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According to Legal Sports Report, since sports betting was legalized in 2018, sportsbook have made a whopping $50 billion in revenue. Most sports bettors easily lose track of their gamblings, ultimately lose plethora of money over time, contributing factors like not keeping record of their wagers, chasing after losses, betting on wagers that has low value-high risk, and addiction of the chance to win a meaningful amount. Little do sports bettors know that the odds are exorbitantly stacked against them. Sportsbook not only have the statisical advantage over the bettor, but they also have the analytics, technology, and high profitable margin on parlays and same-game-parlays, making it nearly impossible to profit long term. Only a few can sustain profitability on sports betting.
I love parlays, but you know who loves parlays even more? The sportsbook and casinos! Traditonal Parlay, Same-Game-Parlay, Same-Game-Parlay(X) and even Round Robins are the books best products. It's their moneymaker, it rakes them millions and millions of dollars in profits. Why do you think that ESPN and all these sports networks promote SGP? Because they want to entice you how much money you will win if that parlay hits. According Legal Sports Report, US Sports betting industry generated nearly $50 billion in lifetime gross revenue and it's all thanks to parlays!
ESPN
Everyone is endorsing it. Your favorite athletes, celebrities, TV personality like Scott Van Pelt, maybe even your friends are telling you to tail their parlay they cooked up.
And sportsbooks' profits are multiplying in tenfolds because of their shiny new product Same-Game-Parlay, where you can parlay wagers within a single game/event. What's even worse is that the books are now allowing their users to add more legs from other event/games to make a Same-Game-Parlay-X, ultimately making a massive parlay in 2+ games/events. This new type of parlay has replaced traditional parlay as their cash cow product for sportsbook, and SGP(s/x) has been postively receptive for bettors, but it's been more positively receptive for sportsbook (profit-wise) because of the subtantial growth and significant engagement from their users.
It wasn't always like this. Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world, did not entertain the idea of having their customers to wager Same-Game-Parlay because they simply did not have the technology and the arithmetic, but the old bookmakers knew they would fall behind if they did not adapt. FanDuel was credited first for introducing SGPs in 2019 and all the other gambling companies follow suit, offering SGPs to their customers. It was a win-win, fans were requesting, demanding for SGP, they were (are) loving it and the books were generating more profits than ever before! But is it really a win-win? I guess it all depends on who you are talking to. I won't deny that there are some sharps (sports betting pro) in this market that are really good at handicapping SGP(s/x) and making a viable living off it, however, for most bettors, they have no idea what they are betting on and others are taking a chance that has a slim chance of hitting. Bettors are literally blinded by the money, they aren't thinking about the risk they are taking. The more legs you add the more risk you take. For any type of parlays you need every leg to come through and it's very difficult to win. They know that you're cooking all these ridiculous parlays and they know that you're losing 90% of the parlays you cooked. But do you know how much you are really losing?
What the average bettor don't know is that they're plummetting their bankroll/savings down the toilet, especially when they are betting parlays. According to Billy Walters, you are essentially risking $1.50 for every $1 you placed with your sportsbook and that is an insane advantage for the books (check out his interview in JRE podcast, it's really fascinating). Sportsbooks like FanDuel, DraftKings, BETMGM, and many other gambling entities are in business to make money and they are making millions off the casual and average bettors. They are not in business to run a charity. Sure you see winners and you see those big parlay smack (matter in fact sportsbook highlight them intentionally on their social media platforms. Must I state the obvious?), but how about the losing parlays? How often do you see them? You might see those longshot parlays that come so close from hitting, but how about the other losing parlays? Bettors discard, disregard them without a second glance. You don't ever see them because they don't care to post them and the betting community forbids others from posting them. You won't ever see Floyd Mayweather Jr. show you his losing slips (let me know if you see one). He only post his winning slips and generally that's most bettors and cappers today. All these losing parlays is adding up to their losses. It might not seem much to throw $5 or even $1 onto a 10-1 odds parlay (+1000 odds will pay you a $50 on a $10 wager) or SGP, but you would be surprise how much you lose track of your parlay bets that accumulate your collective losses. Believe it or not, but your sportsbook most likely have a stat sheet where it tracks your bankroll and shows betting history. The problem is that most bettors don't even bother looking at their financial stat sheet and just assume that they're profitting, but it could be further from the truth. You could be unknowingly losing $100's or even $1,000's a month (or a week). Instead of making money, you are losing tenfolds of money and the worst part of all this is that you don't even know!
