Sports Betting Parlay

When I was younger and attending school, sports betting cards would frequently circulate around campus.  On the card, you’d fill it out your selections, maybe 4 or 5 picks on football games, give it back to the bookmaker’s associate, and it would make the college and pro games a little more interesting on the weekends.  These sports betting cards were nothing more than sports betting parlays.

What is a Sports Betting Parlay?

So, what exactly is a sports betting parlay?  Well, a parlay is merely a combination wager where, instead of betting multiple teams one by one, you simply combine them all into a single wager.  All of the individual selections of the parlay card must win in order for a parlay wager to be successful.  If you successfully pick 5 out of the 6  winners, you will lose the parlay bet and that one losing selection will cost you the entire wager.  5 wins and 1 loss is a fantastic winning percentage.  Over 83%.  However, if you bet all selections in a parlay, you now have 0 wins and 1 loss.  0% which is not at all fantastic.

The reason people bet parlays is simple.  Although quite difficult to win, the payout is attractive for a winning parlay wager.  If only the field goal kicker with the pulled hamstring had made that 50 yard kick at the end of the first half, you may have won the 6^th game as well.  And your payout would be 40-1.  A pretty attractive return indeed.  It is like betting a perfecta or trifecta at the horse track.

What Occurs if There Is a Push Within a Parlay?

So, what happens if there is a push in the parlay wager placed?  Let’s say you place a 4 team parlay and one of the games is a push (a tie).  That play will simply be removed from the total parlay, and the payout will now be of a 3 team parlay.

Is a Parlay Considered a Good Bet?

Is a parlay considered a good bet?  Please give me a second, I’ll check with my magic eight ball.  It says, “Outlook not so good”.

To explain, let’s look at the true odds.  True odds refer to the actual odds of something occurring.  If we flip a coin (50% probability of landing on heads and 50% probability of landing on tails), the true odds of our above 6 team parlay would be 63 to 1.  However, a typical parlay payout for the 6 teams will be 40 to 1.  Obviously, the odds of the payoff are much less than the true odd.  Advantage goes to the sportsbook here.  The parlay bettor is at a disadvantage.

Can You Parlay Moneyline Bets?

Can you parlay moneyline bets?  My magic eight ball says, “Signs point to yes”.  And my magic eight ball is correct again.  Moneyline parlays are calculated a bit differently, however.  They do not use standard fixed odds because the odds of winning differ from team to team.  If you are wagering on baseball and one team is in first place in their division with their ace on the mound playing against a last placed road team that just called up a minor leaguer to make his first career start, you can not assume a 50/50 chance of winning.  The moneyline will reflect this.  And so will the moneyline parlay.

A moneyline parlay essentially takes the amount of your wager and places it all one team.  If that portion of the parlay wins, it will then recalculate your wager amount and place the entirety on the next team.

Sports Betting Parlay Calculators

There are a few parlay moneyline calculators available.  Below are just a few.

Parlay Calculator – DonBest.com

Parlay Calculator – OddsShark.com

Parlay Calculator – CalculateStuff.com

In Conclusion

Most handicappers will avoid parlays altogether.  If they like 4 games that day, they will most likely wager on those four games individually.  The most enticing feature of parlay wagering, however, is the possibility to win a fairly large sum of money despite only laying a small wager.  Instead of wagering an amount on each of the 4 games you like, you only make one wager for the 4 game total.  However, you can always take that bet size, break it into 4 smaller portions and wager on each of the four games individually.

One of the major components of a successful betting system is to follow a solid money management system.  For a decent overview of such a system, please see our article on money management in sports betting or our more detailed article on the Kelly Criterion money management strategy.

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