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'll tout win rates similar to some of the most impressive straight wager cappers. Of course, you will see that they refer to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On several sites you may have the privilege of working with some form of royalty in neuro-scientific 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 have a look at the discarded tickets you see spread everywhere. It's safe to assume that you will find nearly all these losers are made up of such bets positioned on both sports and racing. Of all the sucker bets open to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of a huge payout while disregarding the fact that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on 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 plays a role in everything the house provides. There are also steps that can be taken to reduce the edge in just 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 can be reversed in the bettors favor through the use of statistics and expertise in an activity. However,  789BET  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 see every parlay you can possibly bet has a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages tend to be more consistent with keno, and they are equally impossible to overcome over time. There is absolutely no mystery surrounding the world of parlays. Bettors are drawn to risking a small amount of money for large payouts. The games which are frequently played in the casino are slot machines that offer thousands or even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of these bettors is 'Go big, or go back home.' The casino is actually pleased to oblige as millions of bettors go home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the largest number of losing bets a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the home minimum. The reason being most bettors do not have a meaningful bankroll set aside for sports betting. Since they don't believe they can make any real money by placing $25-50 on a few games weekly they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. Using this method they essentially ensure a significant loss by the end of the season. Meanwhile, if they only placed straight wagers at that same level they might limit their potential losses to some units at most.

Many bettors assume that because they are keeping the size of their bets low they are not taking on a substantial risk. This analysis is flawed since it ignores several factors. Most of all, it is my experience that most bettors do not place just one single parlay weekly. In football this implies at the least 34 parlays are put during the regular season. In baseball that number can simply exceed 100. With a low unit bet this is still a dangerous amount of wagers to put with this type of high house edge. For instance, in case you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for each and every $100 you wager. Because the amount of bets you place increases it really is inevitable that you will hit that $100 mark many times over.

Using parlays as a side bet will usually result in increasing your losses or erasing any profits you were able to make on straight wagers. In '09 2009, I had a client 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. This is an expensive lesson to learn 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 over time. First of all, the very best value of all parlays is clearly the three team parlay. The difference between your house edge on a 2 & 3 teamer is insignificant, however the payout is a lot more than twice as much. Invest the a look 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 this investment listed below are two useful tips:

If you are likely to bet a 4 or 5 5 team parlay, always ensure it is 6 or even 10. The difference between your house edge to add one or two 2 more teams is at 5 percentage points and the payout is significantly higher for both options. The home edge on a 10 teamer is virtually the same as 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 House edge is approximately 10 points lower than all three of those bets and it typically pays about 700/1.

Setting reasonable goals and being patient while working 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. You can 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 increase your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.