1. Sep 03, 2018 A correlated parlay is essentially a bet that is tied into another, in that if one bet wins, it increases the odds of the other bet winning. As a rule, sportsbooks do not accept correlated wagers. An example would be if you wanted to parlay a first half over bet to the game going over the total.
2. 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 long as the bets are on different.

Parlays are many bets on one ticket. Instead of making a single bet on the NFL or NBA, you can combine different bets onto one slip. The only downside to making a parlay bet is that all wagers must hit, otherwise the entire bet is a bust. It can be a tad confusing when you’re trying to combine odds and/or determine the overall payout of your total wagers on multiple games. Enter Odds Shark. A parlay bet is a bet that involves two or more games. The games or events can come from different sports. However, to win a parlay bet one must be correct on every bet of the parlay. If one game or “leg” of the parlay is wrong, the entire bet loses. Since these types of bets are harder to predict, the payouts are much higher.

Table Of Contents

Parlay betting is an increasingly popular way to bet on football. It also remains one of the most understood. How many times have you found yourself asking 'what is a parlay?' to one of your betting friends, only to end up none the wiser. Here, we attempt to unravel the mystery.

In short, a parlay bet is a way of combining single bets, but with larger, overall odds, seeing as each individual bet must win for the parlay to pay out.

The lure of a larger payout makes this type of bet an attractive option. Parlay bets are especially popular with those who enjoy betting on NFL and NCAA football.

How parlay betting works

To place a parlay bet, you add each of your selections to your online betting slip, just as you normally would. The difference is that you click on the 'Parlay' option.

Your payout can then be calculated in one of two ways. One way is by using the fixed odds chart. This is used when placing a bet on either the totals or the point spread. These odds are typically 50/50 chances at odds of -110. A fixed odds chart might show two selections payout at +260 and three selections at +600. These can mount up quickly, as eight selections pay out at around 150/1.

A parlay is more complicated when there are different odds for each selection. This is even more the case when betting on the money line. All of your initial bets will be placed on your first selection, and if that selection wins, your return is as it would be if you were placing a single bet. However, rather than that money being credited to your account, it’s automatically placed on to your next section. This continues until your final selection is made.

Parlay betting odds

The two most popular types of parlay bets are the money line and point spread. With spread betting, you pick multiple teams to beat the spread. It’s a great way to add excitement to a weekend of football.

Parlay bets that use the point spread are based on fairly standard odds. You can expect to see odds like those below.

When it comes to the money line, parlay betting odds are relative to the odds of each individual pick. If you select multiple underdogs, your odds will obviously be longer. Conversely, if you choose multiple favorites, you can expect the odds to be shorter.

The odds can be confusing when it comes to parlay betting. Fortunately, you can always find a parlay calculator online to help simplify things.

Other types of parlay betting

• Teasers
• Pleasers
• Round robins

The teaser is a parlay where you can adjust the money line or point spread in your favor for each selection. A teaser typically adjusts the line by six points. If betting on a team to win by 10+ points, for example, you can bet on them to win by four or more points. While you will get lower odds than a traditional parlay bet, you'll find that wins are easier to come by.

The pleaser works in the opposite way to a teaser because you’re moving the line the other way, which makes each of your selections more difficult. However, you can also expect to win a larger payout.

A round robin parlay bet is where you place multiple parlays at the same time. You choose from between three and eight teams for your round robin. Then you decide on the number of teams or totals you’d like to tie together. You may decide on eight teams, for example, and tie the parlays to as many three-team combinations as possible. The team combinations will determine the number of different parlays you have. If you have eight teams in your round robin, you will have 28 different parlays if you choose two teams. If you make three-team parlays, you will have 56 different parlay tickets.

Where can I get a free parlay bet?

• FanDuel has quickly become one of the top names in sports betting. It clearly knows how to attract new customers, and a part of that attraction is its $500 risk-free bet for those making their first deposit. You can bet up to $500, and if you don’t win, you get your money back. That presents a great opportunity to try parlay betting for the first time.
• BetMGM makes the same offer to new customers, which helps to explain why they too have ascended to rank among the sportsbook elite. MGM also offers a free $10 weekly bet, so there's an incentive to stick with these guys once you’re all signed up.
• Another sportsbook with a tasty welcome offer is PointsBet. When you open your account and make a deposit of just $50, they reward you with $150, which really increases the value of your parlay betting when you're just getting started.

Oddschecker provides an odds comparison service so you can see all the odds, offers, and promotions from every single sportsbook in one place. They also provide free picks and analysis across every single sport. This means that at Oddschecker, you will always be able to see the best NFL odds and picks the market has to offer.

_{Offers available in New Jersey only. 21+}

FAQ

What sports can you parlay bet?
You can place a parlay bet on any sport, but as mentioned, many sports bettors like to place parlay bets on both NFL and NCAA football.

