The general rule regarding parlays is: DON'T.
888bet carry a higher house edge than straight bets, therefore you give the book a more impressive advantage over you when you play them. That, by itself, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed combined with fear that often result in betting parlays. People think they are risking less with parlays, however they aren't. They believe they are able to win more with parlays, however they cannot. The higher win with parlays is far outweighed by the higher possibility of losing. Parlay bettors are actually risking more, with less possibility of collecting.
A parlay is not a single bet. It is two bets -- a one-unit bet on one team and a two-unit bet on the other. 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 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 can be bad money management. In a parlay you either bet double on the next team, or nothing on that same team, dependant on whether the first game won or lost. That adds some luck to your betting it doesn't should be there. The skilled handicapper is definitely seeking to make smart investments. He tries to remove the effect of luck to the greatest extent possible in order to make his results as predictable as you possibly can.
Much like every rule, however, there are exceptions. The exception to the rule regarding parlays occurs once the two bets are co-dependent.
I knew one bookmaker who was simply taken for tens of thousands because he didn't understand the co-dependency of certain bets. He allowed a player to consistently parlay the initial half with the overall game. The player parlayed totals by combining the over in the first half with the over in the game, and the under in the initial half with under in the overall game. Both parlays were made in the same game. Every time the player won he'd 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 another parlay for a net win of $160. He could never win both parlays. If he lost both parlays he'd lose $200.
Initially, this appeared to be a great opportunity 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 a lot 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 the two halves of each parlay were co-dependent. By the end of the first half, the bettor was almost never 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 first half of among the parlays, the "over" in the first half was successful. 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 weren't 50-50 but much 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 instead of just $10 for $11.
Before you rush out to try this, remember that most off-shore books are much too smart to let you parlay first half to game. Should they do let you do this, start fretting about collecting because that book will soon be taken 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 is the parlay of the side and total in exactly the same game.
Any game in which the total is less than double the spread can give you an advantage in parlaying side to total in exactly the same game. We've already discussed, in a prior article, how to use these anomalous side and total combinations to hedge one another and boost your win with hardly any increase in risk. This type of bet, however, required that you have an impression on the side or the full total. Parlaying is another method to increase your potential win on these games, or to develop a potential win should you have no opinion.
There are two games this Saturday that qualify. They're Virigina -25 over Duke with a total of 48 �, and Kansas St. -24 � vs. North Texas with a total 46 �).
In the Virginia game, if you believe that Virginia will cover the 25 points, then they must hold Duke to only 11 points or the overall game will go over the full total. The more likely it becomes through the game that Virginia will cover 25 points, the more likely it becomes that the game will go over 48 �. The wider Virginia's winning margin, the more likely the game will review. If you want Virginia to cover the spread, and you believe that Duke will never 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 not as likely that Virginia covers the 25 points. As a result, the probability a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is greater than the normal 25%.
For those who 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 real 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 an absolute two-parlay spread.
The closer the posted total would be to the spread on the side, 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 would not allow such bets), but there is 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 help you to parlay the medial side to the total in the same game, because an increasing number of are realizing these bets are occasionally co-dependent. But, enough books still do allow such bets for you to consider including such bets in your professional betting arsenal.
If your bookmaker provides "if/reverse" bets, you can replace the parlay bet having an "if/reverse" bet and achieve greater success.