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Who says you can't make a single-game NFL bet in Delaware?
You actually can.
And many are.
Technically, you can't walk up to the windows of Delaware's three racetracks that offer NFL betting and bet on a lone NFL game.
You can't even bet a two-game parlay.
Under state law, the minimum number of NFL games you must bet at once is three.
In other words, you must bet a three-game parlay, and you have to win all three games in the parlay to win money.
A record of 2-1 is a winning record if you're betting individual games, but going 2-1 on a three-game parlay is a losing proposition.
So what do you do if you're in Delaware and you want to bet on just one NFL game?
You game the system, of course, and it's all perfectly legal!
Here's how it works:
Let's say the Eagles are playing the Giants next week and you really like the Eagles to cover the pointspread in that game.
Two other games next week which you have no opinion on are the Packers vs. the Rams and the Titans vs. the Colts.
You would like to just make a straight bet on the Eagles to cover in their game, but being in Delaware, the law requires you to bet a three-team parlay.
So what you do is make four bets: four separate three-game parlays.
In each of the four parlays, the Eagles are your "anchor bet" or the bet that is the same on all four parlay tickets.
The other two teams on the four parlay tickets are the four possible combinations of winning teams from among the other two games.
So parlay ticket no. 1 would have the Eagles, Packers and Titans; parlay ticket no. 2 would have the Eagles, Rams and Colts; parlay ticket no. 3 would have the Eagles, Packers and Colts; and parlay ticket no. 4 would have the Eagles, Rams and Titans.
If the Eagles cover, one of the parlay tickets is guaranteed to be a winner.
However, if the Eagles don't cover, all four parlay tickets will be losers.
So what's the payoff?
Let's do the math.
Using the above example, a bettor wagers $100 on each of the four listed three-team parlays, for a total wager outlay of $400.
Winning three-team parlays in Delaware pay out 6-1, or $600 on a $100 wager (plus you get back your original $100 bet).
Subtract $300 for your three losing parlays from your $600 windfall and after all is said and done you've made a $300 profit.
Since the most you could have lost using this scheme is $400, had your anchor bet failed to cover, and the most you can win is $300, should your anchor bet cover, you are risking $400 to win $300.
$400 to win $300 is the same as $133 to win $100, or a vigorish of -133.
Since normal vig is -110, or $110 to win $100, the Delaware parlay scheme yields a vigorish just a little higher than there would be on a normal one-team bet, and that makes the strategy viable.
And of course, as any bettor will tell you, the vig doesn't matter if you win the bet.
So there it is: the strategy many NFL bettors in Delaware are using to get around the three-team parlay minimum and bet single games.
(Bettors are also using the strategy in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where the same three-game parlay rules apply.)
National Football League?
In this case, NFL could stand for Newly-Found Loophole.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
