Each outcome included is called a ‘leg’, and every leg must be successful for the parlay to ‘stand’ as a winner. For example, a parlay with four games or legs in which only three of the picks win will be considered a loss, and you will surrender your wager. Parlay bets are sometimes referred to as multi bets or multiple bets. Bet big-paying parlays smaller and it won’t hurt too much when they lose, which happens more often than not. The payday on the right parlay will still offer a bit of that “wow” factor even with small bet size. Play a parlay correctly and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to hedge against the last leg.

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. The more teams put into a parlay bet, the higher the odds.

You are still able to lose a leg of a multi-chance parlay and win the bet, but there is no real incentive to continue to win legs of the bet. Sportsbooks will set the number of legs that must be correct to win a multi-chance parlay, and the payouts are not as great as it is for a straight parlay. Serious and professional sports bettors should only place parlay bets on very limited occasions, if ever. Since it only takes one loss within a parlay to lose the entire bet, the risk is very high. On a 6 team parlay, you could go 5-1 and lose your entire bet. Had these been straight bets, you’d be a happy camper.

Parlay bets should be used by one type of bettor, casual bettors doing it for occasional fun. Serious and professional sports bettors should only place parlay bets on very limited occasions, if ever. Since it only takes one loss within a parlay to lose the entire bet, the risk is very high. On a 6 team parlay, you could go 5-1 and lose your entire bet. Had these been straight bets, you’d be a happy camper.

Recommended Sportsbook for Parlay Bets:

Higher than normal parlay payout odds

Parlay Betting Odds

Two types of parlay bets can be made – those that use a point spread, and those that use a money line. Point spread parlay bets have somewhat standard odds, being very close at most sportsbooks. While there can be some slight variation from one sportsbook to another, in order to be competitive they’re generally pretty similar.

Typical Point Spread Parlay Betting Odds

• 2 Teams: 2.6:1
• 3 Teams: 6:1
• 4 Teams: 10:1
• 5 Teams: 20:1
• 6 Teams: 40:1
• 7 Teams: 80:1
• 8 Teams: 100:1
• 9 Teams: 150:1
• 10 Teams: 300:1
• 11 Teams: 450:1
• 12 Teams: 600:1
• 13 Teams: 750:1
• 14 Teams: 900:1
• 15 Teams: 1500:1

Money Line Parlay Betting Odds

Odds for parlay bets when using a money line are relative to the odds of each pick within the parlay. If you’ve chosen a number of underdogs, your odds will go up. If you’ve chosen big favorites, the odds will be lower. Money line parlays are great for an annual trip to Vegas where the idea is to go big or go home. However, for people who take their sports betting seriously, they’re too high risk to be a reasonable betting strategy.

Benefits of Parlay Betting

Can't Lose Parlay

Parlay bets allow sports bettors to make small bets with the possibility of large wins. They also allow bettors who have a limited bankroll to bet on multiple games, instead of waiting for games to end and time to collect their winnings. If multiple games are going on at the same time and you don’t have enough money to make straight bets on each game, a parlay bet is a way to get action on each game.

To put a parlay win into perspective, lets use a 5 game parlay as an example. If you made 5 straight bets for $22 each ($110 total wagered) and won all of them, you would win $20 per game for a $100 total profit. However that same $110 wagered on a successful 5 team parlay would pay $2200. But wait, before you go place your bet, keep reading.

Negatives of Parlay Betting

The major problem with parlay betting is that they don’t offer true odds. For example, the true odds of hitting an 8 team parlay is 255:1, while the payoff is only 100:1. This is a big disadvantage to the bettor. Similar to Roulette, when you split your chips across 2 numbers, you get slightly worse odds. When you split them across four numbers, the odds get worse again. The same can be said for parlay bets in sports betting.

Think of it this way. If you want to bet $100 on each of 5 games, but can’t afford to risk the full $500, you probably shouldn’t be betting at all. If you can afford the full $500, you will get a better payout with less risk of losing all your money by making straight bets.

