Good news about NFL betting in Delaware. Bettors aren’t just saddled with poor paying parlay cards. If they go up to the counter and ask, they can actually get legit parlay odds as well.

Not that you’d find this out in most of the media coverage. The articles on the Delaware offerings there just mention that three-team parlay cards pay 5.5 to 1 (expressed as 6.5 for 1 to make the payoff seem higher), the 4-teamers 10 to 1, and so on. It’s pretty clear that every reporter covering the story picks up a parlay card, asks the management folks a couple of cursory questions, and then orders a cheeseburger.

But you can’t blame the reporters. They don’t know a thing about sports betting, having no background in the activity at all. It’s like if a newspaper asked me to go cover a quilting competition. So they see all the cards lying around, pick one up, and report on the odds on the back. They never look up to the odds board and notice the slightly different, more up to date pointspreads, and ask “what’s this all about?”

So given the media’s lack of background, why wouldn’t the management people make it clear that people can bet 3-team parlays and teasers at the same odds that are paid at most Vegas and online sportsbooks? After all, it would attract more business.

So you wouldn’t know this from the newspapers, but when you actually explore the web sites of the racetracks offering the NFL parlays, you discover that you can actually walk up to the counter and play “off the board” parlays with more competitive odds. Three team parlays pay 6-1 instead of 5.5-1.

The catch is you can’t fill out a slip or punch out a card to play these. You actually have to go up to the counter and ask for them. But by doing so you get 9% more if your parlay wins.

Now there are actually some parlay cards in Nevada that are very strong propositions. But the value in them generally revolves around the fact that stale or inflated lines are still available. For instance, if you can parlay a trio of NFL 3-point underdogs as +3.5 point underdogs, you can expect a better ROI over time than if you got a 9% higher return but only got +3 on each. But assuming that inflated or stale lines aren’t available, the “off the board” parlays are better value than the cards. 6-1 for three teamers, 11-1 for 4-teamers, and so on isn’t bad. It’s pretty much the industry standard.

Their 3-team, 6-point teasers at +160 aren’t as good as a few books pay, but they are pretty much paying the industry standard. So it’s not a complete ripoff. They’ll do well with these, of course, as few people know how to play teasers correctly. But at least they aren’t blatantly fleecing people, which is the impression that you get from the news coverage.

So it’s nice to see that Delaware is offering legit parlay and teaser odds. It’s just too bad they aren’t clarifying the difference between the cards and the “off the board stuff” to the media covering them.