The way I see it, all parlay betting does is multiply the punter's disadvantage by rolling each winner into the next. The 14.5% grab is taken in each leg. Quadrella, Treble and Doubles betting are far more attractive to serious punters looking to minimise the edge as there is only one commission, albeit a little higher than the win and place juice.

Let's say you have four 1.70 chances picked out for a place parlay. That is, 1.70 is the real price. The TAB takes its cut and it is now 1.45 or 1.40 rounded. A successful parlay in all four legs will return 26.58 by the TAB when in reality the real price is 45.34. Any punter prepared to take such drastic unders must fail.

The other pitfall is the price of the final selection should the first three get up, especially betting on small meetings. I have seen 10/1 shots come up at 1.10 following the influence of all up betting. Again, those sorts of unders mean certain failure in the long run.

So if you are fair dinkum, bet single commission exotics or if you like win betting, concentrate on Sydney Metro top fluc betting ( near 100% ) or Betfair.