There are countless 'handicapping services' in the business of providing people with parlays. They will tout win rates much like one of the most impressive straight wager cappers. Of course, you will see that they refer to money line parlays as 'safe' bets. On several sites you may even have the privilege of working with some kind of royalty in neuro-scientific parlay wagering. Regrettably, thousands will 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 take a look at the discarded tickets you see spread everywhere. It's safe to assume that might be the majority of these losers are made of such bets placed on both sports and racing. Of all the sucker bets available to sports bettors, the parlay is king. Bettors are lured in by the promise of a huge payout while disregarding the truth 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%. Compared with many table games this is actually a fairly high percentage. Lots of table games and slots provide a better value for the average bettor placing a random wager. However, everybody knows that betting on sports isn't anything like throwing a couple of dice at the trunk wall.
Chance plays a role in everything the house provides. There are also steps which can be taken to decrease 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. The edge on a straight wager could be reversed in the bettors favor by utilizing statistics and expertise in an activity. However, a double digit house edge can't ever 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 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, and they are equally impossible to overcome in the long term. There is absolutely no mystery surrounding the planet of parlays. Bettors are attracted to risking handful of money for large payouts. The games which are most often played in the casino are slots that offer thousands as well as 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 really is fair to assume that the biggest number of losing bets a book accepts are exotic wagers of add up to or double the house minimum. This is due to most bettors do not have a meaningful bankroll set aside for sports betting. Since they don't believe they can make any real money by placing $25-50 on a few games per week they continue taking parlays for $20 or less. By doing this 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 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 usually do not place just one parlay weekly. In football this implies at the least 34 parlays are placed during the regular season. In baseball that number can easily exceed 100. With a low unit bet that 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. Because the number 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 usually result in upping 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 take into account I issued an identical warning to him.
If you are going to follow his lead and continue using parlays I have a few pointers that will help you in the end. First of all, the very 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 more than twice as much. If you take a glance at the graph you need to understand why I'd never bet a parlay of 4 teams or more. However, if you're going to make such an investment here are two useful tips:
If you are going to bet a four or five 5 team parlay, always ensure it is 6 as well as 10. The difference between your house edge to include one or two 2 more teams is at 5 percentage points and the payout is significantly higher for both options. The home edge on a 10 teamer is virtually exactly like a 4 team parlay, however the actual probability 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 approximately 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 should be kept in check in order to be successful. In link Hi88 , every bettor has two options. You can chase high returns while assuming a huge amount of unnecessary risk. Or you can minimize your contact with a few units while maintaining a reasonable expectation to improve your bankroll by 50%...The choice is yours.