What Are Parlay Bets?
So, just what are Parlay bets? It has been said that parlays are one of the most misunderstood tools in the betting industry and yet millions are still wagered weekly in this way at online sportsbooks. The first thing you may be thinking is what is a parlay bet? Why is it so popular? There are two common ways parlays are played that guarantee the sportsbook a long-term profit.
What Are Parlay Bets?
According to the the gambling dictionary, a Parlay bet is a single bet that links two or more wagers on an individual ticket. If the two or more events win, the bet wins and pays out. If one of the two wagers loses, the entire bet has lost. This is the simplest way of explaining what a Parlay bet is.
Placing Parlay Bets
As this form of betting is quite possibly the most popular in the wagering industry, we look at the ways to go about it. The primary strategy is to attempt a “big win”. By doing so, players will go for seven or eight teams on a parlay bet, selecting only the favorites. With a bit of luck a $50 or $100 bet in such conditions could become $100,000 if all the picks come in.
Whilst this may be a good idea on paper, the truth of the matter is that more often than not, one of the day’s favorites will bottle it. In truth they represent a terrible investment. Another factor which one would need to keep in mind is the amount of pressure you may come across. Just imagine winning seven of your eight picks and then waiting for that final game result. The entire parlay may completely bust based on a freak occurrence.
For Instance
But you don’t have to take our word for it. We can draw you a picture. Imagine an eight-team parlay bet at $66 plus odds of -110 on each team. Now, imagine the first seven matches win. The final game essentially requires the bettor to gamble $51,200 already earned on winning picks to win $48,800.
Finding Promising Parlays
A common strategy for punters is to back the favorites. In some sports and leagues, such as NCAA football, you may find this to be a successful tactic. Especially when regarding the football division as scheduling mismatches every week.
Another such example would be placing “correlated parlays“. These types of parlays are two wagers which affect each other positively. For instance, placing a bet on a favorite Premier League team, backing them to have more corners in the game and score at least 3+ goals. This would be an ideal wager on one match which would rake up some fabulous odds.
The problem is, most online sportsbooks no longer allow closely-related proposition bets within a parlay. In the past several years, bookmakers would only allow “semi-correlated parlays”. These types of parlays allow you to find some relation within your wager but stamp out a lot of other possibilities. One example would be both teams to score and the home team to win. At the end of the day, you have to Find a Sports Betting Strategy that works for you.
Conclusion
When understanding what is a parlay bet and how to place good wagers, we would recommend you steer clear of the first example. Although on paper eight favorites is a sure-fire way to win, more times than not they will lose. A common tactic used by parlay bettors is to place favorites in the early afternoon matches and then place your big bets on the evening games.
For the basics of sports betting check out our Sports Betting For Dummies Guide.
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