You may be confused as to what that means. For years it was a battle cry amongst my roommates and me, particularly during football season, and when you got to yell it, chances were you were buying drinks that night. But what does it mean, and what’s a parlay?
What is a Parlay?
A parlay is a type of sports bet in which you combine multiple individual bets (typically 2-10 bets) into one bet or “card.” Combining the bets gives you worse odds to win, but a larger reward for winning. The larger the amount of wagers included in your parlay, the larger the payout.
Picks and Parlays helps you dominate the pitch and cash in at the sports book with the best soccer picks and MLS predictions around. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world for a reason, and we give you the analysis and insight you need to create the most winning tickets for the sport at the book. An NBA parlay bet is a single NBA wager with multiple selections, each selection must-win for the bet to cash, but the odds of each selection are multiplied to offer much bigger odds. You can combine a variety of NBA picks from different markets if you choose to form an NBA parlay, from Moneyline picks to spreads and totals.
In order for a parlay bet to win, you must win each individual bet on the card. For instance, let’s say I bet the Patriots, the Ravens and the Texans all to win their games on any given Sunday. If all three win, I will get a much larger payout than if I just bet each game individually. However, if any of those teams lose their bet, the entire card is lost.
The only exception is in the case of a “push,” which is the gambling term for a tie. If one of the games on the card pushes, that wager is removed from the parlay. So, in the case of our three team bet above, if the Ravens tied their game, it becomes a two bet parlay. If the Patriots and Texans then win their games, the bet pays out as a 2 team parlay. The payout will be smaller than if they all three won, but hey, you still win some money!
While the odds of winning large parlays (5-10 wagers combined) are relatively low, they allow you to risk a small amount of money for a potentially large reward. For instance, a 10 team parlay bet purchased for $25 would pay out over $16,000 if you won every game.
Now that you understand the basics, let’s look at what kinds of bets you’ll be pairing together to make your fortune!
Types of Parlays
Over/ Unders
Over/Under bets (or bets on the “total) are wagers made on the total amount of points that will be scored during any given game by both teams. The sports book sets the “line,” which is the number you will be basing your decision on. You bet on whether you think the total amount of points scored will be over or under that number.
Over/Under, or Totals, bets are very common in betting parlays because they allow you to make multiple bets on the same game. A common strategy is to bet which team you think will win, and then parlay that bet with whether you think the game will go “under” or “over.”
So, let’s say your Uncle Tony got a tip that Aaron Rogers has a secret shoulder injury, and it will be difficult for Green Bay to throw the ball. The line is set a 53.5. Plus, they are playing the Browns, so you still think they will still win. You may want to bet Green Bay and the under. So you are betting that Green Bay will win the game, but it may be lower scoring due to the injury, and thus the total points scored by both teams will be less than 53.5.
You may have noticed the half a point I included in the example above. In sports betting these half points are called “the hook.” The sportsbooks use half points for most bets, especially over/unders, which limit the opportunities for a push. They “hook” bettors into one side of the bet or the other.
Point Spreads
Point Spreads, commonly referred to just as “the spread,” are what makes sports betting interesting. Without them, we could all just bet the favored team every week, make a lot of money and break Vegas within a month.
A point spread evens the playing field between teams by taking points from the favored team and giving them to the underdog. So, for instance, the Chiefs are playing the Colts in what is expected to be a tightly contested game. The Colts are favored to win by a field goal.
On the sportsbook board, or the betting site, this would look like “Colts -3” or “Chiefs +3,” depending on which side you wanted to bet. So, if you bet the Colts -3, but the Colts win by 1, you actually lost that bet by 2 points. If you bet the Chiefs +3, congratulations, you won!
How many points the underdog gets, or the size of “the spread,” depends on how mismatched the teams are. In the NFL, the spread rarely goes about 13.5 or so, but in sports like college football, you routinely have teams cover 60 point spreads.
While the point spreads themselves add a degree of complication to the bets, there are additional options that can really add to the fun. They’re called Teasers and Pleasers—my heart rate picks up a little just typing those words out for you!
Teasers
As far as I’m concerned, Teaser parlays are the greatest thing to happen to sports betting since the invention of the online casino. A teaser bet allows you to move that point spread that we discussed above in a way that’s favorable to you, the bettor (typically between 6 and 7.5 points). You get less of a payout if you win a teaser parlay, but it does improve your odds of winning.
So, in the example of the Colts and the Chiefs above, we had the Colts favored by 3 points. If you “teased the line” 6 points, then you’d move that Colts spread from -3 to +3.
You add 6 points to the spread that’s already given. Now you have a bet on the team that’s already favored, and now you win your bet whether they win outright as is predicted, or if they lose by less than 3. I like your chances!
