Betting on NFL and turning a profit are not mutually exclusive concepts, but one does not follow the other seamlessly either. You do need to have an NFL betting strategy in place in order to be able to maximize your wins and minimize your losses. Teasing them up over a touchdown, and teasing the total up six points higher when you already see it as inflated is a great strategy. However, when parlaying or teasing a total, there is a small rule of thumb. Totals that are high tend to come with more variance, and therefore are less likely to come home in a correlated teaser or parlay.

A parlay bet is a popular form of sports wagering most gamblers are familiar with. In case you’re not, this bet is rather easy to understand. A parlay is simply a combo bet where, rather than betting several teams individually, you group them into a single wager. Using this option, the payout is greater and the risk is less, but you need all teams selected to win.

To give an example, say you’re interested this week in betting Jets -4, Patriots +3, Dolphins +2.5 and Colts -7. If your bankroll is limited to just $100, using straight wagers you’d make four separate bets of $25 to win $22.73. If you we’re feeling both lucky and in the mood to gamble, you might instead bet them all together as a four team parlay. Under the parlay option, the stakes would be $100 to win at least $1,000. To win, you’ll need to go 4-0; if one or more games push while all others win, the payout is reduced, and with any other outcome, the bet is a loss.

What happens if there’s a push in a parlay? That bet will be taken out of the parlay and the payout will be reduced as if there were one fewer team in the parlay. So if you had a 4 team parlay and you got three picks cocrrect and the other was a push, you would be paid out the odds of a 3 team parlay.

Parlay bets can be very tempting as they can offer some big payouts. See a recent parlay Kevin made at 5Dimes.eu and cashed in on!

Are Parlays Sucker Bets?

There is a general misconception in sports betting that all parlays are sucker bets. This is simply because most sports bettors are not familiar with how they work, or how to bet them properly. In this article, I’ll address parlay betting strategies, but first let’s look at parlay odds and how they are calculated.

The parlay odds at most Las Vegas sportsbooks are:

2 teams 2.6 to 1
3 teams 6-1
4 teams 10-1
5 teams 20-1
6 teams 40-1
7 teams 80-1
8 teams 150-1

Online the odds are similar, though some sites such as BetNow and MyBookie offer better odds starting with three teams and up. What’s important to note is that these are fixed odds based on a 50/50 wagering proposition. If a spread is listed at Home Team -7 / Road Team +7 this is 50/50 proposition. If, instead, the spread was Home Team -7 -105 / Road Team +7 -115, this is no longer a 50/50 proposition, and the payout will be calculated using a method bookmakers refer to as “true odds”. I’ll cover that later in this article, but first let’s take a moment to understand where fixed parlay odds are derived from.

Let’s say you decide for the next eight weeks you’re going to bet the Monday night football game, starting with a $1.00 bankroll and betting your entire bankroll each week until you go 8-0 or bust. The potential win is as follows:

Week 1: $1.00 to win $0.91: If win total profit = $0.91 (Bankroll =$1.91)
Week 2: $1.91 to win $1.74: If win total profit = $2.65 (Bankroll =$3.65)
Week 3: $3.65 to win $3.32: If win total profit = $5.97 (Bankroll =$6.97)
Week 4: $6.97 to win $6.34: If win total profit = $12.31 (Bankroll =$13.31)
Week 5: $13.31 to win $12.10: If win total profit = $24.41 (Bankroll =$25.41)
Week 6: $25.41 to win $23.10: If win total profit = $46.51 (Bankroll =$47.51)
Week 7: $47.51 to win $43.19: If win total profit = $89.70 (Bankroll =$90.70)
Week 8: $90.70 to win $82.45: If win total profit = $172.15 (Bankroll =$173.15)

The reason parlays are often sucker bets shows up in this middle column. Had you bet these in an 8 team parlay, you’d only get paid 150 to one. Essentially, a parlay is no different than betting all in each time, only parlays generally pay much worse. However, you’ll notice the odds are not poor until you get to four teams, where the sportsbook has a whopping 31.25% advantage. Two teams pay a smidgen worse than the manual parlay (all in each time) option, where three team parlays pay a smidgen better. Rarely ever is a 2 or 3 team parlay a true suckers bet.

