do local books always have crappy odds on parlays?

drunkguy · Sep 11, 2003

I never used to play parlays with my guys because a "5-timer" meant you would lose 30 to win 70...

Now I met some guy tonight who was telling me how awesome his guy was because he pays 3-1 on parlays. When I asked a little more, he told me you have to pay 20% juice when you lose

So if you play $100 parlay to win $300, you're really risking $120. At 13:5 odds (standard parlay odds) $120 of risk should get you $312, so the bookie is taking an extra 10% of your risk amount...

In my $30 to win $70 example, at 13:5 $30 should win $78...another nice take for the book.

Do all local books do this to raise some extra cash?

This shows how "square" most bettors are...none of the guys I know would ever question these payouts

PatrickMcIrish · Sep 11, 2003

Most of the time it is ran like a regular business, they charge what the market will pay. Some locals don't want a lot of parlay action and try to discourage it this way. One of my locals for instance won't take anything bigger than a 3-teamer. Some others I would guess figure their players just don't know any better.

A lot of this stuff depends who you have on your sheet too. It's nice when you have a small book and for over 80% of them you are their only out.

bigboydan · Sep 11, 2003

i have a local book that pays 12-5 on 2 teamers and another local book that pays 13-5 i guess it all depends on your local book really

raiders72001 · Sep 11, 2003

13:5, 6:1 and 10:1 seem fairly standard from what I've seen but I've also heard of 5:2, 5:1, 10:1 from locals. I've never encountered anything better than these examples from locals and never heard of the 3-1, 20% juice on 2 teamers.