There are countless ‘handicapping services’ in the business of providing people who have parlays. They’ll tout win rates much like probably the most impressive straight wager cappers. Needless to say, so as to they refer to money line parlays as ‘safe’ bets. On many of these sites you may have the privilege of working with some form 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 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 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 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 actually a fairly high percentage. Many table games and slots offer a better value for the average bettor placing a random wager. However, everybody knows that betting on sports isn’t anything like throwing a set of dice at the trunk wall.

Chance plays a role in everything the house has to offer. 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 skill and preparation more useful compared to the sports book. Winning sports picks on a straight wager can be reversed in the bettors favor by utilizing statistics and expertise in an activity. 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 has a whopping 10% house edge or better. Such casino advantages tend to be more in line with keno, and they are equally impossible to overcome in the end. There is no mystery surrounding the world 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 millions of bettors go home with nothing in their pockets every year.

It is fair to assume that the biggest number of losing bets that 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 are able to make any real cash by placing $25-50 on a few games weekly they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. By doing this 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 a few 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 is my experience that most bettors do not place just one single parlay weekly. In football this means at the least 34 parlays are placed during the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a minimal unit bet that 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 should be to lose about $35 for each $100 you wager. Because the amount of bets you place increases it is inevitable that you’ll 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 managed to make on straight wagers. In ’09 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 take into account I issued an identical warning to him.

If you are likely to follow his lead and continue using parlays I have a few pointers that will help you over time. First of all, the best value of all parlays is actually 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 glance at the graph you should understand why I would never bet a parlay of 4 teams or 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 and even 10. The difference between your house edge to include 1 or 2 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 the same as a 4 team parlay, but the actual probability 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 House edge is approximately 10 points lower than all three of these 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 in order to be 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 contact with several units while maintaining an acceptable expectation to increase your bankroll by 50%…The decision is yours.