What Does a Parlay Pay?

As I mentioned earlier, fixed parlay odds vary greatly between online sportsbooks. Here is some info on which sites offer the best fixed parlay odds:

In general two team parlays pay +260, or $260 for every $100 bet. BetNow offers +264.5, and 5Dimes.eu offers +264, which is better than the +260 most betting sites offer.

3 team parlays pay 6/1 or $600 for every $100 bet. BetOnline.ag is the leader in the industry in 3 team parlay payouts.

This is the area where betting sites generally hurt the sports bettor, paying only 10 to 1, which gives them a 31.25% advantage. This can be avoided when betting at BetNow where the payout is +1228.3, or at 5Dimes where it is +1228.

Generally speaking, parlaying 5 teams or more teams is not a good idea; however, for sports gamblers looking for a lotto ticket, 5dimes.eu and Bookmaker.eu each offer up to 15 team parlays and have by far the best odds in the business on these.

How much does a 15 team parlay pay? A 15 team parlay will pay out over +16,000. I just tested this out and a $1 15 team NFL parlay at -110 odds will payout $16,306. Good luck hitting on that!

True Odds Parlays

1 Earlier, I mentioned fixed odds are only given when all selections are 50/50 propositions. If one side of a line requires a greater stake than the other to yield the same payout, this is not a 50/50 proposition, and the bookmaker will now use “true odds”. What’s important to note is that true odds doesn’t actually mean the “true odds” of winning. Rather, true odds pays the same as if you bet each team individually and rolled the profit forward each time, which is what I showed in the example of 8 all in bets starting with a $1.00 stake.

To calculate true odd parlays, each bet first needs to be converted into a multiplier. To do this, take what a winning ticket would return and divide it by the amount risked. For example, at -110 a $110 stake returns $210 ($110 stake + $100 win). Calculating the multiplier as return/risk here, we plug in 210/110, which means the multiplier is 1.91. If we did the same on -115, the multiplier is 215/115=1.87.

Let’s say you’re in the mood to gamble on an 8 team parlay, but the only out available to you is a bookmaker paying 150-1 fixed odds. A trick of the trade here is to include one bet that is priced differently than -110 in order to force the bookmaker to use true odds. So, let’s say you make 7 selections priced at the standard -110 pricing and one at -115. A true parlay calculates by multiplying each modifier together. The math is 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.91 * 1.87, which equals 173.41. This bet returns 173.41 times the stake, which includes the risk amount, so the bet is 1 to win 172.41. Notice this is significantly better than the fixed odds payout of 1 to win 150 on an 8 team parlay. In short, the trick of the trade when dealing with poor fixed odds is to simply add one team to the parlay that is priced differently than the standard -110.

As you can now see, if you know how to bet parlays properly, they are not always sucker bets. There are, however, a few reasons that parlays are generally not a good move. I’ll cover these, and then cover the times it does make sense.

Top Reasons to Avoid Parlays

1) Progressive betting systems are generally regarded as poor strategy for both bankroll management and bankroll growth. Professional bettors make wagers based on their quantified edge per game. While the math can work out, doing the math for proper bet sizing on a parlay is a lot of added work with little to no upside for most sports bettors.

2) Parlay bets have higher variance than straight bets. Here you’re getting the same odds, but your chance of hitting a dry spell is greatly increased. When the odds are the same it is most often better to go with the lower variance option, which in this case is straight wagers.

3) Line Shopping – Sports bettors maximize their profit by always shopping for the best price. For example, finding -4 when other sites are -4.5, and finding reduced vig options such as -104 instead of -110. When betting parlays, you’ll need to find the most favorable odds for each team at a single betting site. This scenario is rare, so generally you’ll end up with better odds by making straight wagers at multiple betting sites.

