---
title: 'I Found the 4 Bets Sportsbooks Want You to Make'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=UJql4SGIfyE'
video_id: 'UJql4SGIfyE'
date: 2026-08-19
duration_sec: 680
---

# I Found the 4 Bets Sportsbooks Want You to Make

> Source: [I Found the 4 Bets Sportsbooks Want You to Make](https://youtube.com/watch?v=UJql4SGIfyE)

## Summary

This video breaks down the four worst bets that sportsbooks want you to make, explaining why they are designed to drain your bankroll and offering better alternatives. The host uses real examples and odds comparisons to illustrate how these bets are structured to favor the house.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the Worst Bets** [00:02] — The video promises to reveal the four worst bets that sportsbooks design to drain your bankroll, emphasizing that they are not lucky but mathematically engineered.
- **Long Shots on Player Props** [00:14] — The first bet is long shots on player props, like anytime touchdown or home run bets. The issue is that most bettors don't line shop, leading to significantly lower payouts. Example: a $10 bet on Andy Páez to go deep pays $37.50 on MGM but $47.50 on the Score, a $10 difference that scales with bet size.
- **Stepped-Up Parlay Boosts** [02:32] — The second worst bet is the stepped-up parlay boost, where adding more legs increases the boost percentage. However, win probability plummets: a 3-leg parlay at -110 odds has a 14.37% chance, but a 4-leg drops to 7.5%, and 5+ legs fall below 5% or even 1%. These are 'low-key lottery tickets.'
- **Teasers** [05:19] — Teasers allow moving the line in your favor but require two picks. The hold percentage (vig) is large, acting as a hidden tax. Most bettors don't understand the win probability or the tax they're paying, making teasers a poor choice.
- **Same Game Parlays (SGPs)** [07:12] — SGPs combine multiple plays from the same game, but sportsbooks bake in correlation, nerfing the price. The house edge is 20-30% compared to 4-5% on straight bets. Even with profit boosts, the payout is still less than fair value. Example: a 4-leg SGP on DraftKings pays +625, but fair odds are +1050.
- **Better Alternatives** [10:24] — The fix is to play traditional parlays (combining plays from different events) or stick to straight wagers. These offer fair prices and avoid the sportsbook's inflated edge.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that sportsbooks profit from bettors' lack of line shopping and understanding of odds. To avoid being exploited, bettors should line shop, avoid SGPs and teasers, and prefer traditional parlays or straight bets.

