Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 4 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

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

The fact is that exotic wagers keep sports books running a business. Next time you're in Vegas have a look at the discarded tickets you see spread all over the place. It's safe to assume that you will find the majority of 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 truth that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on investment.

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

Chance plays a role in everything the house provides. There are also steps which might be taken to decrease 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 a sport. However, a double digit house edge can't ever be overcome in the end.

# 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 includes 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 planet of parlays. Bettors are attracted to risking a small amount of money for large payouts. The games that are frequently played in the casino are slots that offer thousands and even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of these bettors is 'Go big, or go home.' The casino is clearly happy to oblige as an incredible number of bettors go home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It really is fair to assume that the biggest amount of losing bets that a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the home minimum. This is because most bettors 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 several 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, if 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're not taking on a substantial risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most importantly, it is my experience that most bettors do not place just one parlay per week. In football this implies a minimum of 34 parlays are put during the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a low unit bet this is still a dangerous number of wagers to put with such a high house edge. For instance, when you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for each $100 you wager. As the number of bets you place increases it is inevitable that you will hit that $100 mark many times over.

Using parlays as a side bet will usually result in upping your losses or erasing any profits you managed to make on straight wagers. In '09 2009, I had litigant who broke even after 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 learn especially when you take into account I issued an identical warning to him.

If you are going to follow his lead and continue using parlays I've a few pointers that will help over time. First of all, the best value of most parlays is clearly the three team parlay. The difference between the house edge on a 2 & 3 teamer is insignificant, but the payout is 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 even more. However, if you are going to make this investment listed below are two useful tips:

If you are going to bet a four or five 5 team parlay, always make it 6 as well as 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, however the actual odds of hitting it are over 1,000 to 1 1.
If you are likely to throw your money away chasing huge payouts on 7, 8, and 9 team parlays then just bet the 10 teamer. The House edge is about 10 points less than all three of those bets and it typically pays about 700/1.

Setting reasonable goals and being patient while working to achieve them may be the sign of a profitable professional bettor. Greed should be kept in check to become successful. In this regard, every bettor has two options.  link Hi88  can chase high returns while assuming plenty of unnecessary risk. Or it is possible to minimize your contact with several units while maintaining an acceptable expectation to increase your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.