By Betmaker Team
A grand salami might make your stomach rumble at first glance. However, when discussing a grand salami in sports betting, we aren’t talking about a delicious sandwich at a New York deli. Instead, this type of bet involves the total amount of runs, goals, or points that will be scored in a specific league in a specific sport on that day.
What is a Grand Salami?
Think of the grand salami as a mega total bet. Rather than simply betting the over/under for one game, you are betting the over/under for all of that night’s games. For instance, take a look at this table:
| Game | Total |
| Red Sox at Yankees | 9.5 |
| Cubs at Marlins | 8.5 |
| Dodgers at Diamondbacks | 10 |
| Blue Jays at Orioles | 8 |
| Astros at Athletics | 10.5 |
Let’s assume these were the only games on a day’s slate. If you were wanting to bet the grand salami, you would add up all the totals of the day’s games and then wager on whether the overall total (grand salami) would go over or under. In this case, the grand salami total would likely be 46.5 as the sum of those five numbers. However, sportsbooks will sometimes tweak the grand salami total and make it a half-run or run higher due to the propensity of bettors to take overs.
What Sports Have Grand Salamis?
Currently, you only see grand salami wagers available in NHL and MLB. They were originally designed for hockey games, but baseball ended up being a nice fit for these types of wagers too.
Why Bet Grand Salamis?
Betting grand salamis can be a lot of fun. Rather than cheering on a total in one game, you have your action spread around all the games on that day. You aren’t done for after just one game, as the next game can get you back on track to win your overall wager.
There are serious and silly reasons to bet grand salamis. One of the main reasons to bet grand salamis is if you think there is across the board value on either overs or unders in that sport. That typically comes from a rule change that you believe will have a different effect than the oddsmakers believe.
An example of this would be if the strike zones were widened in baseball. This would automatically be advantageous to the pitcher, but there would be some speculation in just how much it would affect the totals in games. Everyone would assume the games would become lower scoring, but a bettor might believe it has a greater or lesser effect than sportsbooks hypothesize.
There would be a major impact in the NHL if the nets were widened too. Goalies would be at a bigger disadvantage if the net was widened by six inches, and it would lead to higher scoring games. Just how much of an impact would be up for debate.
Additionally, you might have a night where you think all the pitchers on the mound are overvalued. You have a feeling that a lot of games will end up going over the total, and if you believe that eight or nine of 12 games that night will go over, you might want to bet the grand salami too. There might be a night where you like all the pitchers too, so that could lead to an under bet with the grand salami in mind.
The same principle can be applied to goalies. While goaltenders aren’t usually as volatile as pitchers, there might be a night where a few backups are in over their heads. Fatigue can also be a real factor too over the course of the season, so there might be nights where a few teams are particularly gassed.
You can also look to bet grand salamis just to have some fun. There might be a night where you just want to root for goals or runs, particularly if you are into fantasy sports as well. It’s fun to bet on scoring, and the grand salami is the ultimate bet when it comes to that. You can cheer on every goal or run as it happens and maybe celebrate with a certain beverage, double if they are on your fantasy team.