What’s even better is that you don’t have to just tease the point spread, you can tease the total or over/under as well! So, if the point spread was 53.5 as it was in our example earlier, you could tease that line all the way down to 46.5 (7 point teaser), and then bet the over. Or, you could bet the under by moving the over/under up to 60.5. Like taking candy from a baby.
Pleasers
Now, there are certain situations where I do actually think it makes sense to bet on a parlay. I will cover those situations below, but rarely every will I recommend betting a parlay on spreads and totals. The best parlays are money line parlays, where you just pick the winner of the game rather than using the spreads and totals, which would be a 50/50 shot on each spread and total.
Correlated Parlays
This is the only kind of parlay I’d recommend wagering, which would be a two-teamer. It happens a lot in football where if one team covers, it’s likely to be a high-scoring game. There are also times where if one team covers, it is likely to be a low-scoring game. Let’s take a look at what I’m talking about.
Look for large spreads in football with small totals. On a college football game where the spread is -40 and the total is 51, it’s going to be very difficult for the favorite to cover and have the total go under. Sure, a 42-0 or a 49-0 final is possible, but if the dog even scores a field goal the favorite must score 44 points to cover, and cannot score more than 48 points or the total goes over.
There would be four possible parlay bets on the side and total of a game with a spread of -40 and a total of 51. Well, you can virtually eliminate two of those options right away. You either want to take the favorite and the over, or the underdog and the under because those are the two most likely winners.
In fact, if you play favorite/over or dog/under in situations where the spread is 40% or more of the total, then you should come out ahead. These are what I like to refer to as correlated parlays. Now, you will find that some books won’t take them for obvious reasons, but it obviously never hurts to ask.
Money Line Parlays
Instead of trying to pick multiple winners against the spread and parlaying them, it’s much easier to just do a money line parlay where your teams only have to win the game. The payout won’t be as great, but your chances of winning increase dramatically. Let’s do an example just to show you what I’m talking about.
I’ll pick three random games in college basketball. Let’s do Kentucky (-7.5) over Ole Miss, Duke (-10) over Wake Forest, and Wisconsin (-8.5) over Nebraska. In this instance we have three superior teams laying pretty big numbers against overmatched opponents. There is a good chance that all three favorites win their games, but not that they all cover.
The money lines on these games are -350 for Kentucky, -550 for Duke, and -400 for Wisconsin. The standard juice on the spread of these teams is -110, which would mean a $100 wager wins you $91. Well, if you played all three teams on the money line and parlayed them together, your $100 bet would win you $90.
Now, if you pick two favorites and take a small underdog to win outright, your payout odds increase astronomically. Let’s use Kentucky (-350) and Wisconsin (-400) and parlay them with Iowa State (+200) over Kansas. Iowa State is a 4-point underdog against the spread, and if they cover, they are likely to win outright. So, a money line bet on small underdogs of 4 points or less isn’t bad at all considering when they cover, they win outright probably close to 90% of the time.
So, in replacing Duke (-550) with Iowa State (+200), the payout jumps dramatically. A $100 money line parlay with Kentucky (-350), Wisconsin (-400) and Iowa State (+200) would pay you roughly $328.00. The great thing about money lines is that they are much fairer odds then the -110 you pay when taking the spread. So, the house doesn’t have nearly as much of an advantage on money lines as they do spreads.
Baseball Money Line Parlays
My favorite money line parlays are in baseball. I hate to lay more than -150 on any baseball game. That limits my options because I almost never back aces on good teams because you usually have to pay more than -150 to back them. Well, if you do a money line parlay on a couple of big favorites, then the odds aren’t so bad. Here is an example.
Parlay Tipster
I am sure that the Dodgers (-200) with Clayton Kershaw are going to beat the Padres tonight. I am also sure that the Tigers (-190) with Justin Verlander on the mound are going to beat the Twins. Well, I am not sure enough to bet each separately while risking $390 to win $200 on both combined.
Instead, I’m going to use the Dodgers (-200) and the Tigers (-190) in a money line parlay. A two-team money line parlay for $200 on these two will return me roughly $258. So, you’re getting more back than you bet, and in all reality there is a very good chance that both of these teams win with their aces on the mound.
Parlay Tips Today
If you bet both the Dodgers (-200) and the Tigers (-190) separately to win $100 each, you would be paying $200 to win $100 on the Dodgers, and $190 to win $100 on the Tigers. If you lose both, you’re out $390 when you could have only lost $200 on the parlay. If you win one and lose one, you lose roughly $100. If you win both, you’d only win $200 compared to the $258 you would have won on the parlay.