Are Parlays Good Bets Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Are Parlays Good Bets

Parlays are by far the most popular of the exotic wagers since they offer the potential for a big payoff from a small wager.  Simply stated, a parlay is a collection of two or more teams that you place a wager on and all of them must win in order for you to win your bet.  All of your bets must win, or at least tie, for you to win.

There are basically two types of parlays.  They are those wagered against the point spread and those wagered against the money line.  In parlays involving point spreads, the payoff is fixed and is very popular during the football season.  Money line parlay payoffs, on the other hand, are determined by the odds of each team and is popular during the baseball season.

As I mentioned, the primary reason parlays are popular with a number of sports bettors is because of the huge payoffs.  In my opinion, a parlay bet is a "sucker" bet"!.

Money line parlays are not as popular as point spread parlays.  In addition, money line parlays do not use fixed odds since the odds of winning vary greatly from team to team.  Point spread parlays assumes a 50-50 chance for each team of winning, money line parlays do not.

To put it in simple terms, money line parlays take the amount of your bet and place all of the money on one team and if that team wins, recalculates your bet amount on the next team, again placing your entire wager on that team.

As mentioned, parlays are not good bets.  Especially parlays involving point spreads or totals since the odds of the payoff are much less than the true odds.  As an example, the true odds of winning a three-team parlay when making point spread wagers are 7-1, while the payoff is only 6-1, and it gets worse as you bet more teams. The true odds of hitting a 10-team point parlay are 1,023-1, a "sucker" bet, while the payoff is generally around 600-1, so a parlay bettor is at a big disadvantage in my opinion.

Sports bettors should stick with straight bets, as it is difficult enough to pick one winner, let alone two or more games.

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