Where can you place parlay bets online?
You place a bet with a sportsbook like Foxbet in the normal way, and then an additional bet, which automatically gives you the option of turning your bets into a parlay bet. You can then add more bets to your parlay.

Can you parlay future bets?
Yes, you place a parlay bet on a future event.

Which online sportsbooks allow parlay betting?
There are numerous sportsbooks accept parlay bets, but FanDuel and BetMGM are among the most popular sportsbooks for parlay betting.

Have you ever heard of a parlay bet? If not, maybe you’ve heard someone mention an accumulator before? These are essentially the same thing: a type of wager where several selections can be made on the same ticket. All wagers must win in order for a parlay bet to be successful. The entire stake will be lost if even just one of the selected wagers lose. If one or more of the selections push (tie), then the payout is reduced to what it would have been had those selections not been included.

Parlays can be extremely powerful when used correctly. However, this is easier said than done. Since all of the selections need to be correct, they are often very difficult to win. To compensate for that, they offer very high payouts. We would actually go as far as to say that the potential rewards are what makes parlays so attractive, especially to recreational bettors. Unfortunately, most recreational bettors don’t know how to bet parlays effectively.

This article is designed to make using parlays to your advantage easier. We explain one of the biggest disadvantages of placing parlays, and how to overcome it. We also teach you some of the best methods for betting parlays, and provide other useful advice as well.

The author of this article assumes that you have at least a basic knowledge of what parlays are, and how they work. We’ve given a brief overview above, but you can find more information in our beginner’s guide to parlays.

The Problem With Parlays

We’ve already mentioned one of the biggest problems with parlays; they are hard to win. The truth is that it’s hard to win consistently using any type of sports wager, so this is certainly not a problem that’s unique to parlays. There’s another problem with them too though, and it’s an important one to understand.

There’s no reason to get worked up over this though, since technically no sports wager offers true odds. Bookmakers build a commission into the odds that they offer their customers. Commonly referred to as vig or juice, this is one of the main advantages that bookmakers have over their customers. It’s also one of the primary reasons why being a successful bettor is so challenging.

Our article explaining how bookmakers make money covers the commission they charge in more detail.

The problem with parlays is that the bookmakers often “shave” their odds. To put it another way, they charge a higher commission than usual.

We understand that this can be a little confusing. To make this clearer, let’s put sports betting aside for a moment and instead focus on the casino game: blackjack. Imagine you buy into a table for $100, bet it all, win, and now have $200 in chips. You then decide to go all in again, win, and have $400.00. You repeat this process four more times going to $800, $1,600, $3,200 and then finally $6,400.

Delaware Sports Betting Parlay Cards

By going all in successfully six times in a row, you’ve turned your $100 into $6,400 of which $6,300 is pure profit. Imagine the next day you show up at the same casino, and there’s a new game offered called Blackjack Parlay. The basics of this game are pretty simple. You make a wager, and if you win six hands in a row, the wager pays 60-1. If you lose any hand before winning six in a row, your full stake is lost.

Would you play this game? Probably not, since just yesterday you discovered that winning six bets in a row effectively paid 63-1. There’s no reason why you would decide to now play it at 60-1. Oddly enough, this is exactly what most sports bettors do when betting parlays.

Parlay Payouts

We already showed you that the fair odds of winning six hands of blackjack in a row are 63-1. We also know that both point spreads and total bets are 50/50 propositions, where the real odds of winning are very close to the odds of winning a hand of blackjack. So, we see why you’d assume that the payout for winning a six team parlay would also be 63-1, but it’s not!

Take a look at the following table, which is an example of the fixed odd payouts a sport betting site offers on parlays. These payouts are fairly typical of what’s available online.

Now to be fair to the online betting sites, things are just as bad with the Las Vegas sportsbooks and other bookmakers. So how do these betting sites, sportsbooks, and bookies get away with such highway robbery? Parlays and accumulators target naïve gamblers who either don’t know any better or don’t care to find out if the bets they are placing offer any value.

We want to point out that although the true fair odds for a six team parlay would be 63-1, we could never expect to be offered that price. Bookmakers have to charge their vig, so the true odds would actually be the equivalent of what would be paid if you kept rolling your bet over and over and taking the individual odds for each selection.

The standard odds for point spread bets and totals bets, which are typically used to make up parlays, are -110. If you started with $100, and went all in six times at these odds, your final payout for winning the sixth wager would be $4,841.41.

