Parlays, explained
What is a parlay?
A parlay is one bet made of two or more bets, called legs. Every leg has to win for the parlay to pay. Get them all and the payout multiplies. Miss one and the whole thing loses.
How a parlay pays
Each leg's odds become a multiplier, and the multipliers stack. A leg at −110 pays 1.91 times your bet, so three of them pay 1.91 × 1.91 × 1.91, about 6.96 times. Put $10 on that and it pays $69.58: $59.58 of profit plus your $10 back.
The parlay calculator does the math for any odds.
Why parlays rarely hit
The payout grows fast because the chances shrink fast. A leg at −110 is close to a coin flip. Two coin flips both land 25% of the time, three 12.5% and five about 3%.
Five legs at −110 pay about 24 to 1. A fair price for something that hits about 3% of the time is about 31 to 1. The difference is the book's cut, charged once on every leg.
What happens when a leg pushes
At most sportsbooks a push drops that leg out and the parlay pays on the legs that are left, so a three-leg parlay becomes a two-leg one. Some books grade it differently, so check your book's rules.
Parlay terms
- Parlay
- Several bets stacked into one. Every leg has to hit, and the payout multiplies with each one. Five coin flips at −110 pay about 24 to 1 and hit about 3% of the time.
- Leg
- One bet inside a parlay.
- Moneyline
- A bet on who wins, no spread involved. Favorites have a minus price: at −200 you bet $200 to win $100. Underdogs have a plus price: at +300 you bet $100 to win $300.
- Spread
- The handicap the book puts on the favorite to make a game a fair bet. Texas −21 means Texas has to win by 22 or more for a Texas bet to cash. Take Mississippi State +21 and you win if they lose by 20 or fewer, or win outright.
- Favorite and underdog
- The favorite is the team the book expects to win, and it carries the minus sign (−7). The underdog carries the plus sign (+7).
- Cover
- Beat the spread. A favorite covers by winning by more than the spread. An underdog covers by losing by less than the spread, or by winning.
- Total (over/under)
- The book's number for the two teams' combined points. Bet the over if you think they'll score more, the under if you think they'll score less.
- Push
- The game lands exactly on the number, say a 21-point win with a 21-point spread. Nobody wins and you get your money back.
- −110, the juice and the vig
- −110 is the standard price on spreads and totals: you bet $110 to win $100. The extra $10 is the book's cut, called the juice or the vig. It's why you need to win about 52.4% of your bets just to break even.
- Implied odds
- The win chance a price works out to. −110 is about 52.4%, +300 is 25% and −200 is about 66.7%. Add up both sides of a game and you get more than 100%. The extra is the book's cut.
Ready to build one? The college football parlay builder has this week's games with the lines filled in.