The general rule regarding parlays is DON'T Parlays generally carry a higher house edge than straight bets, therefore you give the book a more impressive advantage over you once you play them That, alone, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed combined with fear that often result in betting parlays People think they're risking less with parlays, but they are not They believe they can win more with parlays, however they cannot The bigger win with parlays is far outweighed by the bigger possibility of losing Parlay bettors are actually risking more, with less probability of collecting A parlay is not a single bet https//new88law/ is two bets -- a one-unit bet on one team and a two-unit bet on another 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 Just do it, make 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, just 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 second team, or nothing on that same team, dependant on whether the first game won or lost That adds an element of luck to your betting that doesn't should be there The skilled handicapper is definitely wanting to make smart investments He tries to eliminate the result of luck to the greatest extent possible in order to make his results as predictable as you possibly can As with every rule, however, you can find exceptions The exception to the rule regarding parlays occurs when the two bets are co-dependent I knew one bookmaker who was simply taken for thousands because he didn't understand the co-dependency of certain bets He allowed a player to consistently parlay the first half with the game The player parlayed totals by combining the over in the first half with the over in the overall game, and the under in the first half with under in the game Both parlays were manufactured in the same game Each and every time the player won he would win 26 times his bet Betting 100 on each parlay, if one of these won, the ball player would win 260 and lose 100 on the other parlay for a net win of 160 He could never win both parlays If he lost both parlays he would lose 200 Initially, this appeared to be a great chance of the book The normal coin-flip odds of winning one parlay out of your two are 50-50 So far as the bookie was concerned the bettor should be winning 160 half enough time, and losing 200 half enough time The bettor, however, making 500 parlays, was ahead a lot more than 20,000 after 6 months, and the book started to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully The issue for the bookmaker was that both 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 At the end of the initial half, the score was 31-21, for a total of 52 first-half points The first half of one of the parlays, the "over" in the initial half was a winner 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 odds of winning the "over" in the overall game were not 50-50 but much better than 99 in favor of the "over" The player only needed to win the first half of the parlay to be virtually assured he would collect 26 times his money rather than just 10 for 11 Before you rush out to try this, remember that most off-shore books are far too smart to enable you to parlay first half to game If they do enable you to do this, start worrying about collecting because that book will be taken up to the cleaners You can find, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that can be made at many books One type of co-dependent parlay may be the parlay of the side and total in the same game Any game where the total is significantly less than double the spread can provide you an edge in parlaying side to total in 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 increase your win with hardly any increase in risk Such a bet, however, needed that you have an opinion privately or the full total Parlaying is another method to increase your potential win on these games, or to create a potential win for those who 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, they must hold Duke to no more than 11 points or the game will go over the full total The more likely it becomes during the game that Virginia will cover 25 points, the more likely it becomes that the overall game will review 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 not be shut out, in that case your possibility of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are greater than the standard 25 Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it really is less likely that Virginia will cover the 25 points Subsequently, the probability that a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is higher than the normal 25 Should you have no opinion on the overall 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 other game meeting the qualifications this week -- Friday's game between California -30 against New Mexico State with a complete 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 privately, the better win-rate will undoubtedly 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 wouldn't normally allow such bets, but there exists a sufficient co-dependency in the games with low totals and high spreads to make the strategy profitable long-term Not all bookmakers will allow you to parlay the side to the total in exactly the same game, because an increasing number of are realizing that these bets are occasionally co-dependent But, enough books still do allow such bets so you might consider including such bets in your professional betting arsenal If your bookmaker provides "if/reverse" bets, you can replace the parlay bet with an "if/reverse" bet and achieve greater success