A parlay takes two or more bets and puts them on one ticket. You get one payout, much bigger than any single leg would pay, and you only get it if every leg wins.
That is the whole trade: a bigger number for a smaller chance. The rest of this guide is about how big the number gets, how fast the chance shrinks, and the rules that decide what happens when a game ends in a tie or never gets played.
How a parlay works
Each bet inside a parlay is a leg. A leg can be a moneyline, a point spread, a total or a prop, and the legs can come from different games and different sports. One losing leg loses the whole ticket, even if every other pick came in.
So a two-team parlay on the Chiefs to cover and the Lakers to win is really one bet with one question: did both things happen? If either answer is no, the ticket is done.
How the payout is calculated
Convert each leg's odds to decimal, multiply them together, and multiply the result by your stake. That gives your total return, stake included. A standard spread or total at -110 is 1.909 in decimal, so two of them make 1.909 x 1.909 = 3.64, and a $10 ticket returns $36.45.
| Legs | Decimal odds | Total return | Profit | American odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3.64 | $36.45 | $26.45 | +264 |
| 3 | 6.96 | $69.58 | $59.58 | +596 |
| 4 | 13.28 | $132.83 | $122.83 | +1228 |
| 5 | 25.36 | $253.59 | $243.59 | +2436 |
Not every book pays the multiplied price. Some pay a fixed table for -110 spreads and totals instead: one published table pays +260 for two teams, +600 for three and +1000 for four, against +264, +596 and +1228 above. Check the payout on the bet slip before you place it, not the one you worked out in your head.
Why parlays are hard to hit
The chance of a parlay winning is the chance of each leg winning, multiplied together. Take legs that are true coin flips: two of them hit 25% of the time, three hit 12.5%, and five hit 3.1%, about once every 32 tries.
Now compare that with what the ticket pays. If five coin flips have to land, a fair price would be 31-to-1. The -110 parlay above pays about 24-to-1. That gap is the book's margin, and it grows with every leg, because each leg carries its own cut and the cuts multiply.
- Expected loss, one -110 bet
- 4.5%
- Expected loss, 3-leg parlay
- 13.0%
- Expected loss, 5-leg parlay
- 20.8%
of the stake, on a true 50/50 pick
same legs, all -110
fair price 31-to-1, paid about 24-to-1
None of this makes parlays a mistake. It makes them a different product: a small stake for a long shot, which is how most people use them. The trouble starts when a parlay is treated like a regular bet with a bigger payout, because the odds of cashing fall off a cliff after three or four legs.
Parlaying favorites
Stringing favorites together feels like the safe way to parlay, and the price shows why it is not. Two -300 favorites each imply a 75% chance. Parlayed, they pay 1.78 in decimal, about -129, and both have to win: 75% times 75% is 56%.
Add a third -300 favorite and the ticket pays 2.37, or +137, but all three now win together only 42% of the time. Each favorite is likely on its own. Three of them at once is closer to a coin flip than it looks, and one upset ends the ticket.
When a leg pushes or is canceled
A leg that ties (a push) or is voided, for example because the game is postponed, does not usually sink the ticket. Most books drop that leg and grade the parlay as if it had one leg fewer, and the payout shrinks to match. A three-team parlay with one push pays like a two-team parlay, and a two-team parlay with one void becomes a straight bet on the other leg. House rules differ from book to book, and teasers and same-game parlays have rules of their own, so read them before you bet.
Same-game parlays
A same-game parlay builds every leg from one game: a team to win, a quarterback over his passing yards, a total over. The legs are often connected, since a team that wins big probably scored a lot, so books limit some combinations and price the rest themselves instead of multiplying the separate odds. The price you see on a same-game parlay is the book's number for that combination.
Teasers and round robins
- Teaser: a parlay of spreads or totals where every line moves the same number of points in your favor. Six points is the usual football teaser, so a team at -7 becomes -1. Every leg is easier to win, so the payout is much smaller than a regular parlay.
- Round robin: you pick three or more legs and the book builds every smaller parlay from them. Three picks make three two-team parlays; four picks combined by twos, threes and fours make 11 bets. One loss no longer kills everything, but each smaller parlay is its own stake, so the total cost goes up.
If you are new to the prices themselves, start with how to read betting odds and how the moneyline works. And set a limit for the day before you place anything: the responsible gaming page lists the tools, and the National Problem Gambling Helpline is free and open 24/7 by call or text at 1-800-MY-RESET (ncpgambling.org).