What are parlays?
Parlays are multiple bets. It is a way of putting at least two individual bets into one larger bet. In order to win the bet, all the individual components must win. They are very exciting since a small wager can have a large payday. But can also be frustrating since one incorrect wager makes the entire bet a loser.

Why do they pay more?
All the bets must win, so a parlay is difficult to win! Because of that, the payday is multipled for each team you pick. A straight wager pays about $91 per $100 risked ($192 if both win). A two team parlay will pay $260 on 13/5 odds if both teams win. However, if one wins and one loses, you are out only $9 on the straight bets, but the whole $100 on the parlay.

How many teams can I pick in a parlay?
Typically, sportsbooks offer anywhere from 2 to 12 teams in a parlay. Most sportsbooks allow you to make parlays from multiple sports. However, you cannot have connected wagers as multiple items in the parlay - like betting a half time and full time score from the same game.

What happens if a team I pick ends in a push?
The parlay will then become the next lowest parlay. For example, a 4 team parlay becomes a 3 team. If you bet on a two team parlay, it becomes a straight wager.

What are typical payouts for parlays?
Pointspread Based Sports (-110 odds)

How do I calculate parlays using moneylines?
Because of the moneyline used in baseball and other sports, there are no set payoffs for tying a number of teams together in parlays. Payoffs are determined by a simple formula that changes the moneyline into a decimal number and combines it with the other lines in the parlay. The first step is to change the moneyline into a decimal value. Use the chart below for this purpose.

For each price or odds quote on your teams, look at their respective payoffs (to $1) and always add $1 to these payoffs. For example, If you bet $25 on the Yankees -140 and the Giants (+120) in a two team parlay, here is how to calculate the payout.

#1 - Get the decimal value for each team and add $1
NY Yankees (-140) = $0.71 + $1 = $1.71
SF Giants (+120) = $1.20 + $1 = $2.20

#2 - Multiply your bet times the products of these payoffs for your parlay return.
Wager Amount * Yankees Bet * Giants Bet = Payout
$25 * $1.71 * $2.20 = $94.05

This includes the refund of your risk amount. For more than two teams, continue to multiply the odds! For example, add a bet on the Seattle Mariners (-180) to the above bet… You now have a three team parlay
$25 * 1.71 * 2.20 * 1.55 = $145.78

One feature here at Wagering-Sports.com is the latest and trendiest future wagers. These days, bets can be placed on anything from politics to entertainment, pop culture to more traditional futures like that for a Nascar race or NFL championship.

What is a future bet?

Traditional betting where your action is tied to a specific event, futures are more general and predicting something long term, exactly as the name implies. The most common type of future wager is betting on the champion for a given sport (e.g. betting on the Super Bowl winner in September).

How do I bet on futures?

Go to almost any sportsbook and they should have some! BetUS is one of our favorites with a wide selection. Odds can change regularly based on changes as the conclusion of the wager draws near. Futures can be taken off the board at any time and the best odds are usually pre-season / pre-event longshots who haven’t made a name for themselves yet.

What types of bets are standards in futures?

Before each major sport’s season, there are odds to win division/league/championship. There are also bets based on the total wins for a team. There are also futures for major horse races, including the Triple Crown races. Golf and tennis futures are instituded for majors. You can also find future bets on auto racing, olympics, and other events… Sometimes even non-sports events like the Grammy awards.

What’s the down side of futures?
The main down side is the long time it sometimes takes for a future wager to be graded. If you bet for the super bowl winner four months ahead of time, you’ll get some great odds if you are correct… But you need to wait until after the super bowl (obviously) for the wager to be graded. The money for the wager is placed on hold in your account - you can’t use it until that wager has been closed. They also offer one of the biggest house advantages… but pick the right underdog and the payday could be huge.

The Preakness Stakes, Race #12 at Pimlico this Saturday is the 2nd leg of Horse Racing’s triple crown. Can Big Brown, a big favorite, continue on his quest? Below are the current odds on the horses. I recommend taking a look at the different ways to bet on horses… Boxing horses is great if you like going for the big payout of a trifecta or exacta… But betting on the underdogs to win, while risky, can have a decent payout as well… Lots to choose from at 30-1!

A handy reference to talk the talk or understand some terminology:

Sports Wagering Gambling Glossary

Your answer to the gambling terms you might now know!

