Sports Parlay

A parlay bet is a single bet in which two or more outcomes are dependent on all wagers winning. The reason parlay odds have an allure to sports bettors is because they offer higher payouts than conventional wagers. Of course, the caveat for the bookmakers is that all bets in a parlay must win for bettors to win the bet. If, one or more of the bets loses, the wager is graded as a loss. Parlays are remarkably similar to the European accumulator, as both consist of several straight up bets that must prevail for the bettor to win the wager.

• Sports Parlay Picks
• Sports Parlay Payouts
• How To Parlay Sports Bets

Parlays can be used as a great way to bypass betting limits. For example, recreational betting sites often have a $1,000 max bet on NFL games. If you’re a high roller and see three bets that you’d like to wager on one of those sites, then placing a three team parlay would make the most sense. College football betting and college football parlays go hand in hand, and aside from straight wagering, college football parlay bets are the most popular type of wager placed each week. A college football parlay is a bet where you combine multiple selections into a single wager, with all of the selections needing to cash your ticket.

Parlay Odds

Okay, so we have explained what parlays are, let’s now figure out if they are profitable, and what kind of edge the bookmakers have on their bettors.

The standard payoff from an online bookie for a two team parlay is 2.6 to 1. The true odds of this bet are 3 to 1. Of course, no bookmaker will offer this to players, as they need to make their commission. Three team parlays pay 6 to 1 by the betting sites and have true odds of 7 to 1. The true odds represent the expected outcome if each bet in a parlay is a 50/50 proposition, and does not factor in the oddsmaker’s commission.

Here, is an example of a three team parlay:

Pittsburgh Steelers -3 1.91
New Orleans Saints +4 1.91
Saint Louis Rams +10 1.91

For this example, we used three different NFL teams. All wagers must win for the bet to be graded as a winner, and if any of the three wagers lose, the bet is a loss.

If we risked $100 at +600 (6 to 1), and our bet won we would win exactly 595.79, which we can round up to 596. Though our wager is +600, we still have to pay juice on each of three bets, which accounts for the bookmaker’s commission.

If one our bets should push, the parlay would become a two team parlay, and if two bets push, it would become a straight wager. This is a general rule for parlay betting, as pushing a bet in a parlay lowers the parlay odds by one game.

Parlays, in most cases, can be split between different sports, and spread out over the course of a few days provided the odds are available for wagering. For example, parlaying a tennis wager with a baseball and football wager. Many factors come in to play when calculating parlays, including the number of teams and the juice on each bet.

The best way to calculate a parlay’s profitability is to compare it to the true odds, which can easily be obtained by using a parlay calculator, or doing the math yourself.

Things to Look For

If you are an avid parlay bettor, it is essential to find a book with the best parlay odds. In a lot of cases, odds may vary slightly from book to book, and while this difference may seem trivial, it makes an immense difference to your bottom line. Finding the best odds for parlay betting is crucial and will make a significant difference in your bankroll. Be sure to compare parlay odds from leading bookmakers, if parlays are a prominent part of your betting repertoire. Taking advantage of promotions and bonuses is also hugely beneficial.

Conclusion

Parlays are can be solid bets if used effectively, even though the books do have the players beat on the odds, the vast majority of the time. However, there are situations where bettors can possibly have the upper hand.

Many bookmakers offer reduced juice on straight wagers, and allow bettors to import these lines into parlays as well. This can give bettors an edge on the book, or remarkably close to break even odds.

Another factor is that parlays require less bankroll, and bettors have the potential to gain a larger amount while risking much less. Rarely can you wager $100 to win $600, but you can betting three team parlays. We suggest you read up on Parlay betting strategies if you would like to learn more on the area of multiple bets.

Overall, there is no blanket statement regarding parlays. Recreational bettors bet them for amusement, and professional bettors use them to gain an edge. It all dependss on the situation, and the odds offered.

Ready For More?

Parlays are the Frankenstein’s monster of sports betting. They are wagers that consist of other bets glued together with one another.

They are also a high-risk, high-reward opportunity for the daredevil sports bettor. If you are a Colorado resident who feels like kicking things up a notch, make sure you read this guide to parlay betting first.

How parlay betting works

The first thing to understand about parlays is that they consist of multiple choices. Where other types of sports bets involve your choice of a single variable, parlays require players to predict outcomes on several different bets.

Each selection in a parlay is known as a leg. These bets can all be the same type of wager, or they can be varied. The exact composition of each parlay is entirely up to the bettor.

Why parlays are so risky (and well-paid)

The escalated source of risk in parlay betting is the fact that a bettor must be completely correct in his or her selections to get paid. Even one mistake causes the entire wager to be lost.

Naturally, as you increase the number of legs involved in a parlay, the chance of an incorrect prediction goes up. So, sportsbooks offer increasing payouts to compensate for the risk.

In fact, parlays with many legs are capable of producing some incredible wins for you. For instance, a successful 20-leg parlay in 2019 allowed a Mississippi bettor to turn a $25 wager into more than $104,000.

Of course, these stories drive more people to give parlay betting a try. However, it’s important to realize that successful parlays make the news because they are so unusual.

