Originally posted on 09/27/2012:

Never thought something as simple and basic as creating your own entries and multiple entry futures bets had an industry name.

Of course this an effective method, and in many ways. You accentuate your edges while also reducing variance.

If there is a tournament, and there are 3 entries with some perceived value offered at 8-1,12-1, and 15-1, I can simply combine the 3 for a price of 3-1.

Most futures markets are vulnerable, so many places juice it up to compensate, but there are many places that will still offer holds less than 15% on 15+ entries futures markets, and while betting 2 or even 4 team markets with holds in that neighborhood is suicide, spreading that out over 15 + entries will almost ensure there are a few +EV selections in the bunch.

If you are astute enough to find these, you reduce your variance by "dutching" these, and is a very effective method.

The poster who thinks it's almost impossible (7/1000) to be better than market needs to learn a lot. If you think futures markets are that precise, you're living in fantasy land. I'm not saying books are giving the store away, because their futures markets are good enough to make a nice profit , but practically every futures market you can find throughout a given year (there will be thousands) will have some +EV selections in them. Not so easy to always find them, that's for sure, and even if you do, variance can keep you on losing streaks that will test your sanity. But they're there,rest assured.