## Transcript

every year, and it's not because they're lucky. They've designed specific bets that look very appealing, but are mathematically designed to drain your bankroll. In this video, I'm breaking down the four worst bets that you can
video, you'll know which bets to avoid and understand why the sportsbooks market [music] these bets so frequently. Starting with number four, which is long shots on player props. Think of anytime touchdown scores, anytime goal scores in
the NHL, or for a player to hit one, two, three home runs in baseball. These bets themselves aren't that bad. The problem is is that these are long shot underdog odds. Plus 250, plus 500, sprinkle a little bit of money down, get
paid out a lot. The problem is is that 95% of sports bettors don't line shop at different sportsbooks to find the best price. Let me show you an example. So, Rockies and the Dodgers. I think that Andy Páez in the Dodgers is going deep
tonight because, well, it's the Rockies and they're a dumpster fire. So, I just go log on to MGM, place a $10 wager, and I'm going to get paid out $37.50 in profit. That sounds really good, but it's actually absolutely terrible cuz I
could go over to the score, the same exact bet just at a different price, and my $10 wager is going to pay me out $47.50. So, on a $10 wager for Páez to go deep tonight, I'm getting paid out an extra
$10 on the score compared to MGM. So, if you go to Caesars and place a $10 wager, this pays you out 40 bucks. This is on a $10 wager. We're talking somewhere between $7 or $10 in difference of a profit. If I added another zero to my
bucks tonight, well, I'm getting paid out $375 on MGM and $475 on the score. That's a massive difference in my pocket. So, you go over to MGM, place
your bet, [music] Páez goes deep tonight, you're all excited, but what you don't realize is that you're leaving an extra $100 of profit on the table not bettors open up their favorite sports book app, take a look at the price, and
they're not doing any line shopping, which is leaving massive amounts of And that might not sound like a big deal consistently betting these types of markets over 50, 100, thousands of bets,
that's when this profit just gets even worse in terms of you're leaving money in the sports book's pocket instead of that money coming to your pocket. So the problem is most people are lazy, the sports books know this, they don't do
hit on that big winner, they should have gotten paid out more somewhere else, but prices. The third worst bet that you can make at a sports book, and this one is literally dog [ __ ] and the sports books know it, it's the stepped-up parlay
boost. [music] You've seen it before. Hey, place a two-leg parlay, get a 5% boost. But if it's a three-leg parlay, it's a 10% boost, and so on and so forth to where you could place a 10-leg parlay to receive a 100% profit boost. Well,
the sports books love this type of bet because the more legs that you add on to a parlay, the worse your winning percentages get. But most beginning sports bettors have no idea that once we get past a three-leg parlay [music]
on minus 110 odds for each leg, your win probability absolutely plummets. All the sports books will offer this stepped-up throughout the sports betting calendar. [music] So let's take the over on the
Angels and the Tigers, the over on the Braves. I scroll down a little bit more this over on the Astros and the Rangers." So now I have a three-leg parlay. You can see that the payout is plus 596 odds. All the recreational
promotion at different times throughout three-leg parlay here with each individual leg at minus 110 odds gives us a payout of plus 596. So a $100 wager is going to pay us out $596 in profit. I
come over here to an odds converter calculator and plus 596 means I have a 14.37% chance. So, that's on a three-leg parlay. If I added a fourth leg at minus 110 odds, my odds should be plus 1228
that I get paid out. So, I go from 596 to 1228. We go from a 14% chance of winning this parlay to 7 and 1/2% and this is just on a four-leg parlay. stepped-up parlay boost all the way up to 10 legs. Once we get past the fourth
leg, your chances of winning this are almost non-existent. Once we hit five legs or more, this is when your fair win percentage starts to when your fair win percentage starts to drop to 5% and 2% and then pretty soon
it's below 1% of an actual chance that you have of winning your parlay. So, because you think you're going to get paid out a lot of money and while you do have a chance to win, the sportsbooks know that the edge is in their favor
considerably. So, why do they promote these? Well, it looks fun and exciting. You just bet a small amount of money to get paid out a huge amount. People focus on the massive payouts when they have no idea their actual win probability behind
hitting that parlay. And these are low-key lottery tickets disguised at sports bets and as you know, everyone loves to play the lottery. Honestly, lottery ticket instead of trying to cook up a 10-leg parlay. The second worst bet
that you can make at a sportsbook, teasers. Teasers are typically only offered for the NFL and [music] NBA. A teaser allows you to move the line in your favor, but you have to have two different picks. So, what that looks
like over here on DraftKings looking at the Spurs and the Thunder, maybe we like the Spurs on the spread and we also like the over. What you're going to notice here at the bottom is teasers is now available to us and when when click this
drop-down, we have a couple different options where it's a 4-point, 4 and 1/2, or 5-point teaser. You can see that the odds are generated right here. So, maybe we want a 5-point teaser. So, instead of getting the Spurs at plus 4 and 1/2, we
now add 5 points onto that spread. So, now we're getting them at plus 9 and 1/2. Instead of having to hit this over line by 5 points. So, now our over is at 212 and 1/2. But, we have to hit on both picks
in order to get paid. What most bettors don't understand is that the hold percentage that a sports book has on these bets is quite large. The hold [music] paid. Think of it like the tax that you're paying over at DraftKings.
DraftKings doesn't charge you to log in and sign up with them. It's free. But, the amount of vig that they charge on each one of these lines, particularly on teasers, is absolutely terrible for you as a sports bettor. So, the fact is
playing teasers consistently, that's where most bettors go wrong. They have no idea the tax that they're paying on the specific bet, and they also don't understand the win probability. How many times they have to win those teasers in
casual sports bettor's completely oblivious to this. And before I give you you can make at a sports book, if you're finding value in the content this far, thumbs up button, and tap that bell notification so you don't miss the next
worst bet that you can make at a sports book, same game parlays. It's why you constantly see it advertised on your phone, on TV, no matter the book,
FanDuel, DraftKings, MGM. All they do is talk about same game parlays. Number one, it's a low-key lottery ticket. You can put a little money down and get paid out a lot. But, the sports books tax the living crap out of this specific [music]
bet, and the price that you should be receiving compared to what you are receiving, it's a complete rip-off. Same game parlays allow you to combine multiple plays from the same bet together. And so, while you think you're
being a smart savvy better, back door Spurs Thunder example, Spurs are going over's going to hit. You know what? If the Spurs are going to win, they're like Wemby over on his threes. I like Kessel over on his points. Heck, maybe
we'd even go a step further and add in a couple assists for overs on Fox or Harper. This all sounds like it's a really smart thing. Oh, look at this. Plus 625 odds. My 100 bucks is going to pay us out a grand total of $725.
This is fantastic. But, what most bettors don't understand is that this DraftKings is [music] terrible. So, over here on OddsJam, I added the same four
picks that we just saw over on DraftKings. All four legs right here. And when I type in $100, you can see that we should be getting paid out roughly 11.72 odds over on FanDuel. Wait a minute. We look down here to
DraftKings. Why is it saying plus 1050? Well, that's the odds that we should be receiving. But, with same game parlays, the wreck books bake in correlation. Because we're taking correlated sides,
and we want Wemby to score, and Kessel to score, and the Spurs to cover, the sports books bake all of this in and nerf the price considerably. So, on an SGP, the books typically get somewhere between 20 [music] to 30% of a house
between 20 [music] to 30% of a house edge compared to 4 to 5% on straight going to bet the Spurs to cover the spread, or we're just going to bet the over on the game. So, the problem here is that, just like in our example
earlier, the more legs that you add to this parlay, the more difficult it is to win. But, the expected value for the sports book is even greater on same game parlays. And the more legs that you have, the more edge there is to the
getting paid out considerably less than what you should makes this a disaster for the books, and it's why they advertise it so much. The craziest part
about SGPs is you'll see that there's a lot of profit boosts being offered by the books. But even with the correlation and the price being nerfed so poorly, [music] even when you put that boost on top of it, you're still not receiving
the payout that you should. Don't get me wrong, sharp, savvy pro bettors can find edges and angles with SGPs. But for the majority of the public, this is the worst bet that you can make, and it's not even close. The fix around this, if
you're someone that loves to play parlays, play traditional parlays. Take one play from different events and combine them together. Maybe you like the over on the Yankees game. [music] Maybe you like the Spurs the spread. And
maybe you like the Avalanche to win the hockey game tonight. Combine those three legs together in a parlay. [music] That's a traditional parlay where the sports books will not rip you off in price, and you'll always receive a fair
price [music] compared to SGPs. If you want to take this a step further, just stick to straight wagers. Take all four plays that you saw in that parlay that we showed on DraftKings and bet them individually. If you're new to sports
systematic, profitable strategy, check this video that's coming up on the screen right now. That's my 20-minute daily strategy. 20 minutes where I show you my exact process, what I focus on. I get in, I get out, grab my value, and
move on with my day. It really helps create a healthy working balance when it create a healthy working balance when it comes to sports betting and your life.