Parlays That Make the Most Sense:

Reduced Juice – BetOnline.ag offers 6.5 to one on three team parlays. This comes out better than betting sides at the -105 price standard reduced juice sports books offer. In sports such as NFL football where 50/50 wagering propositions are common, a sports bettor gets far superior odds by betting 3 team parlays at BetOnline.

Correlated Parlays – If a bookmaker was offering betting lines on both “will it be cloudy today?” and “will it rain today?”, if allowed, you’d be much better off betting either both as no, or both as yes, in a parlay bet as opposed to straight wagers. While this is a simplified example, there are plenty of times when outcomes are correlated in sports betting. For example, a handicapper might determine that if one team covers the spread, the game is more likely to go over or under the posted total. Also, during the final week of the NFL season, a certain team winning or losing the day game might result in a previously important night game now having no meaning in the playoff race.

Free Play Bonuses – Several online betting sites, for example BetNow, offer players free bets based on the size of their initial deposit. Free play bonuses are not the same as cash. The difference is that a bet made with cash returns both stake and win, where a bet made with a free play returns only win. Parlays allow you the chance to use the same free play more than once, because a parlay really is only a wager that continues to place stake+win on the next selection. Remember, fixed odd three team parlays pay a little better than true odds. So when using free plays to bet 3 team parlays, you’re getting slightly better odds, and also a chance to apply that free play stake to three different bets. This is common knowledge that 3 team parlays are a great use of free play bonuses.

Circumventing Betting Limits – I’ll warn you upfront that betting sites do not take kindly to this, and it might get you banned. The basic idea here is, say you find a parlay with monster value in a small market with low betting limits. Let’s say a woman’s field hockey line opens at +150 when it should be +100. Here making ten unique two-team parlays, using the +150 bet with a random -110 each time might be advantageous, as on average you’ll get down 5 times the max bet. At -110 juice the expected ROI is less, but to get the maximum amount down on line of significant value, it might make sense. While personally I rarely use this strategy online, I do attempt to get away with it in Las Vegas from time to time. This takes a little bit of acting, such as starting to walk away from the cage and then saying wait, also give me… Know this: It is a trick of the trade advantage players use that is not for novice bettors.

This concludes our article on parlay betting. As a final tip: if you enjoy using parlays as a lottery ticket, www.Bovada.lv runs a $10,000 weekly parlay jackpot during football season, which is an added bonus on top of what a $5 stake pays on a 10 team parlay win. To learn more, see the promo section at www.Bovada.lv. If nothing else, this article gives you some great conversation material next time someone in the sports bar says, parlays are for suckers. Hopefully, it ends up being much more than that, adding extra winnings to your bankroll. Either way, we wish you the best of luck.

Other Advanced Sports Betting Strategy Articles:
» Teaser Betting Strategy
» Prop Betting Strategy
» How To Get Max Value When Betting

Your parlay bet will be paid out only when all your wager legs win. A football parlay betting strategy can help you churn consistent income without much research or effort.

A successful parlay can give a sizable push to your bankroll, on a relatively small outlay. Also known as accumulator bet, combo bet or multi bet, a parlay combines two or more wager legs.

Football Parlay Betting Strategy – Getting Started

Parlay bet has a lucrative multiplier effect as it involves odds of different wagers to multiply into an enticing payout. At face value, a parlay bet may appear simple but it has deeper considerations in between the lines.

To win a parlay bet, you need to win every individual bet on your card. For example, if you have bets on the Patriots, the Ravens and the Texans. If all three of them win their respective matches, you win the parlay bet.

The reason parlay bets are so sought after is because once all the three teams win, you get a much bigger payout compared to what you would have gotten if you had bet on each game individually. On the flip side, if any of the three teams lose their matches, you not only lose that single bet, you will lose the entire card.

The only exception to this rule will come in the case of a “push”, which means a tie in gambling dictionary. If one of the matches from the card draws, that particular bet is removed from the parlay and what remains with you is a two-bet parlay. If Raven draws and Patriots and Texans win their games, your bet will pay out as a 2-team parlay.

