The general rule regarding parlays is DON'T Parlays generally carry an increased house edge than straight bets, therefore you give the book a bigger advantage over you when you play them That, alone, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed combined with fear that often lead to betting parlays People think they are risking less with parlays, but they are not They believe they are able to win more with parlays, however they cannot The higher win with parlays is far outweighed by the higher probability of losing Parlay bettors are in fact risking more, with less possibility of collecting A parlay is not an individual bet It really is two bets -- a one-unit bet using 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 have 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, how many of you'll still make the bet A parlay is also bad money management In a parlay you either bet double on the next team, or nothing on that same team, depending upon whether the first game won or lost That adds some luck to your betting that doesn't should be there The skilled handicapper is definitely seeking to make smart investments He tries to eliminate the result of luck to the best extent possible to make his results as predictable as you possibly can As with every rule, however, there are 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 https//mocbaiteam/ allowed a new player to consistently parlay the initial half with the overall game The ball player parlayed totals by combining the over in the initial half with the over in the overall game, and the under in the initial half with under in the game Both parlays were made in the same game Each time the player won he would win 26 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 were a great chance of the book The standard coin-flip probability of winning one parlay out of the two are 50-50 As 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 more than 20,000 after six months, and the book begun to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully The issue for the bookmaker was that the two halves of every parlay were co-dependent By the end of the initial half, the bettor was almost never in a 50-50 situation Take the Thursday night game between Utah and Air Force The 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 total of 52 first-half points The first half of one of many 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 were not 50-50 but 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 26 times his money instead of just 10 for 11 Before you rush out to try this, remember that most off-shore books are far too smart to permit you to parlay first half to game Should they do allow you to do this, start worrying about collecting because that book will be taken up to the cleaners There are, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that can still be made at many books One kind of co-dependent parlay may be the parlay of the medial side and total in 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 each other and boost your win with hardly any increase in risk This type of bet, however, needed that you have an opinion on the side or the full total Parlaying is another method to boost your potential win on these games, or even to develop a potential win if you have no opinion There are two games this Saturday that qualify They are Virigina -25 over Duke with a complete of 48 �, and Kansas St -24 � vs North Texas with a total 46 � In the Virginia game, if you believe that Virginia covers the 25 points, then they must hold Duke to no more than 11 points or the overall game will go over the full total The more likely it becomes during the game that Virginia covers 25 points, the much more likely it becomes that the overall game will go over 48 � The wider Virginia's winning margin, the more likely the game will go over If you want Virginia to cover the spread, and you believe that Duke will never be shut out, in that case your possibility of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are higher than the normal 25 Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it really is less likely that Virginia will cover the 25 points Consequently, the probability that a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is greater than the normal 25 Should you have no opinion on the game, you can parlay the favourite 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 already 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 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 allow you to parlay the side to the full total in the same game, because more and more are realizing these bets are occasionally co-dependent But, enough books still do allow such bets that you 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