How 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 once you play them. That, by itself, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed coupled with fear that often lead to betting parlays. People think they are risking less with parlays, however they are not. They believe they are able to win more with parlays, but they cannot. The bigger win with parlays is far outweighed by the higher possibility of losing. Parlay bettors are in fact risking more, with less possibility 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 it doesn't 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 there is 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 can be bad money management. In a parlay you either bet double on the second team, or nothing on that same team, depending upon if the first game won or lost. That adds an element of luck to your betting that doesn't ought to be there. The skilled handicapper is always wanting to make smart investments. He tries to eliminate the result of luck to the best extent possible to make his results as predictable as you possibly can.

As with every rule, however, there are exceptions. The exception to the rule regarding parlays occurs when 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 overall game. The player parlayed totals by combining the over in the initial half with the over in the overall game, and the under in the first half with under in the game. Both parlays were manufactured in the same game. Every time the player won he'd win 2.6 times his bet. Betting  thabet center  on each parlay, if one of them 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 would lose $200.

Initially, this appeared to be a great chance for the book. The normal coin-flip odds of winning one parlay out of your two are 50-50. As 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 more than $20,000 after six months, and the book began to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully.

The issue for the bookmaker was that both halves of every parlay were co-dependent. By the end of the first 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 initial half total was 27. By the end of the first half, the score was 31-21, for a complete of 52 first-half points. The initial half of one of many parlays, the "over" in the initial half was a winner. For the parlay probability to be correct, there should now be a 50-50 probability of winning the "over" for the overall game. Obviously the odds of winning the "over" in the overall game weren't 50-50 but better than 99% in favor of the "over." The ball player only had a need 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 try this, remember that most off-shore books are much too smart to permit you to parlay first half to game. Should they do allow you to do this, start worrying about collecting because that book will soon be taken up to the cleaners.

You can find, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that may still be made at many books. One kind of co-dependent parlay may be the parlay of the medial side and total in the same game.

Any game in which the total is less than double the spread can give you an edge 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 each other and increase your win with hardly any increase in risk. This type of bet, however, required that you have an impression on the side or the total. Parlaying is another method to boost your potential win on these games, or to develop a potential win for those who have no opinion.

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

In the Virginia game, if you were to think that Virginia covers the 25 points, then they must hold Duke to no more than 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 more likely it becomes that the overall game will review 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 not be shut out, in that case your probability of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are greater than the standard 25%. Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it really is less likely that Virginia will cover the 25 points. Because of this, the probability that a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is greater than the normal 25%.

Assuming you have no opinion on the game, you can parlay the favorite 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 complete of 58 -- the under has already won with the underdog for a winning two-parlay spread.

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

Not all bookmakers will allow you to parlay the medial side to the total in exactly the same game, because a growing number of are realizing that these bets are sometimes co-dependent. But, enough books still do allow such bets that you should 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.