If you are thinking of combining 5 to 10 bets together, remember the odds of winning such large parlays is comparatively low however, such bets allow you to put a small amount of money at risk in hopes of a potentially large return. For example, if you bet $25 each on a 10 bet parlay, you would payout over $16000 if you win each of those games.

A successful football parlay betting strategy is often a result of tedious effort, trial and errors, which often cost quite a bit of money, but if you can persevere, there can be no other strategy that consistently provides such winning outcomes.

How To Calculate Parlay Odds?

There are a number of ways you can go about calculating how much you will win on your parlay bets. The first one is to use online sites. As you keep adding games and bets to your parlay card, these online sites will calculate your payout amount in real-time. They will show you how much you can win even before you place your parlay.

The second easiest way is to use an online parlay payout calculator. You can enter the different lines and the calculators will show you the amount you will earn if all the bets in your parlay win. Although, keep in mind that these calculators will only show the profits or the amount sportsbook will pay you.

The third way to calculate parlay payout is to calculate it yourself. Quick warning, the number you get will usually be close to the actual payout. The sportsbook will likely shift the payout slightly in your favour or against your favour.

• Convert the moneyline odd on each bet into decimal odds.
• Then multiply all your decimals together.
• Take the final number and multiply it by the wager.
• The resultant number will be the amount sportsbook will give back to you.
• Now subtract your original bet from the final amount.

Best Nfl Parlays Today

Football Parlay Betting Strategy

Smart bettors use a variety of different winning parlay systems to gain the most profit out of their parlay bets.

Use Sportsbook Rewards & Bonuses

Most online sportsbooks have promotional programs that offer rewards for loyalty, making deposits, regular betting or more in terms of free bets.

You can use these bets on parlay. If you place a $10 bet on a parlay offering odds of 9-1, your payout will be $80. This is the result of $90 minus the $10 stake of free bet.

Watch Out For Home Underdogs

Underdogs carry a lethal multiplier effect which is exactly what every successful parlay needs. This parlay strategy rests on the fact that teams who play at home field in front of their families and cheerful home crowd have a much better chance at winning.

Home underdogs commonly pay well above 2-1 odds which essentially multiplies the total parlay odds.

Nfl Parlay Betting Odds

Double Dog Parlay

In this super power parlay strategy, choose two underdogs and wrap them into a 2-team parlay bet with decimal odds of 5.00 or higher.

Many times gamblers place 4 or 5 leg parlays on strong favorites which results in the first 2-3 matches winning and the last one being beaten by an underdog. Hence, a double underdog parlay can prove more valuable than a bundle of favorites.

Merge Two Favorites

Another variant of a 2-team parlay, this strategy involves carefully choosing two favorites, stacking them together into one parlay and letting the profit from their first win lead them into the second leg. The resultant profit is a small stake but yet a profitable return.

Moneyline Parlay Strategy

A go-to strategy for most sport bettors, moneyline parlay is made strictly off moneyline favorites.

Favorites Plus One Parlay

The strategy is simple – create a parlay by adding a few moneyline favorites first and then add an underdog into the mix in order to boost odds. This method turns a low paying parlay into a high paying one.

The success of this recipe lies in two main ingredients – #1 a solid list of favorites and #2 a reliable underdog.

Nfl Parlay Betting Strategy

For the list of favorites, you can choose heavy favorites but make sure that their odds add up to 1/1 ratio. As for the underdog, it becomes the most challenging of the tasks but also this is what makes the parlay so profitable.

15-Team Parlay

As the parlay winning system grows more and more popular, how much does a 15 team parlay pay is a question on every high-achieving bettor’s mind. A 15 team parlay pays out over +16,000.

Nfl Football Parlay Card Picks

We hope you have a greater understanding of some of the winning parlay betting strategies that you can use to build a stronger bottom line.

Nfl Parlay Betting Strategy Betting

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