It's not your fault! Their model is all design in favor of the house, just like the casino, every table game the house has a statistical advantage and that especially includes in sports betting. The oddsmakers create the lines based on their analytics and they place the lines where it will create a friction among the bettors, ultimately when they receive equal amount of the bets on both sides of a coin flip matchup, they will get theirs regardless who wins. For example, let's say you want to wager on the Texans and Chargers game tonight. The game is a PK (Pick 'em) which means that both teams are evenly matched and it is a toss up. So let's say your book has either team to win outright ML at -110 (Chargers ML is -110 and Texans ML is also -110) and you want to wager Chargers ML, but let's say your friend also wants to get in the action and disagree with your pick, hence bets on the Texans ML. Both of you place $11 to win $10 on the outright winner, but only one of you will come out $10 richer (theorectially the game does not end in a tie). The books will profit regardless of which team wins. Yes, they will have to payout to the winning wager, but they will also receive money from the loser and from the vig (what book charges you per wager, in this particular would be $1 of the $11 wager). Now imagine multiplying that. If 100 bettors wagered $11 on the Texans and another 100 wagered $11 on the Chargers that would give the books $100 in profit no matter who wins the game! That's no risk for the books. This is how the books make their money, as intermeditator. Books are always adjusting their ML price, the line and the spread, so if they receive respectable money on one side, they will increase the odds/line on that particular side to try entice other bettors to take a bite. This is a winning formula for sportsbook and they are literally banking on it. But what if I told you that sportsbooks have an even bigger statistical advantage when bettors wager on parlays?
You have a much better chance winning a blackjack hand or betting even/odd on a roulette spin than hitting a 3-legged traditional parlay or SGP. Why do you think books offer you a boost(s) for parlays and SGPs? Because ironically it gives them a boost against the bettor. Parlays are certainly rewarding when it hits and it multiplies all your losing parlay efforts (you generally just need to hit one parlay to cover your losses). But that is the genius beauty of this concept. When you lose you want to win it back (oftentimes it's very deflating when you come really close to hitting it, especially when you lose by a single leg) and you chase after a big win. And when you win you get hooked by the wins and you just want more of it. Bettors are not looking at the bigger picture here. They are overlooking their massive losses and highlighting their big (small) wins. Over time you are losing expontentially more when you are doing parlays than bettors wagering on straight bets.
Doesn't matter how many legs or how short (or long) the odds are, it's likely going to lose by a single leg! I just recently wagered this SGP (Same-Game-Parlay) the other day, the last 2025-26 regular season NFL matchup between the Ravens and Steelers. Stakes were high, postseason on the line and I just love the narrative that this was going to be a great game to bet on! It certainly was, but when you're betting a longshot lotto odds wit 15-legs it's unlikely everything is going to hit. I mean, I do this primarily for fun and I don't think much of winning this SGP. Some bettors do know that they are risking/losing money through parlays and SGP(s/x), it's not so much that they want to lose money, it's not so much about winning either, it's boredom. They want to have a little skin in the game, they want some action while they chowing down pizza and guzzling down beer. Matter in fact some bettors know they are losing money to these sportsbooks and gambling apps, it's just more enjoyable for them to watch the games with some money on the line, especially when it's lucrative amount. There's nothing wrong with that. But there are so many bettors who are unaware how much they are losing.
I didn't have much hope of hitting this lotto, but damn. It did hurt to learn that I loss this SGP by a single damn leg. Derrick Henry could have scored on the very first play of the game, he broke free and was on a dead sprint but the Steelers safety caught up to him and knocked him outta bounds. That's how close this was from smacking. And you will hear bettors gripe, moan and complain about these 1-leg losses, especailly when everything else hits. It only takes one leg in your parlay to lose the entire slip!
So why parlays? Why not straight bets?
Because straight bets are boring and we want to avoid the vig as much as possible. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, parlays are exciting, it's exhilarating when you hit a big parlay! Straight bets might get your heart pumping if you throw like 25% of your bankroll at it, but naturally we just like to take the cheapest route and that's parlays. I mentioned I do this sports betting for fun and parlays are the way to go to have more fun. But if I were to do sports betting as a professional I would strictly do just value betting on straight bets and futures, not parlays. The idea to bet little to win big is a huge upside on the risk to reward, however, as I mentioned those little wager amount can balloon your losses. It might look like a measly couple dollars, but the balloon can inflate so big that the burst will be hard to ignore! I don't know how many ways I can say this.
If your book is giving you a boost on single bets, use them! Of course bankroll management is required to be a profitable sports bettor. If you are discipline and strictly wager on what you're bullish on, you can absolutely be profitable. Value is key. You can get +EV (positive expected value), which are plays that are favorable of hitting. Not so much positive expected value on parlays, it's actually oftentimes the opposite, the books will have a bigger vig (normally 30% or higher) against the bettor. Yes, you can get +EV on a parlay (or even longshot parlays), but it's rare to have all the legs of the parlay to be +EV. Straight bets are just better than parlays simply because higher probabilities and are generally lower risk. Of course if you are wagering straight bets on prohibited odds like -5000 where you have to wager $500 to win a measly $10, that's a high risk for a low return. Like I said value is key. If it's not worth the squeeze, you shouldn't bet on it.
And this is how I feel about people in our society today. They are not treating their money with respect. People cannot grasp the devastating truth about their debt. More and more people today are getting way too comfortable with their personal finance and that's a problem. Settling their personal finance and delaying it to the future. Act now and be more urgently progressive towards your money! Get a second job, third job, find a hustle, be more proactive on finding ways to diminish your debt, not expand it.
Published By: Dethcon Posted on February 18, 2026