Football Parlay Betting

Football parlays are an interesting form of football betting which is gaining popularity among the gambling community in recent times. Football parlay betting is proving to be quite a favorite among bookmakers and gamblers alike because the entry cost is low and the payouts are conditional upon the happening or non-happening of several events. The payouts are quite significant in this form of betting and this attracts gamblers. Football parlay betting is therefore, a high risk-high return form of betting.

Basics

A football parlay bet is a combination bet that is composed of several individual events which have no bearing with each other. For example, a parlay bet can be entered into for the Cardinals beating the Eagles and for the Giants covering the Dolphins. Both these events are independent and one match’s result does not influence the other. In order to win this parlay bet, gamblers need to correctly predict the outcome of both events. So in the above mentioned parlay bet, if the Giants cover the Dolphins but the Cardinals come up short against the Eagles, the gambler will lose the bet. In real life situations, while the above two situations might seem independent, there could be some degree of correlation between the outcomes of the two events. This correlation can be on account of the teams’ relative standing on the leader board, players’ forms and even psychological advantages. Additionally, there are several statistics available for winning probabilities in home and away matches and also for win ratios for favorites and underdogs in the NFL season. Past historical data can be a useful basis to place parlay bets.

Improving Parlay Returns

For the shrewd gambler, predicting whether two seemingly independent events could have a positive correlation could give him the underlying advantage while entering into a parlay bet. Parlay bets are also beneficial to the gambler if there is a strong advantage favoring him on several single bets. This could translate to an improved return on investment for the gambler.

For example, in case the prevailing betting odds in a straight bet are 10/11, the probability of a win is 60% at a 0.6 handicapping level. His return on investment is 1.15. The betting odds for a two team parlay improve to 13/5 with a probability of payout at a similar handicapping level at 36%. But because the gambler hedges the same amount of funds as in the straight bet and enjoys a payout ratio that is only slightly lesser, his overall return on investment actually increases to 1.3.

Thus, when the handicapping levels are high, parlay bets can actually work to the gambler’s favor. However, in the above example when the level of handicapping reduces to 0.5 and the match odds are more closely stacked, the gambler’s case for parlay betting reduces significantly.

More on Parlay Football Bets

Football parlay betting can be for anything from two-team to five-team betting. Many play parlay betting is very unpredictable. However, several gamblers love to do football parlay betting during the NFL season. Sometimes punters bet on a set of five games during a week. They can enter into a parlay bet at a fraction of a cost that a group of the same number of individual bets would be. Some gamblers enter into multiple parlays simultaneously to improve their chances of a payout.