Most sports bettors place numerous, often unrelated wagers every day. Knowing this, sportsbooks have long since developed a unique type of bet that would allow you to combine multiple wagers in a double-or-nothing style bet – parlays.
At first glance, parlay betting is as simple as choosing 2+ selections and hoping they’d all win. However, several unique rules exist (that may vary from site to site) that can make parlay betting even more rewarding, flexible, or challenging, depending on where you are betting.
As a friendly sportsbook expert, I’m here to decipher what parlay betting is, its unique types, and the rules that you’ll need to understand before booking your first parlay, so let’s begin. I will point out early on that not all sportsbooks are good for parlay betting, some are better than others. I recommend you read our separate guide to the best parlay betting sites before deciding where to place your bets.
What are Parlay Bets and How They Work?
Parlays, combos, or accumulator bets are synonymous terms for combined bets on at least two (or more) selections. This is more than just a string of straight bets or props – the total payout is increased, but every selection must win, or the entire parlay crumbles.
Depending on the parlay bet type, you can either create your own parlay (when allowed) by adding multiple eligible selections on the “Parlay” section of the bet slip, choose from a pool of pre-built parlay options if you’re betting online, or grab a parlay card if you’re gambling at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks.
Parlay Bet Types
There are several notable bet types of parlay wagers, each with its own set of draws and flaws, so let me break down Teaser Parlays, Round Robin Parlays, and Same-Game Parlays.
Teasers
The simplest and most flexible type of parlay bet is the Teaser. Teasers allow you to move point spreads (winning margins) on chosen selections to increase your odds of winning, albeit reducing your total parlay payout.
As with any other parlay type, you can include as few as 2 teams or place over 10+ bets (even over 16+ in certain sportsbooks), and all of them must win for your Teaser to win.
Round Robin
Round Robin market was designed as a “parlayed parlay”. It is a combination of multiple parlays, where you’ll need to place individual wagers on each. You can choose teams from the same league or sport or even include parlay match-ups from other categories.
The design of Round Robin parlays is meant to allow players to streamline the process of betting on all possible combinations of match-ups from chosen selections and give you an extra shot of winning individual parlays.
On certain sites, you can pick multiple selections as “Singles” and then convert them into a Round Robin parlay; if you’re betting online, you should instantly see the expected bonus payout for this move.
Same Game Parlay
Parlays built from the same games (match-ups) are called same game parlays. This type allows you to place wagers on several outcomes within one particular game/event that aren’t mutually exclusive (e.g. Team A can’t both win and lose).
This type of parlay betting is ideal for more experienced players and for events with tons of proposition markets. If you are confident that you can predict how the match will unfold (e.g. winning team, exact score, players with the most points, and such), you can make a parlay of a single match and score a huge payout.
Open Spot Parlays
Open spot parlays are where you select some of the legs in your parlay bet straight away, and then you leave some legs ‘open’, which means you can leave and finish the rest of your selections at different times or on separate days. The number of open spots in a parlay bet will depend on the amount of legs that have already been added. So, if you have created a parlay bet with two completed legs out of three, there would be one ‘open spot’.
Parlay Betting Terms
Before placing parlay bets, I warmly recommend checking the Parlay Rules of your chosen sportsbook. Below you can find some of the common parlay wagering terms, so let me explain what they mean:
- Accumulator, Combo: synonyms for parlay bet
- Boosted Parlay: promotions increasing the odds and/or payouts for parlay bets
- Cancel: when a sports event is canceled or indefinitely postponed
- Dog: short for “underdog”, opposite of “favorite”
- Favorite: a team/individual expected to win
- Multiplier: a number by which your wager will be multiplied
- Odds: the estimated chance of winning
- Payout: the estimated reward proportionate to the placed wager
- Point Spread: a winning margin usually expressed in points that the team must meet or exceed
- Push: occurs when it is impossible to determine a win or a loss; when at least one match in multi-game parlays results in a push or cancel, the parlay excludes it (e.g. 5-game becomes a 4-game) and both odds and payouts are calculated again
- Parlay Insurance: With parlay insurance, the sportsbook returns your wager if the parlay loses
- Pre-built Parlay: a custom parlay selection created by the sportsbook
- Straight bets: individual wagers, typically relating to who will win the match
Parlay Odds & Payouts
Figuring out parlay odds becomes a routine once you’ve done it a few times, but it can be a challenge for first-time players. You can also use our free parlay odds calculator to quickly work out the returns on your wager. Namely, our “American Odds” format needs to be converted into European decimals for the standard formula to work, so let me simplify it as much as possible:
- To convert positive odds from American to European, divide the odds by 100 and add +1 (reversed for negative). For example, if the American odds are +200, the European would be 2.1 (200/100 + 1).
- Then, multiply the European odds of your selections. For instance, if your parlay consists of 2.1 and 1.5 odds, your parlay multiplier would be 3.15.
- Finally, multiply your wager by this multiplier. Let’s say you’re betting $10, in which case you’d win $31.5 if your parlay wins.
It’s important to note that some sportsbooks have fixed parlay payout rates, in which case you won’t need to memorize this formula. What is always a constant, though, is that the more teams you include in a parlay, the higher the final multiplier will be. And the risk.
