Baseball Parlays are Examined

Parlays are a kind of combination bet where bettors try to predict the outcome of a series of baseball games. They are offered at a number of sportsbooks on the internet and can include anything between 2 and 16 teams. Baseball parlays are particularized from their football and basketball counterparts because of the absence of a point spread. Thus, there is no predetermined payout in baseball as in the other two sports and the payouts are based on the underlying moneyline odds of the respective teams. Thus, parlays are quite popular in baseball because the payouts offered are quite attractive.

Also, with the sheer number of games that are played every day it doesn’t make sense for the bettorr to invest individually in every game. Parlays allow him to stay invested in maximum number of matches at a fraction of the price. The flip side is that even if one game does not go the bettors way, it will result in a loss. Even then several bettors love parlay wagers because of the excellent payouts and the sheer entertainment value.

Look at the Odds

In most kinds of sporting events, parlays have a bad reputation. Although these combination bets pay much more than ordinary straight bets, but if one underlying bet falls through the entire bet lapses. Because of this they often sport adjusted odds. So in a four team parlay with 16 different outcomes, the true odds would be 15-1 but the actual odds in a parlay would be 12-1.

Baseball parlays are a little different from football and basketball because the payouts are not fixed. Most football and basketball parlays have set payouts which can be calculated by applying a formula with variables like the total amount bet, the number of teams included in the parlay and the odds for each outcome.

Parlay Calculator

Baseball parlays are a little simpler then football and basketball because most of the odds in use are the money lines set by the sportsbook. Bettors can easily calculate the expected payout under a parlay wager by using a parlay calculator. These can be found in large numbers online and are often free to use. Bettors need to simply input the money line odds of individual teams in the parlay and their bet amount to compute the expected payout.

The favorite teams are usually marked with a minus sign while it is not compulsory to affix the plus sign for the underdog. Once these details are entered, bettors need to enter the parlay factor. This is calculated by simply applying the formula – (moneyline+100)/100. For example, if the Red Sox are playing with money line odds of +140, then the corresponding parlay factor would be 2.40. In the case of the favorites, the formula applied would be quite simply (moneyline+100)/moneyline. Bettors then proceed to enter the respective parlay factor for each team. Some parlay calculators automatically generate parlay factors when bettors input the money line odds. The expected winnings are calculated at the touch of a button. If a parlay calculator is not used, bettors have to contend with calculating the payouts manually, which can often be quite a tedious and complicated process.

Useful Tips to Help You Win

An important tip is to limit exposure to less than five games and to not go above six games. Beyond this point the risk level does not justify the winnings. Most bettors prefer three and four game parlays. If one game results in a tied result, it would be termed as a ‘push’. Some sportsbooks would still count this as a loss; however, some prefer to let a ‘push’ slide and proportionately reduce the bet. Thus, a four game parlay would become a three game parlay and so forth.