Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 5 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

There are countless 'handicapping services' available of providing people who have parlays. They will tout win rates much like probably the most impressive straight wager cappers. Needless to say, so as to 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 the field of 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 everywhere. It's safe to assume that you will find the majority of these losers are made of such bets positioned on both sports and racing. Of all the 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 absolutely no reasonable expectation of any return on the investment.

The house edge on a standard straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Weighed against many table games this is actually a fairly raised percentage. A lot of table games and slots provide a better value for the average bettor placing a random wager. However, everybody knows that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing a pair of dice at the back wall.

Chance is important in everything the house has to offer. There are also steps that could be taken to reduce the edge in only about every game. Nowhere in the casino are elements such as skill and preparation more useful compared to 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 never 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 it is possible to possibly bet has a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages are more in line with keno, plus they are equally impossible to overcome in the long term. There is absolutely no mystery surrounding the planet 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 slot machines that offer thousands or even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go home.' The casino is actually happy to oblige as an incredible number of bettors go back home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the biggest number of losing bets that a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the house minimum. For the reason that most bettors don't have a meaningful bankroll set aside for sports betting. Since they don't believe they can make any real cash 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 end of the season. Meanwhile, should they only placed straight wagers at that same level they might limit their potential losses to a few units at most.

Many bettors assume that because they're keeping the size of their bets low they are not taking on a significant risk. This analysis is flawed since it ignores several factors. Most of all, it really is my experience that a lot of bettors do not place just one single parlay weekly. In football this means a minimum of 34 parlays are put through the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a low unit bet this is still a dangerous amount of wagers to put with this type of high house edge. For instance, if you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation should be to lose about $35 for each $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 vào New88 , I had a client who broke even with increasing his bankroll by 45% using my picks. He managed to do that by placing 'small' side bets including parlays, reverses, and teasers. This is an expensive lesson to understand especially when you consider I issued a similar warning to him.

If you are likely to follow his lead and continue using parlays I have a few pointers that may help you over time. First of all, the very best value of all parlays is clearly the three team parlay. The difference between your house edge on a 2 & 3 teamer is insignificant, however the payout is more than twice as much. If you take a look at the graph you need to understand why I'd never bet a parlay of 4 teams or more. However, if you are going to make this investment here 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 1 or 2 2 more teams is at 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 odds 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 House edge is approximately 10 points less than all three of those bets also it typically pays about 700/1.

Setting reasonable goals and being patient while working to achieve them is the sign of a profitable professional bettor. Greed must be kept in check in order to be successful. In this regard, every bettor has two options. You can chase high returns while assuming plenty of unnecessary risk. Or you can minimize your exposure to several units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.