Parlay the Moneyline: The Tricks of My Longest Sports-Betting Win Streak

 

Two weeks, Eleven games, Twelve bets, Nine Hundred jellybeans

For boom or bust, sports-gambling has sunk its claws into the online marketplace. In Tennessee, you can bet virtually any game in the world, all while sucking down Jack Daniels in your favorite watering hole. This type of availability can be dangerous for some, but played correctly, it can offer a pathway to easy money. Online gambling aided my longest win streak of sports-betting.

The sport was NFL and NCAA football and the streak began in the luxurious confines of the Bellagio Sportsbook, where even there (perhaps especially there), beautiful women, in tight-fitting MGM gear, urge gamblers to “try the app.” They want their customers to gamble, and gamble everywhere. Who needs to walk twenty feet when you can fire up your phone and plunk down a cool grand on the World Cricket finals?

Now, I’m just a recreational dabbler in games of chance, and not a pro by any means, but these methods can be profitable in the world of sports-betting (especially the FREE MONEY part).

            1) Online sites offer great bonuses just for making the first deposit. And the better ones continue to entice the inveterate sports prognosticators with odds so good, it amounts to free money. Add free daily pools into the mix and it’s possible to build a little bankroll. I’m not much of a sports-bettor, leaning more towards card games like blackjack and poker, so it’s only natural I still prefer the brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, but free money is always nice.

            The first deposit bonus gave me great odds for Alabama in The National Championship game and another free NFL bet, each of which lowered my risk and increased my payout.

            2) Central to this small streak is the reliance upon the moneyline. Most gamblers stick to the fabricated measure of the “point spread,” but this imaginary number has no impact on the motivations of players and coaches; they just want to win. I prefer the moneyline for favorites and usually take the point spread for the underdogs, which just buys a few points in addition to this natural desire to win.

Six of the eleven winners I picked failed to cover the point spread: I would’ve lost nearly every bet if I took the spread.

            3) Gamblers will groan about the lower payout of the moneyline favorites, so I offset that with parlays. Sure, a small payout for one easy winner isn’t much, but stacking a few easy winners can often offer even money. Less exposure, less stress.

            Every team I picked was nearly a touchdown favorite, but three of five parlays paid even money or better.

Bets and Results

Sportsbook	Date	Game	Spread/Result	WageràProfit
Bellagio	1/3/21	JAC@IND+	-15.5/-14
		BAL@CIN+	-13.5/-35
		ATL@TB	-7/-17	100à70
Bellagio	1/3/21	IND/BAL/TB+
		PIT@CLE+	-10/-2
		TEN@HOU	-7/-3	50à60
Bellagio	1/3/21	IND+
		WAS@PHI	-6.5/-6	100à50
Bellagio	1/9/21	TB@WAS+	-10/-8
	1/10/21	CHI@NO+	-11/-12
	1/11/21	OSU@ALA	-9.5/-28	300à300
DraftKings	1/11/21	ALA		1à100
DraftKings	1/11/21	ALA		99à27.72
FanDuel	1/11/21	ALA		5à125
FanDuel	1/11/21	OSU@ALA	U79.5/ 76 (LIVE)	50à47.17
DraftKings	1/16/21	LAR@GB+	-7/-14
	1/17/21	CLE@KC	-8/-5	FREEà56
DraftKings	1/17/21	KC		127.72à26
FanDuel	1/17/21	KC		25à5.21
FanDuel	1/17/21	KC		147.17à30.03
				1004.89à897.1

 I’m no professional sports gambler, and my luck comes and goes with the fleeting whims of Lady Chance. But I do enjoy a “taste” now and then, and this streak had some good sweats to it: the quick field goals battles (TEN@HOU), the bizarre coaching decisions (WAS@PHI), and miracle touchdown reversals (OSU@ALA).

After some close calls, the streak was died when Conor McGregor turned back into a pumpkin. And the bad luck followed when Kansas City fell apart in the Super Bowl and Ohio St kept up the losing streak, choking in the first round of March Madness.

Well, can’t win ‘em all.  

Why I Hate March Madness

With another incarnation of college basketball’s championship tournament upon us, I am once again reminded of the season nearly everything went right for me, until it all went wrong. 

 

It was a different era for college basketball. Ruled by Duke, the reigning two time champions, and its prodigies Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley, the face of the league was shifted by a brash group from Michigan, dubbed “The Fab Five.” ESPN has created a film documenting how Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson came together for two magical seasons to transform the direction of college basketball forever.

In 1993, I was a sophomore in high school and decided to, once again, participate in a March Madness bracket pool. It was the last season I would ever do so.

To this day, I remember filling out the empty sheet. It was early morning, before classes, and I was seated on a leather couch, beside a friend that was a big Michigan fan. One by one, I selected teams and, guided by the hand of fate, I magically picked winner after winner. Ultimately, that morning I predicted seven of the Elite Eight, all of the Final Four, and both finalists correctly. Stuck with indecision, I mulled over the matchup for awhile and then leaned over to my friend and joked “I know I’ll regret this,” as I fatefully wrote “Michigan” into the final space.

Before the championship game I was so far ahead in points that my win was a virtual certainty. As the tournament played out, my friends cursed my luck and lamented their own. I was in line to see a $150 profit, still a nice win today, especially considering the $5 investment, but in those days, this was a mountain of cash.

 

On April 5^th, 1993, Michigan met North Carolina in New Orleans for one of the most memorable NCAA Championship games ever. The Fab Five had once again battled in exciting fashion, finding themselves down by two points in the waning seconds. I crawled closer and closer to the television as Chris Webber eluded a double dribble call and raced up the court. Pressed into the corner by a vicious double team, Webber made one of the most infamous gaffes in the history of sports; he called a timeout when his team had none remaining. Awarded a technical foul, North Carolina cruised to victory.

The Michigan loss was a double tragedy. First, because of the heavy weight the championship held in scoring the pool, my enormous lead instantly evaporated and I finished short of the paying spots. The second curse came to light almost ten years later. It was discovered that Webber had received improper benefits from booster Ed Martin. Michigan vacated both of Webber’s Final Four appearances and The Fab Five were barred from any association with the university for many years. Their meteoric assent, like my own fortune that year, had washed away under the current of history.