Parlay Betting Tips

There are all sorts of little tips for improving your ROI on parlay bets, but there are a couple of tips that everyone needs to know. To improve your chances and win more on your parlay bets, follow these tips.

Bet on Fewer Teams, Raise Your Bets

Parlays are often used the wrong way. Instead of placing a $20, 5 team parlay, it’s better to make a 3 team parlay for more money. While the odds are lower, the win-rate is much higher, relying on only 3 wins instead of 5. By increasing the bet size, you can make up for the lower odds. This gives you a better chance at a win and a nice payday.

If you have more teams you want to bet on, split your parlays into multiple, smaller parlay bets.

Protect Your Bets

If you have a 5 team parlay that is 4-0 going into the fifth game, you stand to win $1000 on a $50 wager. A loss in the fifth game pays you nothing. To guarantee a win, place a straight bet for $525 on the team opposing your parlay pick. This will guarantee you a minimum win of $425 no matter what the result of the fifth game is. While expert bettors don’t bet a lot of parlays, when they do, this is a strategy they often employ.

If your parlay wins, you collect $1000. This is a $950 profit from your $50 bet, minus the $525 side bet, for a guaranteed win of $425.

If your parlay loses, you lose $50 there but make $477 profit (11/10 odds) on the $525 side bet, for $427 guaranteed profit.

Either way, you can grab a beer and enjoy that last game, knowing you’re a winner no matter what.

Parlay Betting Rules in Event of a Tie

Before placing a parlay bet at a live or online sportsbook, find out the rules in the event of a tie. At some sportsbooks a tie will remove one team from the parlay, moving it down one level. For example, if you have a 5 team parlay with one tie, the parlay will automatically become a 4 team parlay, essentially removing one team from the bet.

At other sportsbooks, a tie results in a loss. This is bad for the bettor, so make sure you know the rules before placing your bet. This is especially important for betting on soccer or hockey where ties are common. Expert sports bettors never place a parlay bet without knowing these rules.

NFL & NCAA Football Parlay Betting

Parlay bets are extremely popular with NFL and NCAA football bettors. Parlay bets for football combine multiple straight bets, meaning the point spread is used. A bettors job is to pick teams that will cover the spread. If any team within the parlay does not cover the spread, the entire parlay bet loses.

While we don’t like parlay bets for serious bettors, they’re a great way to add tons of excitement to a weekend of football. Just remember how hard it is to go 3 for 3 in your fantasy league before you place a 10 team parlay.

Many novice bettors are told to stick only to straight bets. That’s because they don’t do the work or research to make wise investments with teasers and parlays. You too may have been told that parlay wagers are considered sucker bets. That’s not accurate at all. There are several instances where betting parlays is a profitable proposition.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should just throw any two or more teams that you like together into a teaser or a parlay. You have to use a different strategy. This article is going to cover some solid parlay situations where you can KILL a book that allows you to make certain combinations (Check out our teaser guide to see what we mean for each of the different sports).

Correlated Parlays: What They Are Explained & How to Find Them

There’s a lot that goes into making a strong parlay bet. First things first, you need to make sure you understand how parlays work. That’s just the start, there’s more advanced stuff like when is the right time to hedge your bets.

I’m not going to get into all of that today. Instead, I’m going to introduce to you what a correlated parlay is. I’ll explain exactly what it is and how to find them.

Definition

I’m going to keep it simple. A correlated parlay is a wager in which you have two bets that are tied together. If one of the wagers wins, your chances of winning the second bet increases. Most sports books are not going to accept these types of wagers because if they did, they wouldn’t stay in business very long.

Are they Profitable?

So what would it take for a correlated parlay to be profitable? If you are hooking up two teams the payout is typically 2.5-to-1. That means that you have to win 28.6% of your two teamers to turn a profit. That is figured by the return of 3.5 divided by your risk which is 1.

Now a few books like 5Dimes will give you a 2.64-to-1 payout. In that case, you only have to win 27.5% of your two-team parlays in order to turn a profit.

