Several sports gambling sites are currently offering promotions - open a new acct, bet $5, and get $150-ish in free bets.
There’s some fine print - the free bets have to be used within 7 days, and obviously if you win, you only get the winnings, not the original stake. But it seems you could easily make some guaranteed money this way. Open accts at 2 different sites, bet the minimum $5 on opposite sides of the same game, then bet the promotional bets on opposite sides of another game, so you’re guaranteed to win at least one of the free promotion bets. Cash out your winnings and walk away. Am I missing something? Are the gambling sites willing to give up winnings to that pretty simple scheme because they think enough people will get sucked in and continue betting?
Yes, 100%. They also have promos where every 100 bettors on a particular basketball game will reduce the over/under by a point. This quickly turns into a guaranteed bet as the over/under becomes 1. They limit your bet to a maximum (usually $25), but they absolutely count on you staying on the site to keep betting with those funds.
Which is exactly what I did on one of these sites last fall.
I opened an account with $100.00. I bet 10 bucks on the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. That bet obviously lost, so I’m down $10.00.
But I also received $200.00 in free bets, in the form of four $50.00 bets. I used all four of those bets on the same college football game. These were all parlay bets, as parlay bets have better payouts than individual bets.
I bet 50 bucks on Team A to cover the spread, and the over on the over/under.
I bet 50 bucks on Team A to cover the spread, and the under on the over/under.
I bet 50 bucks on Team B to cover the spread, and the over on the over/under.
I bet 50 bucks on Team B to cover the spread, and the under on the over/under.
Before I bet, I made sure that both the spread and the over/under were not whole numbers (i.e. 7.5 points, rather than 7, and 43.5 points, rather than 43), so there could be no ‘push’ on any of the bets.
Obviously, one of the above combinations will be a winner. As it turned out, it was the first bet, and it paid $119.00, I have since cashed out my original $100.00 stake, and I now have $109.00 in the account.
Free money.
Frankly, I’m surprised that not more people have done this. I’ve tried to convince my friends to do this, but for some reason they’re reluctant to do so.
Wow, I didn’t realize they’d let you bet the opposite sides of the same bet on the same site. That makes things even easier, I guess. I was just going to do 2 different sites, and make opposite bets on the same game.
This is not always true - be careful when making parlays. Parlays are simply letting a series of bets ride, multiplying the payout should all the bets hit. But many times the betting sites will shave some of the odds down on pre-made parlays. (i.e. making a parlay on two 2:1 bets should payout 4:1, but sometimes popular parlays (like a money line+over/under parlay) will offer just 3.9:1 odds.)
There could be a lot of reasons they’re reluctant. Maybe they or a family member has had a gambling addiction that they don’t want to tap (back) into. Maybe they don’t want to put their bank account information in the hands of a gambling industry that hasn’t done anything to earn the public’s trust.
OK, what I should have clarified is that a parlay will always pay out better than 2 individual bets if the same amount of money is involved.
For instance, in the Chiefs/Ravens game this weekend, if I bet 50 bucks on a parlay for the Chiefs to cover and the over, it will pay out $176.34.
If I bet 25 bucks on the Chiefs to cover, it will pay out $46.18. And if I bet 25 bucks on the over, it will pay out $47.72. The total payout of the individual bets is $93.90.
In both cases, I have bet 50 bucks.
Now, to your point, $93.90 * 2 = $187.80, which is obviously more than $176.34.
Doubtful, as they have no problems driving 40 miles to the casino and betting on sports (or the slots, for that matter.) And they have no problem giving me cash and asking me to place a bet on my phone for them.
You can fund your account with a credit card, or PayPal, or Venmo, or multiple other methods. Which is what I’ve told them.
Either way, it seems your sports book is giving you (ever so slightly) better odds on your parlay. If you made individual let-it-ride bets on the Chiefs and the over (where the winnings from the first bet pay for the second bet), your expected payout would be $176.30.
Why wouldn’t they allow it? If it’s with the player’s money, it’s an automatic win for the casino.
Now, if you’re talking about the ‘free’ bets, that’s another story. But the site certainly allowed me to do this. And before I placed those bets, I did a cursory review of the rules and limitations of the free bets. I found nothing that told me I couldn’t do what I did.
It’s inevitable that it will become legal in California and that’s exactly what I’m going to do when it does. I actually started looking into this on one of the offshore sites but it was a little confusing so I put it aside.
I’m not saying you broke any rules or anything. But I’ve definitely placed bets on sites where after you place a bet one way, the other way is blocked.
If I bet 10 bucks on the over on the Chiefs/Ravens game, the payout is $19.09
If I bet 10 bucks on the under on the same game, the payout is again $19.09
So I’m going to bet 20 bucks with a guaranteed win of $19.09. But that’s also a guaranteed loss of 91 cents, which goes to the casino.
I just went to one of my betting sites and put both of the above bets into my betting slip. I didn’t actually place the bet, but the button was ready for me to push.
That’s not what a parlay is. Using 2:1 odds as an example is deceiving. Let’s say your two bets were Pacheco 1st TD at 5:1, and MVS anytime TD also at 5:1. If you parlay that, the odds are multiplied - so it would payout at 25:1, not just double at 10:1. My caution to sports bettors is that a lot of books will package parlays and shave the odds, offering that particular parlay at 24:1 (these are made up odds - I’ve long-since deleted my DK and MGM apps). If for some reason you like to exponentially increase your risk and bet parlays, do it manually.
Back in the day when I used to bet with a bookie, parlay odds were 12:5, which is significantly worse than the 3:1 true odds. Didn’t stop my dumb ass from loving parlays.
I also loved teases, which were the ultimate sucker bet in that I seemed to never be able to win them. Pays 1:1, multiple teams have to hit, and you get extra points on the spread. A three-team tease got you eight extra points on every game, but all three teams had to cover and the payout was only 1:1.
To be clear, my only goal here is to pick up free money from the gambling sites. My plan is to:
Sign up on 2 sites, place the minimum bet to get a bonus.
Play the bonus bets on opposite sides of the same game on each site.
Whichever one wins, withdraw all the money.
Close both accounts.
Take my wife out to dinner or something with the winnings.
Just want to make sure I’m not missing a gotcha, like you need to play some more amount of real money to use the bonus bets, etc.
ETA: I see now from one site that they use your social security number to track whether you have an open account. So do you need to provide your SSN to use this promo? That’s a possible dealbreaker.