How To Bet Parlays Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

With the football season upon us, I thought that I would write this article on parlays since this type of bet is common during the football season.

A parlay is a combined bet on two, three, four or more games. You have to win all of your picks to win your parlay. If one of your picks loses, then your whole wager is lost.

If a game is a tie, postponed, incomplete, cancelled, or rescheduled for another date, your parlay is reduced to the next lowest level. That means a three team parlay with a tie becomes a two team parlay, or a two team parlay with a tie becomes a straight bet that is calculated at $10 to win $9.

Ties are considered losing bets at many sports books, not pushes, so check the rules before betting.

The suface appeal of parlay bets is obvious -- a ten-team parlay pays off at 400 to 1.

Every recreational sports bettor is looking for the get-rich-quick scheme.  A good example would be lottery tickets, which are selling at the highest rate ever. People are hoping against hope that they will be the one-in-a-billion person to beat the system and wind up with a boatload of money. Parlays fit this mold, as they allow people to invest a minimal amount of money with the chance of a huge payday if they can correctly pick a certain number of winners without any losers. The problem is that one loss is all that it takes to kill a fine looking parlay card. The following examines the best ways to beat the books playing parlay.

1) Bet more and keep the teams low. I recommend keeping parlays to 2 or 3 teams.  If you go over 3 teams the advantage shifts greatly to the house, as they hold all of the advantage. Instead of playing a 5-team parlay for $10, play a 3-team parlay for $30.

2) Check the rules of the parlay. Offshore sports books are the best places to play a parlay, as the majority of books push down on all ties. Local parlay cards that can be found at most offline sports books do not offer the same benefits. Some allow for one tie, while other cards consider a tie a loss. With the accuracy of the Las Vegas lines, these are great disadvantages to the sports bettor and need to be avoided if at all possible. If you play cards with this type of format, do your homework when making selections. Avoid selecting a team where the line is 3, since this number decides most football games. Try and select games where the spread has a ½ involved, as this will guarantee you a win or a loss.

3) Hedge your bet whenever possible for large parlays. Say one had an outstanding weekend in football and has hit six selections of your seven-team parlay with the only remaining game taking place on Monday night. One invested $10, and has a chance to win $800 if the Monday night goes as planned. I would take the suspense out of the Monday night game and make a side bet on the other side. This will guarantee you a profit if you hit your 7-team parlay and if you would happen to lose the game, you would collect on your side bet. This is the smart move, as you are ensuring yourself a substantial profit and can just enjoy Monday Night Football. However, this should only be applied when you are one game away from winning the parlay, as the odds decrease when you have two or more games left to win.

These are the techniques that I would recommend when betting parlays. Parlays are a fun way to get started in this form of sports betting, as they allow one to keep the amount risked low. Unfortunately, one will suffer more losing days then winning days when betting parlays.  This is the main reason why professional sports bettors never bet parlays!

Why not check out the odds today on your team by CLICKING HERE!