Parlay Betting Explained

What is a Parlay Bet? Parlay bets are sometimes referred to as multiple or combination bets – and those terms reflect the nature of these wagers in a much better way. Rather than making a single – or straight – bet on an event, you will include a number of bets in your wager. A parlay bet is a common way for sports bettors to increase their odds and payoffs. Instead of making multiple, single bets, a parlay bet combines 2 or more bets into one bet. Each bet within the parlay must win in order for the parlay to win. If any bet within the parlay loses, the bet loses.

1. 2 Team Parlay Rules
2. Parlay Betting Explained Poker

• Combining any two odds in a single bet is considered a parlay, also called 'accumulator'. Adding more predictions (selections) to the betslip boosts the payout but also.
• A parlay is a single sports wager that involves two or more bets combined into one. This can include point spreads, moneylines, totals, futures, or even prop bets, as.
• Parlay betting explained A parlay bet essentially combines two or more bets into one wager. The payouts increase exponentially on parlays because you have to win every bet, or leg, that is part of the parlay for it to pay anything at all. In other words, if one bet loses, the entire parlay loses.

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

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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

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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.

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Parlay variants

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.

2 Team Parlay Rules

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:

• 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

Parlay Betting Explained Poker

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.

A round robin (RR) is simply a nickname for a type of parlay wagering strategy. You take a group of three or more selections and put them in combinations of individual parlays. You could enter these parlays individually yourself, but a lot of sportsbooks allow you to select a round-robin option and do it automatically. This proves to be a much faster proposition.

Round robins get a lot more complex as the number of teams goes up. A two-way round robin means that you are betting as many different two-team parlay combinations as you can with a given number of teams. On a three-team RR two-way parlay, you would have three different two-teamers.

Let's just give an example to show you how a three-team RR two-way bet would work. You like three teams we'll call the Cowboys -7, Packers -7 and 49ers +4. Let's say you wanted $100 on each pair. Here's how your wagers would look:

• Parlay 1:
  Cowboys -7
  Packers -7
  Betting $100 to win $260
• Parlay 2:
  Cowboys -7
  49ers +4
  Betting $100 to win $260
• Parlay 3:
  Packers -7
  49ers +4
  Betting $100 to win $260

How Do You Win a Round Robin?

So, you'll be risking $300 for a potential profit of $780. Your only options will be to lose all three, win all three, or lose two and win one. If you lose all three, you would obviously be out $300. If you win one and lose two, you would win $60. So, you basically have to go 2-1 or 3-0 to show a profit.

Are They Worth It?

That's why it might be better to just bet all three separately for $100 each because if you go 2-1, you win $90 instead of $60. If you go 1-2 you lose $120 instead of $300. However, if you go 3-0, you would only win $300 compared to $780! The chances of going 3-0 are 7/1, meaning you will only hit one three-team parlay out of every seven you bet.

Here is a look at the Round Robin table showing you how many picks, how many ways you can bet them, and how many different combinations of bets you will have for each.

As you can see, there are so many different combinations you can bet. The problem is that the more teams you have, the more bets you are going to have to place. Say you have eight teams and want to do as many 4-team parlays as you can do with those eight teams. Well, there's a whopping 70 different combinations of 4-team parlays with eight teams. So, if you're betting $100 on each parlay, that means you will be betting $7,000.

It's simply not worth the risk in my opinion. If you go 3-5, you lose all 70 bets for a grand total of $7,000. You would have to go at least 4-4 to get any money back, and even then you'd only hit one 4-team parlay at 10/1 odds, which would bring back $1,000. So, you'd still lose $5,900 by simply going .500. You'd lose 69 bets at $1000 each and win one for $1,000.

The novice sports bettor sees a chance at a huge payout with these Round Robin parlays. And, if you do bet as many parlays as you can with six teams and go 6-0, then you are going to make a fortune. But how many times have you actually gone 6-0 in a day? The chances of doing so are slim to none, and if you bet too many of these Round Robin parlays, then you're going to be broke before you ever get the chance to go 6-0.