair Match Result (who wins) with a stat-based market like Total Corners. But it’s not a blanket rule — sometimes BetMGM won’t let you combine Match Result with Correct Score, even though both are independent outcomes.

Bottom line: every bookie has its own rules on incompatible events — there’s no universal standard. If a combo doesn’t go through, the book has likely flagged it as related.

Combo Bet – Alternative to Accumulators for Incompatible Events

Let’s say you really want to combine correlated bets, but the bookmaker won’t allow it. In that case, look for combo bets — a single wager that links two outcomes from the same event. It’s treated as a single bet, not an accumulator.

One key difference: odds in a combo bet aren’t multiplied like they would be in an accumulator. Instead, bookies offer a slightly adjusted price, which is usually lower than if you manually multiplied the odds of both outcomes.