10 Cent Line - The money line difference (10 cents) between what a bettor would lay with the favorite or take back with the underdog; see Dime Line
20 Cent Line - The money line difference (20 cents) between what a bettor would lay with the favorite or take back with the underdog
Across The Board - A method of wagering on a horse to win, place and show
Action - A wager of any kind
Bad Beat - Tough Loss
Beard - Messenger bettor
Buck - $100
Chalk - Favorite
Circled Game - Game where action is limited due to uncertainties about weather, injuries, etc.
Cover - Win by more than the pointspread
Dead Heat - When two horses finish in a tie
Dime - $1000
Dime Line - Slang used to designate the 10 cent money line. The money line difference (10 cents) between what a bettor would lay with the favorite or take back with the underdog; see 10 Cent Line.
Dog - Underdog
Dollar - $100
Edge - Advantage
Even Money - A wager on which neither side lays any odds or vigorish
Exotic Bet - Action other than a straight bet or parlay
Exposure - The amount of money one actually stands to lose on a game or race
Favorite - The contestant in any given contest that is considered the most talented, or has the best chance to win the contest
Final Four - Final four teams in the NCAA basketball tournament
Firing - Betting a lot. A player who is ‘firing’ is wagering large sums
“Foots” - Slang word used sometimes for football
Futures - Wagers made, or lines/odds posted on an event or outcome taking place some time in the future, e.g. betting during the season on the SuperBowl winner.
Get Down - Make a bet
Grand Slam - The four major tennis tournaments: Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open. Also the four major golf tournaments: The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship (Professional Golf Association). Also in baseball, a homerun with the bases loaded, scoring four runs.
Grand Salami - A slang word for the over/under total for the combined score of all the hockey contests on the schedule for that day
Halftime Line - A line on only the first half, or only the second half scoring of a football or basketball game
Handicapper - One who studies sports and predicts outcomes
Hedge - Bet the opposite of your original wager in order to reduce the amount of exposure you have on a game
Hook - Half point in pointspreads
Home Field Advantage - Edge the home team is expected to have as a result of familiarity with the playing area, favorable demographics and effect of travel on the visiting team
Hot Tip - Information the bookmaker is not yet privy to
Juice - Bookmaker’s commission, most often refers to the 11 to 10 football bettors lay on straight wagers. Also known as vigorish.
Lay The Points - A wager on a favorite in a pointspread contest Lay The Price - A wager on a favorite in a moneyline contest
Limit - Maximum bet accepted by the house before the price will be changed
Line - The moneyline, odds, or pointspread of any given contest
Listed Pitcher (LP) - The pitcher or pitchers listed by Las Vegas oddsmakers as probable starting pitchers for a scheduled baseball game
Lock - Easy Winner
Longshot - Large underdog
Middle - To win both sides of a game. For example, if you bet the underdog +3 1/2 and the favorite -2 1/2 and the favorite wins by 3, you’ve middled the book. The book has been middled.
MLB - Major League Baseball
Moneyline - The amount you must bet to win 100 or the amount you win if you bet 100
NBA - National Basketball Association
NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association
Neutral Site - Arena, court or field where neither side has a home field advantage
NFL - National Football League
NHL - National Hockey League
Nickel - $500
NIT - National Invitational Tournament
Off The Board - Game where no bets are being accepted
Over/Under - A bet on whether the combined total of the points/goals scored by the two teams will exceed or be less than a specified number
Overlay - When the odds on a proposition are in favor of the bettor rather than the house
Parlay - A bet with two or more teams where all the teams must win for the bettor to be successful
Past Post - To make a bet after an event has started
Penny Line - A money line that is adjusted in increments of a penny, or one cent at a time
Pick or Pick’em - A game where neither team is favored
Player - Bettor, gambler
Pointspread - The handicap, or head start, which the favorite gives to the underdog for betting purposes
Press - To bet a larger amount than usual
Price - The moneyline odds on the favorite of a given match
Puppy - Underdog
Push - A tie between the bettor and the bookmaker that is the result of the score of an event falling exactly on the pointspread number, or the total points number
Round Robin - A series of parlays. A three-team round robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays
Rundown - Line update
Runner - Messenger bettor; see beard
Ryder Cup - A golf tournament between American and European golfers that is staged every two years
Scalper - One who attempts to profit from the differences in odds from book to book by betting both sides of the same game at different prices
Score - To win a lot of money
Scratch - Withdraw; cancel
Side - To win one side and tie the other. For example, if you lay -2 1/2 and take 3 on the same game and the favorite wins by 3 you have sided the book. The book has been sided.
Side Bet/Side Wager - A wager on a particular team, or side, to win a contest
Soft Line - A wagering line that is not current with the true posted line. A line that has been adjusted or moved as a result of action and does not reflect the true line as posted.
Spread - An abbreviated form of pointspread
Stanley Cup - NHL Championship
Steam - When a betting line starts to move quite rapidly. Most ’steam games’ do not necessarily reflect the ‘right side’, but are games that the mass of bettors somehow decide to key on
Straight Bet - A single wager on a selected side or over/under
Superbowl - NFL Championship game
Take A Price - A wager on the underdog in a moneyline contest
Take The Points - A wager on the underdog in a pointspread contest
Teaser - A bet on 2 or more teams where the line on each team is adjusted in the favor of the bettor. Like a Parlay, all selections must be correct for the teaser to win
The Big Dance - The 65 team, post season college basketball championship tournament
Toss Up - Game where the line is close to pick-em
Total - The line on a given contest, representing the combined number of points/goals scored by the two teams; see over/under
Tout Service - A business that sells opinions on sporting events
Underdog - The contestant in any given contest that is considered the least talented, or has the least chance to win the contest
Underlay - When the odds on a proposition are in favor of the house
Value - An overlay
Vigorish - Bookmaker’s commission, most often refers to the 11 to 10 football bettors lay on straight wagers. Also known as juice.
Wise Guy - Established and successful sports bettor
WNBA - Womens National Basketball Association
World Series - MLB championship; The final seven games of the baseball playoffs between the two league champions to determine the world champion

