Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 5 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

There are countless 'handicapping services' available of providing people with parlays. They will tout win rates similar to some of 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 have the privilege of working with some type of royalty in neuro-scientific parlay wagering. Regrettably, thousands will 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 check out the discarded tickets you see spread everywhere. 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 sucker bets open to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of a huge payout while disregarding the truth that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on investment.

The home edge on a typical straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Compared with many table games this is really a fairly high percentage. A great deal of table games and slots offer a better value for the common bettor placing a random wager. However, we all know that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing a set of dice at the trunk wall.

Chance is important in everything the house has to offer. Additionally, there are steps which might 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 a sport. However, a double digit house edge can never 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 plainly see every parlay you can possibly bet comes with a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages are more in line with keno, and they are equally impossible to overcome in the end. 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 that are most often played in the casino are slots that offer thousands or even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go back home.' The casino is actually 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 largest number of losing bets that a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the home minimum. For the reason that 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. By doing this they essentially ensure a significant 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 importantly, it is my experience that a lot of bettors usually do not place just one parlay weekly. In football this implies a minimum of 34 parlays are put through the regular season. In baseball that number can simply exceed 100. With a minimal unit bet that is still a dangerous number of wagers to put with this type of high house edge. For instance, if you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for every $100 you wager. As the number 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 upping your losses or erasing any profits you managed 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 were able to do this by placing 'small' side bets including parlays, reverses, and teasers. This is an expensive lesson to understand especially when you take into account I issued a similar warning to him.

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

If you are going to bet a 4 or 5 5 team parlay, always ensure it is 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 house edge on a 10 teamer is virtually exactly like a 4 team parlay, but the actual probability of hitting it are over 1,000 to 1 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 these bets also it typically pays about 700/1.


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