In a sense, these outsized payouts are not unlike lottery winnings. A bettor who successfully predicts a string of unlikely events has beaten very long odds, indeed.

Sportsbooks are, of course, more than happy to allow you to take such a risk. Truthfully, if the money you bet on parlays does not affect your lifestyle or living conditions, then they can be a fun diversion for a sports bettor seeking to get the blood pumping.

Parlay betting examples

Building a parlay is exceptionally easy, particularly on an online sportsbook. For mobile app or laptop users, they will usually need only to select the bets they want in their parlay and click a button on their bet slip to set things up.

In the following examples, the wagers we’re using are actual bets offered on DraftKings Sportsbook.

2-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +160
Bet #2: Over 230.5 points @ -113
Overall odds: +321

Comment

The first thing to notice is that neither of these choices have particularly long odds. The moneyline is only an 8/5 underdog, and the chosen over was the favorite.

Still, their combined chances of happening are more than 3 to 1. So, even if things are looking good individually, the odds of both events occurring are much less likely, and you will get paid far less often than if you bet each element individually.

3-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #2: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #3: Moneyline @ -165
Overall odds: +199

Sports Parlay Picks

Comment

Just to ram home the point about the odds involved, we chose three moneyline favorites to populate our parlay here. To reiterate, each of these choices is expected to win their game.

However, the combined chance that all three bets will win is still almost 2 to 1 against. So, bear in mind that in parlays, there’s no such thing as a safe option.

10-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #2: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #3: Puck Line @ +118
Bet #4: Over 5.5 Goals @ +105
Bet #5: Moneyline @ +180
Bet #6: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #7: Moneyline @ -143
Bet #8: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #9: Over 231 points @ -112
Bet #10: Spread @ -112
Overall odds: +85379

Comment

Here is an example of how outsized both the odds and payouts for a parlay can get. Here we have a collection of 10 wagers that are all going off at odds shorter than 2 to 1. Yet, the combined odds of all 10 events is a staggering 853.79 to 1!

One other thing to note is that, in order to construct this parlay, we had to choose from different games each time. In order for a parlay to be valid, there cannot be bets that are related to one another – for instance, you cannot bet both the moneyline and total for a single game.

Most Recent Betting Guides

Parlay variants

Sports Parlay Payouts

Along with standard parlays, sportsbooks commonly offer one or more variants of the combination bets. These variants each have their own appeal, so judge for yourself if you want to try them out.

Teasers

One of the most common parlay variants is the teaser. The teaser is the sportsbook’s attempt to lessen some of the risk that comes with parlay betting.

Quite simply, a teaser allows the bettor to tease, or move, the odds of the bets in a parlay in his or her favor. Teasers are only permitted for point spreads and totals – it wouldn’t really make sense to try and apply a teaser to a moneyline.

You must adjust each leg of a teaser by the same number of points. So, if you move one of your selections by five points, all of your selections must move by five.

However, the movement will always be in your favor. So, a bet on a favorite might reduce the spread, but a bet on an underdog would increase it.

Of course, nothing is free in this world, and teasers come with a price. Specifically, a successful teaser will not pay out as much as a parlay with the same selections. The sportsbook charges a premium for the reduced risk.

Still, for a bettor who wants to try parlays but doesn’t like the risk profile, a teaser might be a way to slide into things. The odds will still be long, but maybe not as unacceptably so.

For more information about teasers, click here.

Pleasers

Please be aware that sportsbooks will sometimes offer a parlay variant called a pleaser. While they are less common, they are simply the mirror image of teasers.

So, the odds in a pleaser will actually be worse than a standard parlay. However, the associated payout will be higher to compensate for the increased risk.

If a parlay just isn’t risky enough for you, a pleaser might be exactly what you’re wanting. Keep an eye out for them.

Round Robins

Round robins are a fascinating variant of parlays because of their margin for error. Almost every parlay requires perfection to pay out, but round robins have no such requirement.

Round robins are bets that are combinations of parlays. If parlays were a mathematical concept, round robins would be the next power of exponent to them – the cube to parlays’ square, so to speak.

Since they are composed of multiple parlays, it is possible to win a portion of a round robin even if one (or more) of the parlays fails. The different permutations mean that parts of the round robin might not be affected by the doomed parlay.

If you’re confused, don’t worry.

Example

You have 5 bets (A, B, C, D, and E) you want to make. You could make a single 5-leg parlay that would look like this:

How To Parlay Sports Bets

• ABCDE

-or-

You could make a round robin with 10 separate 2-team parlays in it. Here’s how it would look:

• AB
• AC
• AD
• AE
• BC
• BD
• BE
• CD
• CE
• DE

Now…let’s say that you lose bet B.

In the case of the parlay, the entire bet is lost. However, in the case of the round robin, six of the parlays are still alive and well:

• AC
• AD
• AE
• CD
• CE
• DE

So, even though the loss would’ve been disastrous for the straight parlay, it’s not the end of the world on a round robin. If you want to do some parlay betting but want to have some backup options, a round robin might be the way to go.