There are countless 'handicapping services' in the business of providing people who have parlays. They will tout win rates similar to some of 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 running a business. Next time you're in Vegas have a look at the discarded tickets you see spread all over the place. 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 open 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 no reasonable expectation of any return on investment.
The home 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 offer a better value for the average bettor placing a random wager. However, New88 know that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing a pair of dice at the back wall.
Chance plays a role in everything the house provides. There are also steps which might 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 an activity. However, a double digit house edge can't ever 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 you can 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 long run. There is no mystery surrounding the world of parlays. Bettors are drawn to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games that are most often played in the casino are slots that offer thousands or even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of the bettors is 'Go big, or go back home.' The casino is clearly pleased to oblige as millions of bettors go back home with nothing in their pockets every year.
It really is fair to assume that the biggest 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 set aside for sports betting. Given that 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 finish of the season. Meanwhile, should 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 are keeping how big is their bets low they're not taking on a significant risk. This analysis is flawed because it ignores several factors. Most of all, it really is my experience that most bettors do not place just one single parlay weekly. In football this means a minimum of 34 parlays are placed during the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a low unit bet this is still a dangerous number of wagers to place with such a high house edge. For example, should you be placing only 5 team parlays your expectation ought to be to lose about $35 for each and every $100 you wager. As the amount 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 most likely result in upping your losses or erasing any profits you were able to make on straight wagers. In 2009 2009, I had litigant who broke even with increasing his bankroll by 45% using my picks. He were able to do this by placing 'small' side bets including parlays, reverses, and teasers. That 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 in the long term. 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, but the payout is a lot more than twice as much. Invest the a glance 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 listed below are two useful tips:
If you are going to bet a 4 or 5 5 team parlay, always make it 6 and 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, but 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 about 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 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. It is possible to 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 increase your bankroll by 50%...The decision is yours.