- Don’t be afraid. Be ambitious.
- Choose a parlay time span that suits you.
- Avoid the points spread.
- Expand your parlay horizons, Include multiple sports.
- Look for a hedge opportunity
- Use free bets
- The home underdog
- Combining two favourites
- The ‘Double Dog’ parlay
- Keep bet size under control
- Use a system bet
- The overnight parlay
- Actively search out bookmakers promotions
- Use multiple online accounts
1. Don’t Be Afraid. Be ambitious.
Parlays are a wonderful way to turn a small stake into a juicy bank boosting payout. Be ambitious, swing for the fence, this is not a time to be conservative. This is the time to link together some of those ‘gut feel’ wagers’ that you might otherwise not be eager to stake a full unit or even multiple units on.
The small stake multiplying through to large payout odds works in your favor here. Double figure odds are par for the course. This is how successful parlay bettors turn a 10 – 1 half unit parlay into a 5 unit betting bank booster.
Landing a big parlay not only kicks your account balance along but it gives you bragging rights over your buddies for weeks. Heck even the bad beats that go oh so close can be worn as a badge of honor.
Fortune favors the brave!
2. Choose a Parlay Time Span That Suits You.
A parlay by nature does not payout until all legs are settled. The time it takes for this to occur should really meet your needs as a gambler. If you are not comfortable with your stake being tied up for a long period of time then ensure your parlay legs all conclude at a similar time or at least on the same day.
The opportunity cost of having you stake locked into a multi day, week or even month long parlay can be expensive. This is magnified when several legs have already come through for you and your stake may have already triple or quadruple bagged but you can’t access that money till a final leg plays out. Even a hedge, while guaranteeing a result, will still cost you another portion of your capital.
On the flipside you may be a gambler who loves to milk maximum entertainment from your parlay, and in this case, you may like to string it out across an entire weekend or even season. Futures markets are your friend. Having your stake spoken for over a long period let’s you soak up the anticipation and affords you the chance to enjoy the prospect of a potential big win, perhaps dreaming of how you will spend it or reinvest it!
Each to their own, but be sure to build a parlay that fits your time frame.
3. Avoid the Point Spread
The cardinal sin for all recreational punters is the parlay that groups together points spread (handicap) wagers. At first glance this seems like a wonderful way to land yourself some juicy odds, after all, three bets ATS (against the spread) multiply to just shy of 7-1. Surely a great bet? Wrong!
The true odds for this 3 leg parlay are actually 8-1 given that each individual leg is a 50/50 chance of landing. No wonder sportsbooks actively promote the points spread parlay!
The only caveat to the poor value of the point spread parlay is if the bettor firmly believes they have found games where the sportsbooks have the handicap wrong. This is possible but beware you are taking on the pros. It is better in this case to bet on each outcome outright as opposed to the parlay.
For a comprehensive look into the points spread parlay click here.
4. Expand Your Parlay Horizons, Include Multiple Sports.
The best value bets often don’t congregate in the one sport. Bookmakers encourage betters to keep their picks to one sport as finding value across multiple matches in the one league is a difficult task. With a wider variety of options available to the better, value will be easier to find. A key ingredient in to successful parlay strategy.
Expand your parlay horizons in the following way:
- Broaden your search to multiple sports,
- Create a short list of possible value picks
- Decide on the length of your parlay
- Narrow down short list to suit
- Load up!
5. Look for a Hedge Opportunity
One of the wonderful opportunities afforded by a well placed parlay is the chance to hedge against the last leg should the earlier legs have already landed. A hedge will give you guaranteed winnings or at the very least safeguard your stake. One of the best ways to ensure you don’t blow your account up is to play defense.
Hedging is not negative play and it does not demonstrate a lack of confidence in your original bet. It is simply playing the numbers and buying some insurance. All experienced bettors know that fate can, and often will intervene at inopportune times. An injury to a key player here, a horrible call from a referee there and your parlay can come crashing down.
Lock some profit in, kick back, and watch the game, or better still start researching your next parlay!
6. Use Free Bets
Many online sports books reward clients for loyalty, making deposits, regular betting or for wagering on promotional markets in the form of bonus or free bets. The issue with these is that as the bettor, you only receive the profit from your free bet and not the original stake. For example in the case of a $10 free bet, if you were to wager on a -110 moneyline favourite and they win, you will only receive $9.20 as a payout. The $10 free bet acting as your original stake is not returned. Doesn’t seem very exciting.
The solution; use your free bets on parlays. This way you can take a shot at a combination of wagers that deliver you final odds much more enticing than an uninspiring favourite.
For example a $10 bet on a parlay offering odds of 9 – 1 will see your eventual payout being $80. That is the usual payout of $90 less the free bet stake of $10, leaving you with $80.
School of Bets has a must read guide to making the most of your bonus bet. Get it here!