• Stake $100 at -110 Win $90.91 Balance of $190.91
• Stake $190.91 at -110 Win $173.56 Balance of $364.47
• Stake $364.47 at -110 Win $331.34 Balance of $695.80
• Stake $695.80 at -110 Win $632.55 Balance of $1,328.36
• Stake $1,328.36 at -110 Win $1,207.61 Balance of $2,535.97
• Stake $2,535.97 at -110 Win $2,305.45 Balance of $4,841.41

A payout of $4,841.41 from a $100 stake is the equivalent of getting odds of 47.4-1. The good news is that some betting sites don’t use fixed payouts for their parlays, and instead pay based on “true odds.” So a parlay that is made up entirely of selections at odds of -110 would pay out at odds of 47.4-1.

A relatively simple way to overcome the problem of receiving unfair odds for your parlays is to choose the right betting sites. Ones that don’t offer fixed odds for your parlays are a good place to start. Need some help finding these sites? Check out our list of recommendations!

There’s another way to make sure that you get true odds for your parlays, even at sites that offer fixed odd payouts. Keep reading to find out more.

Forcing True Odds for Parlays

The majority of bookmakers and betting sites that effectively reduce the payouts for parlays only do so when bettors exclusively include selections that are priced at odds of -110. By adding any other selection to the picks, such as one priced at -115 or -105, they’re then forced to abandon their poor-paying fixed odds and pay based on true odds.

To put this into context, let’s say you place a six team parlay at your preferred betting site. All six selections are at odds of -110, so the potential payout is at fixed odds of 40-1. What would happen if you instead made 5 selections priced -110 and one selection -120? Your potential payout would then be based on true odds. We’ll show you exactly how this would be calculated below.

Before you calculate the payouts for a true odds parlay, you must first convert the odds for each selection into decimal format. This can easily be done using our odds convertor. In the example above, the selections were at odds of -110 (which is 1.9091 in decimal format) and -120 (which is 1.8333 in decimal format).

Now that we’ve successfully converted these odds into decimal format, we just need to use our multiplication skills to figure out the rest. So, with five selections at -110 and one selection at -120, the calculation would be as follows:

1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.8333

This gives us 46.49, which is the equivalent of 45.49 -1. This is significantly better than the fixed odds of 40-1.

What can we take away from all of this? Whenever a betting site offers unfair fixed odds payouts, we can force them to pay in true odds by making a selection other than -110.

Now that we know how to calculate true odd parlays, it’s time for us to focus on the three scenarios where parlay betting would be most successful.

Best Methods for Betting Parlays

Using Sports Betting Bonuses

If a site offers their bonuses in free play credits as opposed to cash, they might just offer an excellent opportunity for betting parlays. Let us explain. When you bet $100 cash at -110, your essentially risking $100 to win $90.91. If the bet wins, you receive a $190.91 return ($100 stake + $90.91 winnings). When you, instead, bet $100 free play, you receive a return of just $90.91.

The free play is just a onetime use free bet. Whether you win or lose the wager, the free play will be gone. Use your free play wisely. If you decided to bet the free play in a three team parlay, this would give you the same payout as you’d get from rolling your win AND your initial stake forward two additional times.

Here’s the point we’re essentially trying to get a crossed; a free play used in a three team parlay is worth three times more than when it’s used in a point spread bet.

Circumventing Betting Limits

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. This parlay would have odds of 5.96-1.

When betting all three teams separately, you’re limited to risking $1,100 to win $1,000. When betting them in a parlay, you’ll be risking an average of $2,185.33 to win $1,986.67 on each. Keep in mind that you’ll lose more often when betting in this way, since all three selections have to be correct.

The higher payouts you receive when you do win should more than make up for the times that you lose, assuming that you’re making wise selections. Regardless, this method can be effective for anyone wishing to bet larger limits.

Sports Betting Parlay Odds

Correlated Parlays

Correlated parlays are a bookie’s worst nightmare. To explain, let’s say you were given the option to make separate bets on whether it will be cloudy today and whether it will rain today. In this circumstance, a parlay bet would be the best option. You’d either parlay both as yes or both as no. In sports betting, these types of opportunities exist, although their correlation may not be as intense.

An example is a college football point spread of -21.5/+21.5 with an over/under betting total of 44.5. In this case, it probably makes sense to parlay the favorite and the over, or the underdog and the under. It doesn’t always work out, but the parlay seems to present more expected value than the straight bet here.

Sports Betting Parlay Odds

Additional Strategies to Consider

Sports Betting Parlay Calculator

Combining the use of parlays with a sound strategy for buying points can be profitable. Only attempt this if you know how to buy points efficiently though. The best sport for doing this is probably football, and we have an article in our football guide that focuses on strategy for buying half-points. Anyone interested in more advanced betting would benefit from reading through this article.

If football is your sport, and you enjoy betting parlays, we’d also suggest learning how to bet NFL teasers. These are modified versions of parlays that move point spreads and totals in your favor. When used correctly, they can be one of the best weapons a bettor has in his arsenal.