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. Of course, 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 working with some type of royalty in the field of parlay wagering. Regrettably, thousands will be fooled by this fiction again this football season.
The truth is that exotic wagers keep sports books in business. Next time you're in Vegas check out the discarded tickets you see spread all over the place. It's safe to assume that might be the majority of these losers are made of such bets placed 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 a huge payout while disregarding the truth that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on investment.
The home edge on a standard straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Compared with many table games this is really a fairly high percentage. Many 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 trunk wall.
Chance is important in everything the house provides. There are also steps which can be taken to reduce the edge in just 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 could 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 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 are more consistent with keno, plus they are equally impossible to overcome in the end. There is absolutely no mystery surrounding the planet of parlays. Bettors are attracted to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games which are most often played in the casino are slots that offer thousands as well as millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go home.' The casino is clearly happy to oblige as an incredible number of bettors go back home with nothing within their pockets every year.
It really is fair to assume that the biggest number of losing bets a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the house minimum. It is because most bettors don't have a meaningful bankroll reserve for sports betting. Given that they don't believe they are able to 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 significant loss by the end 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're 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 of all, it really is my experience that most bettors usually do not place just one parlay per week. In football this means at the least 34 parlays are placed through the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a minimal unit bet this is still a dangerous amount of wagers to place with such a 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. Because the number of bets you place increases it is inevitable that you'll hit that $100 mark several 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 ' link Hi88 , I had a client who broke even after 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 an identical warning to him.
If you are likely to follow his lead and continue using parlays I've a few pointers that may help you in the long run. 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, however 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 more. However, if you're going to make such an investment listed below are two useful tips:
If you are likely to bet a four or five 5 team parlay, always ensure it is 6 as well as 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 odds of hitting it are over 1,000 to at least one 1.
If you are going to throw your money away chasing huge payouts on 7, 8, and 9 team parlays then just bet the 10 teamer. THE HOME edge is approximately 10 points less than all three of those bets and 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 plenty of unnecessary risk. Or it is possible to minimize your exposure to several units while maintaining an acceptable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.