Let’s assume one side of your parlays hits at 50% of the time. How probable does the second event need to be in order for the parlay to be to your advantage? For the typical two-team parlay payout it needs to be 57.2% (.572 * .5 = 2.86). If your payout is 2.64-to-1 then it’s 55% (.55 * .5 = .275).

Now let’s look at situations where if one leg of the parlay wins, the other wins at more than a 57.2% clip. There are several different types of these wagers. I’m going to cover two of the most basic ones in this article.

Why You Can’t Parlay First Half with Full Game Odds

First, we are going to look at the correlation between the first half spread and the spread for the game. Next, we will look at the correlation of betting the spread and total on the same game.

If a team covers the first-half spread of a game, how often do they also cover the point spread for the entire game? If you know the team that covers the first half line is more likely to cover for the game, you can parlay those wagers and make a killing, right?

That is exactly the question I wanted to answer, and I was pretty impressed by the results.

First things first, I want everyone to understand that I am aware that no online or Vegas sportsbooks (that I know of) allow correlated parlays. This article is more about why correlated first half parlays aren’t allowed, however, if you have a local book happens to allow them, you can most definitely use this information to your advantage, that is, until your book cuts you off!

Why it is Profitable

What exactly is a correlated first half/full game parlay? You are looking to bet the first half and the full game on the same team. Either the favorite or the underdog. You can do both, but that will appear pretty obvious and likely to get you cut off sooner.

I’ve provided the hard numbers for the NFL and NBA below, but let’s just talk about the method behind the madness first. We are going to use typical two-team parlay odds, which pay 2.5-to-1 (or bet $100 to win $250). We will also use $100 as the base bet amount to make things as easy to understand as possible.

Let’s say the Patriots are favored in a game against the Lions by 7 points. In the first half, they are likely to be 3.5-4 point favorites. Our bets for this game would be:

• $100 Parlay to win $250 on the Patriots -3.5 (1st Half)/Patriots -7 (Game)
• $100 Parlay to win $250 on the Lions +3.5 (1st Half)/Lions +7 (Game)

Now obviously one of these wagers is going to lose, but that’s ok! Our goal here is just to win however many parlays we need to in order to turn a profit. Let’s say you decide you are going to bet correlated parlays on five games on a Sunday, how many parlays would you need to hit in order to turn a profit?

The worst you can perform and still turn a profit is to go 3-7 (30%) on the night. Here’s the math:

• 7 Losses x $100 = $700
• 3 Wins x $250 = $750
• Total Profit = $50

Now, based on an uncorrelated two-team parlay, you are only expected to win 25% of your bets (50% chance to win each = 25% chance to win both). This makes sense – otherwise, everyone would just win truck loads of money by betting parlays.

The secret here is to increase our chances of winning the second piece of the parlay. That’s where the correlation between the first half line and the game line come in. When teams cover the first half line, they have better than a 50% of covering the line for the game, right? Logic would tell us that they would, however, hard data is even better.

Historical Data from the NFL and NBA

NFL

• Favorite Covers Both 1st Half and Game Line: 73.3%
• Underdog Covers Both 1st Half and Game Line: 76.7%

NBA

• Favorite Covers Both 1st Half and Game Line: 70.1%
• Underdog Covers Both 1st Half and Game Line: 69.8%

In all of these situations, if the team covers the first half line, they are much more likely to cover the game line. For example, using NFL favorites, you are given the standard 50% chance to win the first half, but then a 73.3% chance to win the game, meaning you have about a 36.6% chance of winning your parlay.

Since you only need to hit 30% of your parlays (28.6%, to be exact) to turn a profit, these bets are a no-brainer! In fact, if you can increase your chance of winning the second bet in your parlay by 7% (so up to 57%), you should make a profit over time.

Let’s look at the expected return. Let’s just say you hit 75% in the NFL and 70% in the NBA to keep it simple. So .5 *.75 = .375 means 37.5% of the time you win $250. You lose $100 62.5% of the time. Your expected profit would be 93.75 (.375 * 250) – 62.50 (.625 * 100) for $31.25 for every $100 bet. Now if the number is 70% in the NBA you get .5 * .7 = .35. 35% of the time you’d win $250 and 65% of the time you’d lose $100. (.35 * 250) – (.65 * 100) = 87.50 – 65.00 for $22.50 of profit for every $100 bet.