I look forward to each April as it reliably brings with it daily baseball action.  Aside from the usual baseball icons - hot dogs, fresh cut grass, summer heat - there are the moneyline wagers.  While confusing to a novice, moneylines offer much more opportunity than the usual side wager.

A baseball game is thought to be less predictable than football or basketball… Not necessarily in the end result, but in the margin of victory.  So instead of making an even money wager (minus the vig) on any game, you make a wager which either pays out money or less depending on the handicappers take on the game.  Injuries, starting pitchers, and recent performance all play a major role in deciding the moneyline.

A moneyline will always be 100 or greater, or -100 or lower. For positive numbers, the underdog, the number would be the payout on a $100 bet.  +125 would pay $125 if you bet $100… $1.25 for each $1 of your stake.  Negative numbers represents the favorite and takes a bit more math to calculate…  A simple way to think of it is that you need to wager the moneyline to win $100.  So for -135 you would bet $135 to win $100 - or stake $1.35 to win $1.  But how much would the payoff be if you risk $100?  To calculate, try this:  100/Moneyline * Stake.  So $100 of a -135 would be 100/135 * 100 = $74.07.

When looking at moneylines, you’ll notice they never add up to 0.  They add up to some negative number - often -10.  This is called a “dime line” because the house advantage is 10 cents.  A sportsbook tries to get the payout equal on both sides of the bet so they payout the winners as much as they took in from the losers - plus that 10 cents.

You will also find run lines.  These are moneylines with a 1.5 point spread.  If the underdog wins or loses by 1, they win the bet.  If the favorite must win by 2 or more to cover.  For big favorites, it helps the payout… But remember that many games do end with a 1 run margin (teams play to win, not win by 2).  And typically you wont find dime lines, which are preferable.

My favorite activity is to parlay baseball bets.  When parlaying moneylines wagers, the payouts can increase very quickly.  Picking two +150 underdogs will pay 6.25X your stake… but both must win otherwise you lose your bet.

So don’t be afraid of the moneyline.  It is an exact way of seeing how favored a team is and great for shopping around different sportsbooks for the best odds.  You still have to pick your teams carefully, but dont be thrown off seeing a number opposed to a spread.

Welcome to the revitalized Wagering-Sports.com.  We’ve been gone for a while while building up our casino knowledge and offerings, which can be found at our sister site, <a href=”http://www.gamblingsmarts.com”>GamblingSmarts.com</a>.  But while casinos are great, our love is sports and betting on sports.

First, we have to really push this disclaimer:  Sports betting is not legal everywhere in the world.  Make sure you are old enough to gamble and it is legal to do so where you live.  Laws are not always black and white - especially with “new” technology such as the internet, so do your due diligence to ensure you are on the right side of the law.

Now that we are past that, let’s talk about the new Wagering-Sports.com.  The old website is still online, and can be found clicking <a href=”http://www.wagering-sports.com/index.asp”>here</a>.  We will slowly be moving a lot of the old content over to this site - and linking up the tools and calculators.  It is our goal to update this blog almost daily for a while.

We still only recommend 3 sportsbooks.  We are looking for other sportsbooks worthy of our recommendation, but we take our recommendations very seriously.  They must offer you fair play, integrity, and make it reasonably easy to deposit and withdraw funds in a timely fashion.  Sounds
like a slam dunk, but is unbelievably hard to verify.  We get lots of unsolicited email from casinos, poker rooms, and sportsbooks looking to be promoted across our websites - these guys go to the bottom of the list.

With that, we’ll be posting everything from some of the novel future bets out there to our own picks to news and events, and make sure you have the information necessary to find the best bets (and know what you are doing!)  As we are in the heart of baseball and horse racing season - plus playoff time in the NBA and NHL, you can count on some great articles to make the most of your gambling money!  Stay tuned to us and consider adding our RSS feed!