It’s no secret that big parlays are a great way to win more money betting on sports. They’re also a lot riskier than single bets. However, with the right strategy, you can significantly improve your win rate and increase your return on investment with big parlays. In this article, we’ll look at some general strategies for getting more big wins when betting on parlays. Read on to learn more about placing big parlays and the best types of bets for high payout potential.
By the way, if you want someone to do all the hard work and research for you, check out our Sports Passes so you can get all of our daily sports picks and parlays directly to your email.
Research Before You Bet
One of the first things you should do before placing a big bet is to do your research. Parlays are a riskier bet, so you’ll want to make sure you’re choosing the right ones. This includes both teams and the odds. If you’re not sure about the matchups or you think the odds aren’t in your favor, you should probably skip placing the bet. You also want to make sure you’ve found a site that offers good odds, giving you a high betting line. Although big parlays can be a great way to get more money when betting, they also come with significantly increased risk. You can do your part to minimize the risk of losing by doing your research before placing a bet.
Â
How to Calculate Big Parlay Odds
If you’re relatively new to betting on parlays, you may be a bit confused about how to calculate their payout odds. It can be a little tricky at first, but once you’re used to it, it’s actually not too difficult. The formula for calculating the payout for a 6-team parlay is: (Odds of 1st team in parlay) X (Odds of 2nd team in parlay) X (Odds of 3rd team in parlay) X (Odds of 4th team in parlay) X (Odds of 5th team in parlay) X (Odds of 6th team in parlay) The payout for this particular parlay is $3,200 on a $100 bet. How do you know what these odds are? Most sites will tell you the payout percentage if you ask, but you can also calculate them yourself by adding up the odds of each team winning and then dividing it by the total number of teams in the parlay. So, for a 4-team parlay where each team has a 1/5 chance of winning, the payout would be 1/5 X 1/5 X 1/5 X 1/5 X 1/5. This comes out to 0.02, or 2%. As you can see, this payout is significantly lower than your typical single bet. This is why you want to make sure you have a good read on the odds before placing the bet.
Choose a Game you’re Good At
This might sound like a no-brainer, but the game you choose to parlay has a big impact on the payout odds. The game that has the highest payout percentage is the one you want to bet on. For example, if you are the best football bettor in the world, then you might want to parlay NFL games. The best basketball bettor might be better off parlaying NBA games. You can also parlay different sports, but keep in mind that the payout is usually lower when combining games. Why does this matter? Well, the odds for each team are calculated based on their expected win rate. The expected win rate for teams in sports like football, basketball, and baseball is pretty high. In fact, it’s estimated that the NFL wins about 65% of the time. On the other hand, esports win rates are significantly lower. As such, esports parlay odds are much higher. This significantly lowers your payout odds, which isn’t the best strategy for winning money.
Lay the Juice
If you’re new to betting on parlays, you might not know what “laying the juice” is. In short, it means you’re betting on a game that has unfavorable odds. For example, let’s say that Team Blue is expected to win 80% of the time against Team Red, while they lose 20%. The odds against these two teams winning are then 20% and 80%, respectively. The juice is then calculated by subtracting the odds of Red beating Blue (20%) from the odds of Blue beating Red (80%). This gives us a juice percentage of 60%. Why would you want to bet on a game where the odds are stacked against you? Because you can actually make more money from the same parlay if you lay the juice. Let’s say you want to parlay these two teams and bet $100 as your maximum bet. You decide to lay the juice and bet $120. If you win, you’ll get back $160 ($120+$40). The odds against this happening are much lower, meaning you’ll win more often than not.
Utilize Risk-free Parlays
Risk-free parlays are the best way to ensure that you get your money back if you don’t get a big payout. As the name suggests, these are parlays where you will get your money back if they don’t win. For example, let’s say that a sportsbook has a risk-free parlay where you can bet $100 on a 4-team parlay and get your money back if it doesn’t win. If the parlay wins, you’ll get $500. Let’s say that the odds of winning this particular parlay are 50/50. This means that the expected payout is 100/200, or $100. If you bet $100 on this parlay and it doesn’t win, the sportsbook will give you your $100 back. On the other hand, if it does win, you’ll get $500, plus your $100 back. The risk-free parlay is a great way to hedge your bets and make sure you get your money back if you don’t win big.
Don’t Be Afraid of Big Losses
It’s easy to forget that big parlays are a risky bet. It’s more likely that they’ll lose than win. Therefore, it’s important to keep in mind that you may lose a lot of money if you place a large bet. However, this doesn’t mean you should avoid them completely. You just want to be smart about where you place these bets and how much you put on the line. First, don’t place a large bet on a single game. You’ll want to parlay at least a couple of games together to increase your overall win rate and make it less likely to lose a ton of money. Next, make sure you only place these bets on games where the odds are in your favor. You want to be betting on games where the win rate is high so that it’s more likely you’ll win and less likely that you’ll lose a large amount of money on a bet.
Conclusion
The ultimate goal when betting on big parlays is to win. Big parlays are riskier than placing individual bets, but if you do your research and place smart bets, you can make more money while increasing your overall win rate. When placing big parlays, it’s important to make sure you’re choosing a game that has high odds of winning. You also want to make sure the sportsbook has good odds so that you can get a high payout. You can also increase your odds of winning by laying the juice and utilizing risk-free parlays. Don’t be afraid of placing large bets, as long as you’re smart about how you do it.
Your friend,
Alex Parlay
CEO, Plays That Pay