How exactly to Bet Parlays in Sports

· 5 min read
How exactly to Bet Parlays in Sports

The general rule regarding parlays is: DON'T.

Parlays generally carry an increased house edge than straight bets, therefore you give the book a bigger advantage over you when you play them. That, alone, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed coupled with fear that often result in betting parlays. People think they're risking less with parlays, however they aren't. They believe they can win more with parlays, however they cannot. The bigger win with parlays is far outweighed by the higher probability of losing. Parlay bettors are actually risking more, with less probability of collecting.

A parlay is not an individual bet. It is two bets -- a one-unit bet using one team and a two-unit bet on another. Which team gets the two-unit bet? In point-spread betting at constant money odds, if both teams win or both teams lose no matter which team gets the double bet. When one team wins and one team loses, however, the double bet is presumed to possess been on the loser. How smart is that for the bettor? Go ahead, create a parlay. We'll wait until both games are over, and in case of a split we'll put the double bet on the loser. If your bookmaker sold you a parlay with that line, how many of you'll still make the bet?

A parlay is also bad money management. In a parlay you either bet double on the second team, or nothing on that same team, dependant on whether the first game won or lost.  https://new88nc.com/  adds an element of luck to your betting it doesn't have to be there. The skilled handicapper is always wanting to make smart investments. He tries to get rid of the result of luck to the greatest extent possible to make his results as predictable as you possibly can.


As with every rule, however, you can find exceptions. The exception to the rule regarding parlays occurs once the two bets are co-dependent.

I knew one bookmaker who was taken for thousands because he didn't understand the co-dependency of certain bets. He allowed a player to consistently parlay the first half with the game. The ball player parlayed totals by combining the over in the first half with the over in the game, and the under in the first half with under in the game. Both parlays were manufactured in the same game. Each time the player won he would win 2.6 times his bet. Betting $100 on each parlay, if one of these won, the player would win $260 and lose $100 on the other parlay for a net win of $160. He could never win both parlays. If he lost both parlays he'd lose $200.

At first glance, this were a great opportunity for the book. The normal coin-flip odds of winning one parlay from the two are 50-50. So far as the bookie was concerned the bettor ought to be winning $160 half enough time, and losing $200 half the time. The bettor, however, making $500 parlays, was ahead a lot more than $20,000 after six months, and the book started to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully.

The issue for the bookmaker was that both halves of each parlay were co-dependent. At the end of the initial half, the bettor was hardly ever in a 50-50 situation.

Take the Thursday night game between Utah and Air Force. The overall game total was 53 and the first half total was 27. At the end of the initial half, the score was 31-21, for a complete of 52 first-half points. The initial half of one of the parlays, the "over" in the first half was a winner. For the parlay probability to be correct, there should now be considered a 50-50 possibility of winning the "over" for the game. Obviously the chances of winning the "over" in the game were not 50-50 but better than 99% and only the "over." The player only needed to win the first 1 / 2 of the parlay to be virtually assured he would collect 2.6 times his money rather than just $10 for $11.

Before you rush out to use this, remember that most off-shore books are much too smart to let you parlay first half to game. If they do allow you to do this, start fretting about collecting because that book will be taken up to the cleaners.

There are, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that may still be made at many books. One type of co-dependent parlay may be the parlay of the medial side and total in exactly the same game.

Any game in which the total is less than double the spread can provide you an advantage in parlaying side to total in exactly the same game. We've already discussed, in a prior article, how exactly to use these anomalous side and total combinations to hedge one another and boost your win with very little increase in risk. This type of bet, however, needed that you have an impression on the side or the full total. Parlaying is another solution to boost your potential win on these games, or to create a potential win assuming you have no opinion.

There are two games this Saturday that qualify. They are Virigina -25 over Duke with a complete of 48 �, and Kansas St. -24 � vs. North Texas with a complete 46 �).

In the Virginia game, if you believe that Virginia will cover the 25 points, they must hold Duke to only 11 points or the overall game will go over the full total. The much more likely it becomes through the game that Virginia will cover 25 points, the much more likely it becomes that the game will go over 48 �. The wider Virginia's winning margin, the more likely the game will go over. If you like Virginia to cover the spread, and you also believe that Duke will never be shut out, then your probability of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are greater than the normal 25%. Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it is less likely that Virginia covers the 25 points. As a result, the probability that a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is higher than the normal 25%.

If you have no opinion on the overall game, you can parlay the favourite with the "over" and the underdog with the "under" and collect sufficiently often to exceed the losses when both parlays lose. In the only other game meeting the qualifications this week -- Friday's game between California -30 against New Mexico State with a total of 58 -- the under has recently won with the underdog for a winning two-parlay spread.

The closer the posted total is to the spread privately, the better win-rate will be on the parlay "spread" bet. The co-dependency in side to total parlays is not as strong as parlaying first half and game totals (if it were, most books wouldn't normally allow such bets), but you will find a sufficient co-dependency in the games with low totals and high spreads to help make the strategy profitable long-term.

Not all bookmakers will allow you to parlay the medial side to the total in the same game, because progressively more are realizing that these bets are sometimes co-dependent. But, enough books still do allow such bets that you can consider including such bets in your professional betting arsenal.

If your bookmaker provides "if/reverse" bets, it is possible to replace the parlay bet with an "if/reverse" bet and achieve greater success.