A Parlay is a bet linking together two or more teams in no particular order. The parlay bet wins if every one of the individual wagers win. If any single wager loses the entire parlay bet is lost. If there is a tie or push among the selections made the Parlay reverts to the next lowest number for payoff. In the case of a 2 Team Parlay it reverts to a Straight Wager.
You can bet parlays to get much higher payouts. As each individual wager must win it is a more difficult bet but the payouts are higher than if you had simply kept the individual wagers as separate bets.
Why wager on a parlay and not make several individual bets? The payouts for parlays are significantly higher than for individual bets. But remember since every one of the individual plays must win its an all-or-nothing bet. If you win two out of three plays the parlay still loses whereas you would have won those two plays as individual straight bets. You are given better odds because predicting the outcomes of several plays together is more difficult than predicting any individual play.
Four major sports can be parlayed football basketball baseball and hockey. Money lines that differ from -110 affect the payout of the parlay. The higher the negative money line the lower the payout of the parlay. The higher the positive money line the higher the payout.
Lets look at an example of an NFL football parlay bet. You want to make a 4 team NFL football parlay bet for $100 with the following game picks: Buffalo -6.5 New England -4.0 Houston 6.5 San Diego 5.0.
A four team parlay would typically pay 11 to 1. So if all your picks are correct you would win $1100. If even one pick is incorrect you lose the entire parlay bet.
Be aware that different sportsbooks offer different parlay payouts. We highly reccommend Millennium Sports as a source for great Parlay Action.
Now a word of caution on parlay bets. They are a lot of fun and the rate of return is high but they are generally not your best bet. The sportsbooks tends to have a little more juice for itself built into the payouts particularly at the higher multiple parlay bets. From a professional betting standpoint you are better off making straight wagers. But again they are a lot of fun and one of the more popular wagers. On the other hand it is called sports gambling… Just dont make them your primary bets.
