Are you wondering what is a parlay? It is a type of sports wager in which you combine multiple individual bets (typically 2-10 bets) into one bet or “card.” It’s extremely popular with NBA and NFL football bettors but you can place a parlay bet on every sport.
The benefit of a parlay is that there are much higher payoffs than placing each individual bet separately, since the difficulty of hitting all of them is much higher.
Let’s see how to place a parlay bet, the different types of parlays, payouts and benefits of parlays, and the best sportsbooks where to place a parlay bet!
How Does a Parlay Bet work?
The parlay can still be a winner if a game is canceled or ends in a tie.
How To Place a Parlay Bet?
Not many sportsbook allow for crazy parlays, cutting you off at about 14 or 15 games. Anyway, there are sportsbook accepting 25 game parlays, paying 9600-to-1 for them.
It’s essential to find a book with the best parlay odds. Be sure to compare parlay odds from leading bookmakers, if parlays are a prominent part of your betting strategy. Taking advantage of betting promotions and bonuses is also hugely beneficial.
Types Of Parlays
Over/Under Parlays
You may have noticed the half a point. In sports betting half points are called “the hook.” The sportsbooks use half points for most bets, especially over/unders, which limit the opportunities for a push.
Moneyline Parlays
Moneyline bets remove the point spread from the equation. It’s a bet based straight up on the winner and loser of the event.
You are able to mix moneyline bets with point spread bets on a single parlay, however you cannot mix them with either teaser/pleaser bets. On those cards, if one wager is teased/pleased, you must tease/please them all.
Round Robin Parlays
A Round Robin bet is an easy way to wager multiple parlays with a single bet. Deriving its name from round robin tournaments – where each team in the tournament plays against each other at least once – this type of wager builds many different smaller bets that include all possible combinations of events.
You can select 3-8 teams (many sportsbooks allow more teams than eight), and then make parlays out of them, ranging from two to seven selections.
Eg: if you select the following picks:
- New York Giants -2.5 (-110)
- Cleveland Cavaliers +7.5 (-110)
- New England Patriots -10.5 (-110)
You’ll have three parlays:
- Giants -2.5
- Cavaliers +7.5
- Cavaliers +7.5
- Patriots -10.5
- Giants -2.5
- Patriots -10.5
If you were going to construct one regular parlay, you’d need all three of these teams to cover the spread.Thanks to round robin betting, you can create a security policy that allows one leg of your parlay to fail, while keeping you profitable. Of course, if two teams do not cover, you will lose every parlay in your round robin bet.
How Does A Parlay Bet Payout?
Point Spread Parlay Payout
In parlays involving point spreads, the payoff is fixed, while money line parlay payoffs are determined by the odds of each team. While a parlay made against the point spread assumes a 50-50 chance for each team of winning, money line parlays do not.
Point spreads and totals are usually offered at odds of -110, as they are considered as 50/50 chances. As consequence, two selections payout at odds of 13/5 and three selections pays out at odds of 6/1. These can quickly add up, as eight selections will pay out at around odds of 150/1.
For instance, a correct eight-parlay will pay out $150 for every $1 wagered.
Parlays are a little more complicated when the odds on each selection is different and this will be the case especially when betting on the money line (NBA basketball is one of the most popular sports for a money line parlay).
Moneyline Parlay Payout
The odds for each single bet are multiplied by the next bet. Let’s say we want a parlay with the following teams:
- Golden State Warriors -150
- Chicago Bulls +170
- Los Angeles Lakers -120
First, we have to determine what the multipliers would be for each game. Simply divide what the total payout would be (risk + win) by the risk amount
- Warriors – 150 to win 100, so the total payout would be $250
250/150 = 1.6666 - Bulls – 100 to win 170, so the total payout would be $270
270/100 = 2.7 - Lakers – 120 to win 100, so the total payout would be $220
220/120 = 1.8333
Now that we have the multipliers, we multiply them together to come up with the True odds of the parlay.
1.6666 x 2.7 x 1.8333 = 8.2495
The return on your parlay would be about 8.25 this includes the risk amount so your profit would be approximately 7.25 for every dollar you risk on the above parlay.
Fortunately, when placing a Parlay, all the betting sites will tell you the exact odds you’ll receive, so the work is done for you.
Benefits Of Parlay Betting
The most important is that a parlay requires less bankroll, and bettors have the potential to gain a larger amount while risking much less.
Smart gamblers don’t bet parlays unless they find a book that allows correlated parlays.
What Is A Correlated Parlay?
Anyway, sportsbooks do not like giving up a big advantage to bettors, so in most cases they will not allow a correlated parlay.
Best Sportsbook For Parlays
We make sure we bring you the very best bookmakers for betting on parlay including all the biggest names worldwide.
We really don’t miss a thing so keep your eyes right here for all the best sportsbook odds and offers today.
