Everyone wants a good get rich quick scheme, especially if it doesn't take a lot of work and all you have to do is watch a few baseball games. Of course it has to be the right baseball games and you have to bet on them like one gentleman recently did. In the process, he turned $500 into a cool $115K. How did it happen? He placed an $500 bet on an eight leg parlay and won.
Confused? Not sure what a parlay is? A parlay is form of gambling where you place a wager on a series of games. What makes it appealing is that it can be a great way to take a small wager and win a tidy sum, but the odds are stacked against you. This guy either has money to burn or knew something no one else did. Most gamblers would consider such a large bet on an eight leg parlay to be foolish.
Why? If you lose any leg of the parlay than you lose everything.
What's a leg? Well – to explain that let's examine how this gentleman won his $115K.
It all started with a $500 bet on the Cardinals to beat the Cubs (which is one leg). The +112 (which is referred to as the money line) means to win $100 you would have to bet $112. So, since he bet $500 he won $560. That money, along with his original $500 rolls over into the next leg, which is the over/under on runs scored. In this case he took the under; that there would be fewer than 8.5 runs scored in the game. The money line in this case is -110. To tabulate how much he won for the leg you divide 100 by 110 and multiply that by the amount bet ($1060).
With each leg everything earned and the initial $500 is put on the line. So when he goes into the final leg, he had$56,571.61 on the over/under for the White Sox vs. Blue Jays game. He took the under hoping that the two teams would not score more than 7.5 runs. They scored six, the money line was +105, so when you do the math (105/100 * $56,571.61) he won an additional $59,400.20 giving him a grand total of $115.971.80.
All from a simple $500. Talk about getting rich quick, right?
Look easy? Well – it's not. The odds of actually winning an eight leg parlay are pretty big (255 to 1). To put the possibility of winning an eight leg parlay into perspective, here are some things with better odds:
- Dying from Parkinson's disease (172 to 1)
- A person between the age of 18-29 has never read a newspaper (3 to 1)
- Being killed in a transportation related accident (77 to 1)
- Being killed in a non-transportation related accident (69 to 1)
- Getting away with murder (2 to 1)
- Being a victim of a serious crime at some point in life (20 to 1)
- A celebrity marriage will last a lifetime (3 to 1)
- Getting hemorrhoids (25 to 1)
- Being on a plane with a drunk pilot (117 to 1)
- Being audited by the IRS (175 to 1)
- Dating a millionaire (215 to 1)
So there you have it. You are more likely to date a millionaire, die from Parkinson's, or have a drunk pilot flying your plane than you are to win an eight leg parlay.
