If anyone ever sat down and punched out an Elmore Leonard-like “10 Rules For Sports Betting” list (or a Supreme Being-like “Ten Commandments”), I bet the following two rules – in one form or another – would make the list.
- Always line shop.
- Never bet parlays.
I'm not wrong, right? After all, those -107s add up when compared to -110s, and those -110s add up when compared to those -115s. And heaven knows the yawning gap between the Cowboys -2.5 and the Cowboys -3. Gotta grind those edges. Always be line shopping.
And as for parlays … well, come on: It's hard enough to get one pick right, never mind two. Or three. Or four. Five? Six, seven, eight? There’s the well-known UNLV Center for Gaming Research study'that showed sportsbooks make over 30% on parlay bets, compared to 5% or so on straight bets. And add in the fact that there's no hard-and-fast rule to parlay pricing, thereby leaving us poor gamblers at the mercy of the big bad books.
So yes. Those are two good rules. Solid rules. Excellent rules.