Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 4 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

There are countless 'handicapping services' in the business of providing people with parlays. They will tout win rates much like some of the most impressive straight wager cappers. Needless to say, so as to they refer to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On several sites you may even have the privilege of dealing with some type of royalty in the field of parlay wagering. Regrettably, thousands will undoubtedly be fooled by this fiction again this football season.

The truth is that exotic wagers keep sports books in business. Next time you are in Vegas check out the discarded tickets you see spread all over the place. It's safe to assume that might be nearly all these losers are made of such bets positioned on both sports and racing. Of all sucker bets available to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of a huge payout while disregarding the point that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on the investment.



The home edge on a standard straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Weighed against many table games this is actually a fairly high percentage. Lots of table games and slots offer a better value for the common bettor placing a random wager. However, everybody knows that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing some dice at the back wall.

Chance is important in everything the house provides. There are also steps that could be taken to decrease the edge in only about every game. Nowhere in the casino are elements such as for example skill and preparation more useful than the sports book. The edge on a straight wager could be reversed in the bettors favor by utilizing statistics and expertise in a sport. However, a double digit house edge can never be overcome in the long run.

# of Teams | Actual Odds | Typical Payout | House Edge

2 | 3/1 | 2.6/1 | 10.00%

3 | 7/1 | 6/1 | 12.50%

4 | 15/1 | 10/1 | 31.25%

5 | 31/1 | 20/1 | 34.38%

6 | 63/1 | 40/1 | 35.94%

7 | 127/1 | 75/1 | 40.63%

8 | 255/1 | 150/1 | 41.02%

9 | 511/1 | 300/1 | 41.21%

10 | 1023/1 | 700/1 | 31.54%

As you can plainly see every parlay it is possible to possibly bet includes a whopping 10% house edge or better.  new88  are more in line with keno, and they are equally impossible to overcome in the long term. There is no mystery surrounding the planet of parlays. Bettors are attracted to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games which are frequently played in the casino are slots that offer thousands as well as millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of these bettors is 'Go big, or go home.' The casino is clearly pleased to oblige as an incredible number of bettors go home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the biggest amount of losing bets that a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the house minimum. This is because most bettors do not have a meaningful bankroll reserve for sports betting. Given that they don't believe they can make any real money by placing $25-50 on a few games per week they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. Using this method they essentially ensure a substantial loss by the finish of the growing season. Meanwhile, should they only placed straight wagers at that same level they would limit their potential losses to a few units at most.

Many bettors assume that because they are keeping how big is their bets low they are not taking on a significant risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most of all, it really is my experience that a lot of bettors usually do not place just one parlay per week. In football this implies a minimum of 34 parlays are placed during the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a minimal unit bet this is still a dangerous amount of wagers to put with this type of high house edge. For example, for anyone who is placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for each and every $100 you wager. As the amount of bets you place increases it really is inevitable that you will hit that $100 mark several times over.

Using parlays as a side bet will usually result in upping your losses or erasing any profits you were able to make on straight wagers. In '09 2009, I had litigant who broke even with increasing his bankroll by 45% using my picks. He managed to do this by placing 'small' side bets including parlays, reverses, and teasers. That is an expensive lesson to understand especially when you consider I issued an identical warning to him.

If you are going to follow his lead and continue using parlays I have a few pointers that will help in the long run. First of all, the best value of all parlays is actually the three team parlay. The difference between the house edge on a 2 & 3 teamer is insignificant, however the payout is a lot more than twice as much. If you take a glance at the graph you should understand why I would never bet a parlay of 4 teams or more. However, if you're going to make such an investment here are two useful tips:

If you are likely to bet a four or five 5 team parlay, always make it 6 or even 10. The difference between the house edge to add one or two 2 more teams is within 5 percentage points and the payout is significantly higher for both options. The home edge on a 10 teamer is virtually exactly like a 4 team parlay, but the actual odds of hitting it are over 1,000 to 1 1.
If you are likely to throw your cash away chasing huge payouts on 7, 8, and 9 team parlays then just bet the 10 teamer. THE HOME edge is about 10 points lower than all three of these bets and it typically pays about 700/1.

Setting reasonable goals and being patient while attempting to achieve them is the sign of a profitable professional bettor. Greed must be kept in check to become successful. In this regard, every bettor has two options. It is possible to chase high returns while assuming plenty of unnecessary risk. Or it is possible to minimize your contact with several units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.