There are countless 'handicapping services' available of providing people who have parlays. They'll tout win rates similar to one 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 even have the privilege of dealing with some form of royalty in neuro-scientific 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 are in Vegas take a look at the discarded tickets you see spread everywhere. It's safe to assume that you will find nearly all these losers are made up of such bets positioned 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 a huge payout while disregarding the point 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. Lots of table games and slots provide a better value for the average bettor placing a random wager. However, we all know that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing some dice at the back wall.
Chance is important in everything the house has to offer. There are also steps which can be taken to decrease 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 can be reversed in the bettors favor by utilizing statistics and expertise in a sport. However, a double digit house edge can never be overcome in the long term.
# 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 includes 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 end. 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 frequently played in the casino are slot machines that offer thousands as well as millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go back home.' The casino is clearly happy to oblige as millions 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 that a book accepts are exotic wagers of equal to or double the house minimum. The reason being most bettors do not 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 weekly they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. Using this method they essentially ensure a substantial loss by the finish of the season. Meanwhile, if they only placed straight wagers at that same level they might limit their potential losses to some units at most.
Many bettors assume that because they're keeping the size of their bets low they're not taking on a significant risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most importantly, it really is my experience that most bettors do not place just one parlay weekly. In football this means a minimum of 34 parlays are put through the regular season. In baseball that number can simply exceed 100. With a minimal unit bet this is still a dangerous amount of wagers to place with this type of high house edge. For instance, when 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 will hit that $100 mark many times over.
Using parlays as a side bet will most likely result in increasing your losses or erasing any profits you were able to make on straight wagers. In 2009 2009, 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. That is an expensive lesson to understand especially when you consider 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 may help you in the end. First of all, the best value of all 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 need to understand why I would never bet a parlay of 4 teams or even more. However, if you're 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 and even 10. The difference between the 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 house 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 HOME edge is about 10 points lower than all three of these 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 a huge amount of unnecessary risk. Or Fi88 can minimize your exposure to a few units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.