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 probably the most impressive straight wager cappers. Of course, you will see that they make reference to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On several sites you may even have the privilege of dealing with some kind of royalty in neuro-scientific parlay wagering. Regrettably,  đăng nhập new88  will undoubtedly 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 take a look at 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 available to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of an enormous payout while disregarding the fact that there is no reasonable expectation of any return on investment.

The house edge on a typical straight wager at -110 is 4.5%. Weighed against many table games this is really a fairly raised percentage. A great deal 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 plays a role in everything the house provides. Additionally, there are 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 can be reversed in the bettors favor through the use of statistics and expertise in an activity. 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 includes a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages are 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 that are most often played in the casino are slot machines that offer thousands and even 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 within their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the largest amount of losing bets a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the house minimum. This is because most bettors do not have a meaningful bankroll set aside for sports betting. Since they don't believe they are able to make any real cash by placing $25-50 on several games per week they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. Using this method they essentially ensure a substantial loss by the end of the season. Meanwhile, if 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're not taking on a substantial risk. This analysis is flawed since 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 number of wagers to put with this type of high house edge. For example, in case you are placing only 5 team parlays your expectation should be to lose about $35 for each and every $100 you wager. As the number of bets you place increases it really is inevitable that you will hit that $100 mark several times over.

Using parlays as a side bet will usually result in increasing 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 that by placing 'small' side bets including parlays, reverses, and teasers. That 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 have a few pointers that will assist 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 a lot more than twice as much. If you take a look 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 such an investment listed below are two useful tips:

If you are going to bet a four or five 5 team parlay, always make it 6 or even 10. The difference between your 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, however the actual odds of hitting it are over 1,000 to 1 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 about 10 points lower than all three of those bets and it typically pays about 700/1.

Setting reasonable goals and being patient while working to achieve them may be 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. It is possible to chase high returns while assuming a huge amount of unnecessary risk. Or you can minimize your contact with several units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.