7. The Home Underdog
Home field advantage is an amazing thing in the world of sports. Teams seem to grow an extra leg when they run out in front of their families and legion of faithful fans. Unique weather conditions, stadium layouts, home cooking and the chance to sleep in their own bed without question motivates athletes. That overconfident star studded visiting team may just find themselves in an ambush.
It is for these reasons that home underdogs (pick and choose carefully) are always worth consideration in a parlay. The underdog status carries with it a powerful odds multiplying effect. Just the thing every well played parlay needs. You could expect a home underdog to be paying well above 2 – 1 odds, essentially at the very least doubling the parlay total odds.
8. Combining Two Favorites
Loading up on a big favorite is always a temptation for the online sports bettor. A quick in and out to bank some profit to boost your account. The issue here is normally the gambler has to wager quite a large stake to see any significant return. Not always the best idea for long term success. One run of losses and your account balance cops a beat down.
This is where the favourites parlay double comes in handy. Find two carefully chosen favorites, bundle them together into a parlay and let your stake and profit from the first win ride into the second leg. The end result is a much smaller stake at risk but still an excellent return.
For example the NBA parlay below sees two strong home favourites combine together to make a solid bet at decimal odds of 1.82. Nice return.
9. The Double Dog Parlay
An underrated but powerful parlay is the underdog double. By carefully scanning available markets and choosing two value underdogs and sneaking them into a double you will be staring down odds of +400 (Decimal odds 5.00) or better without too much trouble.
Many a gambler has a story of a 4 or 5 leg parlay of strong favorites offering combined odds of about 3 to 1. The first four legs roll on and win easily and sure enough the last one has ‘one of those days’ and gets beaten by a heavy underdog. You in turn do your dough and are left asking the question, if only I had wagered on that dog.
In many ways the double underdog parlay represents considerably more value that bundle of favourites. Major League Baseball and the NBA throw up double underdog winners seemingly on a daily basis.
10. Keep Bet Size Under Control
Juicy odds can sometimes blind a gambler. Even before the parlay has been placed the blinded bettor is already doing the math and dreaming of a tsunami of cash. Self talk can creep in and soon the bettor has convinced themself that an increase in bet size is the clever move here. More often than not the simple answer is it isn’t.
Just like the golfer, who wants to hit the ball further, maintains the same swing but changes the club to not upset their rhythm,so it is with the successful parlay bettor. If it is big payout they are chasing, the stake remains the same, but the parlay becomes more elaborate. That way if the parlay loses (which happens regularly) the bettor has not be taken to the cleaners but blowing an oversized stake.
11. Use a Parlay System Bet
A parlay system bet builds into the bet some insurance in case one leg fails. It actually gives you multiple winning combinations and there is plenty to like about that!
There are many systems available to choose from and they are based around the amount of legs within your parlay and are typically available on parlays of between 2 and 8 legs. A great example is a ‘yankee’ which called into action on a 4 option parlay. When placing ‘yankee’ instead of one bet you in actual fact are placing 11 separate bets across which your stake is divided evenly.
Instead of one four leg parlay the yankee looks like this:
- 1 four-fold
- 4 trebles
- 6 doubles
Depending on the odds of each individual leg you may be able to cover your original stake with just two legs landing.
For more a more comprehensive breakdown of all the system bets available click here.
12. The Overnight Parlay
The overnight parlay is a rarely spoken about use of the humble combination wager. It is essentially where a bettor loads up a parlay that will result while they are sleeping. It is often used as an attempt to build a bank for the next days local action. More often than not it is placed on sports played abroad, where the time zone differences are used to the bettor’s advantage.
Time zones in Asia, Australia and Europe are suited to the US sports bettor. These markets also have established sports betting communities and as a result thousands of markets are on offer. A small amount of knowledge on some overseas sports can have you earning while snoozing. What a great combination!
13. Actively Search Out Bookmaker Promotions.
Sportsbooks constantly offer excellent promotions on parlay betting. They know that a poorly placed parlay is loaded in their favor and do their best to encourage more action on these types of bets. This presents a rich vein of opportunity for the bettor and you need to go after it!
Some classic promotions to look out for:
- Free Bet matching the stake if the parlay loses by one option. (usually capped at a certain figure eg $25)
- A daily odds boost on your first parlay (invariably about 5% boost).
- A promotional odds boost on parlays that meet certain conditions (eg. 50% extra on 4+ legs NBA parlay)
- Percentage of your stake returned on losing parlays (eg 20%) if certain conditions are met. (eg 4+ legs all on Major League Baseball)
14. Use Multiple Online Accounts
Multiple online accounts is a sophisticated way to take advantage of the sportsbooks parlay promotional markets. While the obvious disadvantage of owning more than one account is that it makes it much more difficult to keep track of your betting history (clearly this can be dangerous), its upside is that you can lock in on any promotional parlay in the marketplace.
Often the books are running concurrent parlay promotions but on differing sports. For example in the month of April one book’s promotion may be targeting major league baseball while others may be focused on the NBA playoffs. Owning accounts at both books means you can hit both promotions. Consistently winning is difficult so any way to improve your chances should be jumped at!
