As time goes by, parlays are increasingly becoming more popular.
Even though these bets aren’t always the smartest bets to make, if you do them, it’s better to be educated than ripping several off the top of your head.
Regardless, the high-stakes odds and an enormous potential payout that parlays bring have grabbed attention and sportsbooks are taking note.
When you hop onto one of the major apps, what typically stands out?
Usually, it’s a graphic that features promos and superboosts, but there are also SGPs (same-game parlay) that are already crafted for you. Either that, or you get a boost in odds if you parlay two or more picks.
Because parlays are such a hot-button topic, Action Network experts, Chris Raybon and Sean Koerner, discussed how they approach parlays, the frequencies in which they use them, as well as things to stay away from.
Admittedly, both experts try to stay away from parlays as often as they can because not only do the numbers not favor it, but also because it’s such a risky play.
“I personally focus on straight bets,” said Koerner. “I definitely don’t do as many parlays as your average bettor. But if you treat them like what they are – for entertainment purposes – they’re a ton of fun. So I’m not some stiff, I do bet parlays for fun.”
And when he does, he goes about it in two ways: one way that plays along with the books, and a sneaky way that perhaps could fly over bettors’ heads.
“The first thing is, you typically want to parlay things that are correlated. So if you take Patrick Mahomes’ passing yards prop, Travis Kelce’s over receiving yards make a ton of sense. The books know that, though, so they’re going to reduce the payout for things like that.”
He continued, “The sharp way to do parlays is to find things that the book is treating as anti-correlated/reverse-correlation things, but it actually correlates more than the book is leading on. One personal one that I like to do is: say someone like Calvin Ridley – I will take the under on his receptions, but the over on his receiving yards… a player like him, he’s going to get a ton of downfield, low probability targets, but when he does catch them, he tends to get a ton of yards.”
Raybon, however, goes about it differently:
“I don’t really look for correlations anymore, because half the time, I can’t put them in a parlay together because the books have really smartened up … What I try to do is to look at game scripts at large … In basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder at home in the playoffs were ridiculous. So I’ll just play a lot of different plays that correlate with my one specific outcome … It’s whatever I think is undervalued.
“Everyone is trying to look for these correlations … And I think the better time is spent, just find +EV bets. Even if they’re minus-juice because those are the bets a lot of people stay away from, but a lot of those times, they have the most value.”
Whether or not you opt to bet on a parlay, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and our two experts have given you a treasure trove of options to receive the payout we’re all looking for.
