I'm glad to see this thread is still going, and thanks to Brahma for starting it and all who have chimed in on both sides.

I guess it is different strokes for different folks, depending on what you are good at. I warned you guys that you would be given a lot of grief for using this strategy, but as long as your bankroll keeps growing I'm sure you can live with the naysayers. It really is interesting, though, at how people have different strengths and weaknesses, and different feels for different things. I use this "system" (for lack of a better term) in every sport except baseball, and I have never come close to having a down year on these plays. But I have had plenty of down years betting spreads. Heck, I have NEVER finished positive against the spread in the NFL for a season. Yes, I am that bad! But I always kill it in NFL ML parlays. I am great at picking winners and avoiding upsets in the NFL, but I blow chunks at guessing the score so I can't beat the spread to save my life. So I have to stick to what I'm good at.

There is a big difference between ML parlays and ML bets on a single game, and it isn't that the winnings rollover within the bet. It is that it mitigates risk. You are wagering less and multiple losses don't kill you. This provides great opportunity to take chances. Tonight for example, I liked the Knicks and Jazz, but wasn't sold on either of them. I thought both would win, but wouldn't have been surprised at all to see one or both lose. So I parlayed them together to win straight up, and the payout was +190. If both had lost, I would have only been out one unit instead of the 2.9 I would have had to pay to take them individually on the ML, or 2.2 to take them with the spread. Some will say, "Jive you dummy, if you had bet to win one unit on both games you would have made out slightly better." True, but the point is I wouldn't have taken that chance because I wasn't that confident! Parlays enable you the take some chances, and if you pick your spots you will be right more often than not.

Pride hit the nail on the head with the closing line of his previous post when he said the reason this fails for some is because they don't use discipline. You have to be smart in mixing these things together. You don't take games you are 90% sure of and match them up with games you are 52% sure of. That is a recipe for disaster. Put your most confident games together, and put those you just have hunches about together.

The key, as Brahma, Shrink, and others have said is to be smart and pick your spots wisely. This means you don't take a handful of teams you are very confident in tomorrow and throw Marquette in with them! Save Marquette and play them with BYU or the Grizzlies if you like those games, for instance. But make your primary plays following the ideas that Brahma has set forth. That will keep your bankroll growing.

I would think after so many awful point spread beats that people wouldn't be quick to poop on this idea. How many people do you think lost 10 years off their life watching the Titans score with no time on the clock Thursday night? Not me, because I didn't give a crap since I had the Colts ML in a parlay. Despite all the incessant cries of fixes by players, I can tell you that, as Herm Edwards famously said, "They play to win the game." They don't play to cover the spread.

If you swear off the use of WISE ML parlays as part of your sports investing portfolio, you are leaving money on the table. You are making a mistake if you avoid the smart use of this strategy, just as you make a mistake by avoiding the right plays against the spread. Just be disciplined and don't try to use it a strategy to make your bankroll explode overnight. Those dreams will cause you to take teams you have no business taking, and in the end your butt will be toast, as Pride pointed out above.

Also you can set up great hedging opportunities by spacing out the games in a parlay. It is nice to have the Lakers at home against the Wolves to close out a parlay with all other legs sitting in the clubhouse as winners. You then can take Minnesota for a small wager on the ML and lock in a profit, or you can take Minnesota plus the points and have a chance to win both the parlay and a straight bet if the Lakers win but don't cover. You just have to be smart about when to use that strategy, as well.

Geez, I didn't mean to ramble. Sorry guys. But I will close by saying that I have been doing this a very long time, and anyone trying to tell me that it doesn't work is wasting their time. I've seen it work for years when done properly.