You can now see why sportsbooks won’t allow you to bet parlays on the first half and game of most major sporting events. If bettors were allowed to wager on these, they would soon be out of business, as you are nearly guaranteed to make a profit over time with this method.

Of course, there may be some local books out there that aren’t aware of this, so don’t be afraid to ask around and see if there’s a sucker out there willing to take these bets!

Why No Same Game Parlays in Football? They Are Correlated

I took a look at the four major spread sports and ran the numbers. I was trying to find any situations where if a favorite or underdog covered and the total hit more than 57.2% of the time. Here is what I found.

College Football

I went back to the last 3,732 games a favorite covered the spread. What I found was the over had a record of 1,959-1,773 (52.5%). In the 3,361 games when the team a field goal or more favorite the over was 1,793-1,568 (53.3%). If the team was laying a touchdown or more the over was 1,328-1,082 (55.1%).

The over percentages started picking up when we look at double digit favorites. The over then hit 57.4% of the time on a record of 1,090-808. When a favorite of two touchdowns or more covers the over went 838-582 (59%). A 20+ point favorite covering leads to a 547-321 record for the over (63%).

When a team 28+ point favorite covers the over has hit 261-122 (68.1%) of the time. When you stretch the line out to 30 point favorites or higher the number jumps up to 216-92 (70.1%).

If a team a 35 points or more chalk and covers the over went 127-51 (71.3%). There have only been 95 favorites of 40+ points in recent years with a lined total. In those games, if the favorite covers the over was 65-29 (69.1%).

If instead of looking at the hard numbers you go with percentages then the magic number seems to be about 40%. The spread has to be 40% of the total for you to take the favorite and the over or the underdog and the under.

Overall this system has seen the over go 495-274 (64.4%) when the favorite covers. Keep that in mind when taking a look at the college football odds every week.

NFL

So let’s take a look at the same parameters in the NFL. Here you won’t find nearly the same correlation. Looking at all favorites the over has gone just 1,576-1,532 (50.7%).

Let’s see if the over hits at a higher rate as we increase the number. A field goal or more favorite covering means a record of just 1,289-1,245 for the OVER (50.9%). Move up to a touchdown or more you will find the over was 527-487 (52%). However, stretch it out to double digits and when the favorite covers the over only went 203-194 (51.1%).

Favorites of more than two touchdowns that covered also went over the total 56.2% of the time at 50-39.

There is no magic number with percentages here either. That makes sense. There aren’t going to be as large of favorites in the pros v. college. There are only 16 games that have seen a spread at 40% or more of the total.

The bottom line is you can’t rely on any sort of correlation to beat the pro lines each Sunday.

Can't Lose Parlay Hat

In basketball, you’ll find the trend reverses. This makes sense. What happens when a big favorite is up at the end of the game? Both teams kill the clock and try to get out of there. Here is the data that I found.

NBA

Favorites of 5.5 or more that cover goes UNDER 51.1% of the time at 3,368-3,224. If you stretch the number up to double digit favorites who hit, the UNDER lands 52.5% of the time at 1,006-912. If you go up to favorites of 15 points or more that cover the under has hit 56.2% of the time at 122-95.

Can't Lose Parlay Hat For Sale

College Basketball

Can't Lose Parlay Hat

There doesn’t seem to be as much correlation with NCAA basketball. When a team covers as a favorite of six or more the under went 4,309-3,954 (52.1%). Favorites of eight or more that covered went under 3,264-2,865 (53.3%) of the time.

However, once you went up to double digits the numbers started dropping. Double digit favorites went under 52.8% of the time (2,318-2,072). 13+ point chalk that covered only went under 1,371-1,231 (52.7%) of the time.

Conclusion

The problem with the correlated parlays is finding a place that will take your action. The reputable sportsbooks that we use know about these statistics and won’t let you play them. You will need to find a square book to take the action. Or, just pair up the smaller spreads that you really like with the corresponding total.