Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 5 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

There are countless 'handicapping services' in the business of providing people who have parlays. They'll tout win rates similar to probably the most impressive straight wager cappers. Needless to say, you will see that they make reference to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On many of these sites you may even have the privilege of dealing with some type 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 running a business. Next time you're in Vegas take a look at the discarded tickets you see spread all over the place. It's safe to assume that might be nearly all these losers are made up of such bets positioned on both sports and racing. Of all the sucker bets available to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of an enormous payout while disregarding the point that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on the investment.

The house edge on a standard straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Compared with many table games this is actually a fairly raised percentage. A lot of table games and slots provide a better value for the common bettor placing a random wager. However, we all know 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 which can be taken to reduce the edge in only about every game. Nowhere in the casino are elements such as skill and preparation more useful than the sports book. The edge on a straight wager can be reversed in the bettors favor by utilizing statistics and expertise in a sport. However, a double digit house edge can't ever 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 you can possibly bet includes a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages tend to be more in line with keno, plus they are equally impossible to overcome in the long term. There is absolutely no mystery surrounding the world of parlays. Bettors are drawn to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games that are frequently played in the casino are slot machines that offer thousands or even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go back home.' The casino is clearly pleased to oblige as an incredible number of bettors go back home with nothing within their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the largest amount of losing bets that a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the home minimum. Simply because  Click here to find out more  do not have a meaningful bankroll set aside 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. By doing this they essentially ensure a substantial loss by the end 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're keeping how big is their bets low they're not taking on a significant risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most of all, it is my experience that a lot of bettors usually do not place just one single parlay weekly. In football this means at the least 34 parlays are placed through the regular season. In baseball that number can simply exceed 100. With a low unit bet this is still a dangerous number of wagers to place with this type of high house edge. For example, in case you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for each $100 you wager. As 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 most likely result in increasing your losses or erasing any profits you managed to make on straight wagers. In 2009 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 may help you in the long term. First of all, the best value of most parlays is actually the three team parlay. The difference between your house edge on a 2 & 3 teamer is insignificant, but the payout is more than twice as much. Invest the a look at the graph you need to understand why I would never bet a parlay of 4 teams or more. However, if you're going to make such an investment listed below are two useful tips:

If you are likely to bet a 4 or 5 5 team parlay, always make it 6 and even 10. The difference between your house edge to add 1 or 2 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 exactly like a 4 team parlay, however the actual probability of hitting it are over 1,000 to at least one 1.
If you are going 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 approximately 10 points lower than all three of those bets also 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. You can chase high returns while assuming a huge amount of unnecessary risk. Or it is possible to minimize your exposure to several units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.