There are countless 'handicapping services' available of providing people with parlays. They will tout win rates much like many 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 a number of these sites you may even have the privilege of dealing with some kind of royalty in the field of parlay wagering. Regrettably, thousands will undoubtedly be fooled by this fiction again this football season.
The fact is that exotic wagers keep sports books in 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 nearly all these losers are made up of such bets placed 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 an enormous payout while disregarding the fact that there is 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 actually a fairly high percentage. Lots of table games and slots offer a better value for the common bettor placing a random wager. However, everybody knows that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing some dice at the back wall.
Chance plays a role in everything the house has to offer. There are also steps that may be taken to reduce the edge in just 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 can be reversed in the bettors favor through the use of statistics and expertise in an activity. However, a double digit house edge can never 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 plainly see every parlay you can possibly bet comes with a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages are more in line with keno, and they are equally impossible to overcome in the end. There is no mystery surrounding the planet of parlays. Bettors are attracted to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games that are frequently played in the casino are slots that offer thousands and even millions in progressive jackpots. The mentality of these bettors is 'Go big, or go home.' The casino is clearly pleased to oblige as an incredible number 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 that a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the house minimum. Simply because 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 a few 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, 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 are keeping the size of their bets low they are 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 usually do not place just one parlay per week. In football this means a minimum of 34 parlays are placed during the regular season. In baseball that number can simply exceed 100. With a low unit bet that is still a dangerous number of wagers to place with this type of high house edge. For kubet , should you be placing only 5 team parlays your expectation should be to lose about $35 for each $100 you wager. Because the amount 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 upping your losses or erasing any profits you managed to make on straight wagers. In 2009 2009, I had a client who broke even after 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 an identical warning to him.
If you are going to follow his lead and continue using parlays I've a few pointers that will help in the long run. First of all, the best value of most parlays is clearly the three team parlay. The difference between your 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 4 or 5 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 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 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 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 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. You can chase high returns while assuming a huge amount of unnecessary risk. Or you can minimize your exposure to several units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to increase your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.