Books Are Hitting Near Impossible Hold Percentages Based on Greed

Former oddsmaker turned Co-Founder of the Bet The Board Podcast as well as Analyst for CBS SportsHQ, Todd Fuhrman, tweeted out the June hold percentages for the leading U.S. regulated sports books this past week.

"This is staggering and actually hurts my brain for the month of June," he writes. "The power of parlays encapsulated in one graphic."

Parlays are known as a "sucker bet".  Sportsbooks the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM push these types of wagers, hence the high hold numbers.

In the case of FanDuel, the hold percentage came in at 9.39%.  FanDuel wasn't too far behind at 9.26%.  BetMGM and Caesars each came in just above 4%.

Sportsbooks in Nevada had historically held around 5.4% of their wagers.

One can argue that nobody is holding a gun to the gambler's head forcing them to place parlay bets.

"When I stop making these they cut my limits on straight wagers/promos. When I make them. My limits/promos go back up for straight wagers. I would rather lose small dollar SGPs and be allowed to bet $100-$300 straights over not making them and getting limited to $25 on straights."

@JollyStVik points out the dilemma:

This is staggering and actually hurts my brain for the month of June (via @OPReport )

The power of parlays encapsulated in one graphic pic.twitter.com/xXMYeXBik8

— Todd Fuhrman (@ToddFuhrman) July 25, 2024

"That in and of itself isn’t a flaw in your approach but rather how the industry as a whole is functioning right now," Fuhrman responded.  "Players should be able to get fair limits with national books without feeling compelled to play in higher hold markets as tit for tat goes."

The hold percentages don't specifically mention parlays but these are the obvious contributors, according to Fuhrman.

"You don’t achieve hold percentage approaching 10% without them so it shows a game mix skewing towards a parlay player."

Bob Frances summed it all up this way:

"It absolutely amazes me how naive people as to the heavy disadvantage they face. But it is not shocking. They see the graphic on X of the guy who won a $10 17 leg parlay bet and cashed for 3 million. What they don't see is these operators celebrating in the background after raking in 50 million. Disgustingly sad."