Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

· 4 min read
Profitable Parlays - Fact Or Fiction?

There are  bk8  of providing people who have parlays. They will tout win rates similar to some of the most impressive straight wager cappers. Of course, so as to they make reference to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On a number of these sites you may have the privilege of dealing with some sort 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 are in Vegas check out the discarded tickets you see spread everywhere. It's safe to assume that you will find the majority of these losers are made up of such bets placed on both sports and racing. Of all 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 absolutely 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 raised percentage. Many 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 a couple of dice at the trunk wall.

Chance plays a role in everything the house provides. Additionally, there are steps which might be taken to reduce the edge in only about every game. Nowhere in the casino are elements such as for example 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'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 comes with a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages tend to be more consistent 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 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 home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It really is fair to assume that the largest amount of losing bets a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the home minimum. Simply because most bettors don't have a meaningful bankroll reserve for sports betting. Given that they don't believe they can make any real cash 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 finish of the 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 are not taking on a substantial risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most importantly, it really is my experience that most bettors usually do not place just one parlay weekly. 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 amount of wagers to place 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 will 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 '09 2009, I had a client 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 learn especially when you consider 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 will help in the end. First of all, the very best value of all 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 look at the graph you should understand why I'd 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 4 or 5 5 team parlay, always make it 6 or even 10. The difference between your house edge to include 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, but the actual odds of hitting it are over 1,000 to at least one 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 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 this regard, every bettor has two options. It is possible to chase high returns while assuming plenty of unnecessary risk. Or you can minimize your exposure to a few units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to increase your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.