The general rule regarding parlays is: DON'T.
Parlays generally carry a higher house edge than straight bets, therefore you give the book a more impressive advantage over you when you play them. That, alone, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed coupled with fear that often lead to betting parlays. People think they're risking less with parlays, however they are not. They believe they are able to win more with parlays, but they cannot. The bigger win with parlays is far outweighed by the bigger probability of losing. Parlay bettors are actually risking more, with less possibility of collecting.
A parlay is not an individual bet. It is two bets -- a one-unit bet using one team and a two-unit bet on another. Which team gets the two-unit bet? In point-spread betting at constant money odds, if both teams win or both teams lose it doesn't matter which team gets the double bet. When one team wins and one team loses, however, the double bet is presumed to have been on the loser. How smart is that for the bettor? Go ahead, make a parlay. We'll wait until both games are over, and in case there is a split we'll put the double bet on the loser. If your bookmaker sold you a parlay with that line, how many of you'll still make the bet?
A parlay is also bad money management. In a parlay you either bet double on the next team, or nothing on that same team, depending upon if the first game won or lost. That adds some luck to your betting it doesn't need to be there. The skilled handicapper is always seeking to make smart investments. He tries to eliminate the effect of luck to the greatest extent possible to make his results as predictable as you possibly can.
Much like every rule, however, you can find exceptions. https://789betd.com/ to the rule regarding parlays occurs when the two bets are co-dependent.
I knew one bookmaker who was taken for thousands because he didn't understand the co-dependency of certain bets. He allowed a new player to consistently parlay the first half with the overall game. The ball player parlayed totals by combining the over in the first half with the over in the overall game, and the under in the first half with under in the game. Both parlays were manufactured in the same game. Each time the player won he'd win 2.6 times his bet. Betting $100 on each parlay, if one of these won, the ball player would win $260 and lose $100 on the other parlay for a net win of $160. He could never win both parlays. If he lost both parlays he would lose $200.
Initially, this appeared to be a great opportunity for the book. The standard coin-flip probability of winning one parlay out of your two are 50-50. So far as the bookie was concerned the bettor should be winning $160 half the time, and losing $200 half enough time. The bettor, however, making $500 parlays, was ahead more than $20,000 after six months, and the book begun to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully.
The issue for the bookmaker was that both halves of every parlay were co-dependent. By the end of the first half, the bettor was hardly ever in a 50-50 situation.
Take the Thursday night game between Utah and Air Force. The game total was 53 and the first half total was 27. At the end of the first half, the score was 31-21, for a complete of 52 first-half points. The first half of one of the parlays, the "over" in the first half was successful. For the parlay probability to be correct, there should now be considered a 50-50 possibility of winning the "over" for the game. Obviously the odds of winning the "over" in the game weren't 50-50 but better than 99% in favor of the "over." The player only had a need to win the first half of the parlay to be virtually assured he would collect 2.6 times his money rather than just $10 for $11.
Before you rush out to use this, be aware that most off-shore books are far too smart to let you parlay first half to game. If they do enable you to do this, start worrying about collecting because that book will be taken to the cleaners.
You can find, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that may still be made at many books. One kind of co-dependent parlay may be the parlay of the medial side and total in exactly the same game.
Any game where the total is less than double the spread can give you an edge in parlaying side to total in the same game. We've already discussed, in a prior article, how to use these anomalous side and total combinations to hedge each other and boost your win with very little increase in risk. This type of bet, however, needed that you have an impression on the side or the total. Parlaying is another method to boost your potential win on these games, or even to create a potential win in case you have no opinion.
There are two games this Saturday that qualify. They're Virigina -25 over Duke with a complete of 48 �, and Kansas St. -24 � vs. North Texas with a complete 46 �).
In the Virginia game, if you were to think that Virginia covers the 25 points, then they must hold Duke to no more than 11 points or the game will go over the total. The much more likely it becomes during the game that Virginia will cover 25 points, the more likely it becomes that the overall game will review 48 �. The wider Virginia's winning margin, the more likely the game will go over. If you want Virginia to cover the spread, and you believe that Duke will not be shut out, then your probability of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are higher than the normal 25%. Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it is less likely that Virginia covers the 25 points. Because of this, the probability that a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is higher than the normal 25%.
When you have no opinion on the game, you can parlay the favourite with the "over" and the underdog with the "under" and collect sufficiently often to exceed the losses when both parlays lose. In the only real other game meeting the qualifications this week -- Friday's game between California -30 against New Mexico State with a total of 58 -- the under has recently won with the underdog for an absolute two-parlay spread.
The closer the posted total is to the spread on the side, the better win-rate will undoubtedly be on the parlay "spread" bet. The co-dependency in side to total parlays isn't as strong as parlaying first half and game totals (if it were, most books wouldn't normally allow such bets), but you will find a sufficient co-dependency in the games with low totals and high spreads to make the strategy profitable long-term.
Not all bookmakers will help you to parlay the medial side to the total in the same game, because a growing number of are realizing these bets are occasionally co-dependent. But, enough books still do allow such bets that you can consider including such bets in your professional betting arsenal.
If your bookmaker provides "if/reverse" bets, it is possible to replace the parlay bet having an "if/reverse" bet and achieve greater success.