10 Leg Parlay

A completely reasonable 10-leg +650 Superbowl prop parlay. Ronald Jones II over 5.5 carries. Cameron Brate over 1.5 receptions. Leonard Fournette over 8.5 carries. Almost all sports in the U.S. Are on hold, and local sports-books are shut down but people are still winning big. William Hill says one bettor hit a 10-leg parlay after placing a $100 wage on ping.

Parlays are the Frankenstein’s monster of sports betting. They are wagers that consist of other bets glued together with one another.

They are also a high-risk, high-reward opportunity for the daredevil sports bettor. If you are a Colorado resident who feels like kicking things up a notch, make sure you read this guide to parlay betting first.

How parlay betting works

The first thing to understand about parlays is that they consist of multiple choices. Where other types of sports bets involve your choice of a single variable, parlays require players to predict outcomes on several different bets.

Each selection in a parlay is known as a leg. These bets can all be the same type of wager, or they can be varied. The exact composition of each parlay is entirely up to the bettor.

Why parlays are so risky (and well-paid)

The escalated source of risk in parlay betting is the fact that a bettor must be completely correct in his or her selections to get paid. Even one mistake causes the entire wager to be lost.

Naturally, as you increase the number of legs involved in a parlay, the chance of an incorrect prediction goes up. So, sportsbooks offer increasing payouts to compensate for the risk.

In fact, parlays with many legs are capable of producing some incredible wins for you. For instance, a successful 20-leg parlay in 2019 allowed a Mississippi bettor to turn a $25 wager into more than $104,000.

Of course, these stories drive more people to give parlay betting a try. However, it’s important to realize that successful parlays make the news because they are so unusual.

In a sense, these outsized payouts are not unlike lottery winnings. A bettor who successfully predicts a string of unlikely events has beaten very long odds, indeed.

Sportsbooks are, of course, more than happy to allow you to take such a risk. Truthfully, if the money you bet on parlays does not affect your lifestyle or living conditions, then they can be a fun diversion for a sports bettor seeking to get the blood pumping.

Parlay betting examples

Building a parlay is exceptionally easy, particularly on an online sportsbook. For mobile app or laptop users, they will usually need only to select the bets they want in their parlay and click a button on their bet slip to set things up.

In the following examples, the wagers we’re using are actual bets offered on DraftKings Sportsbook.

2-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +160
Bet #2: Over 230.5 points @ -113
Overall odds: +321

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The first thing to notice is that neither of these choices have particularly long odds. The moneyline is only an 8/5 underdog, and the chosen over was the favorite.

Still, their combined chances of happening are more than 3 to 1. So, even if things are looking good individually, the odds of both events occurring are much less likely, and you will get paid far less often than if you bet each element individually.

3-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #2: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #3: Moneyline @ -165
Overall odds: +199

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Just to ram home the point about the odds involved, we chose three moneyline favorites to populate our parlay here. To reiterate, each of these choices is expected to win their game.

However, the combined chance that all three bets will win is still almost 2 to 1 against. So, bear in mind that in parlays, there’s no such thing as a safe option.

10-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #2: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #3: Puck Line @ +118
Bet #4: Over 5.5 Goals @ +105
Bet #5: Moneyline @ +180
Bet #6: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #7: Moneyline @ -143
Bet #8: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #9: Over 231 points @ -112
Bet #10: Spread @ -112
Overall odds: +85379

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Here is an example of how outsized both the odds and payouts for a parlay can get. Here we have a collection of 10 wagers that are all going off at odds shorter than 2 to 1. Yet, the combined odds of all 10 events is a staggering 853.79 to 1!

One other thing to note is that, in order to construct this parlay, we had to choose from different games each time. In order for a parlay to be valid, there cannot be bets that are related to one another – for instance, you cannot bet both the moneyline and total for a single game.

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Parlay variants

Along with standard parlays, sportsbooks commonly offer one or more variants of the combination bets. These variants each have their own appeal, so judge for yourself if you want to try them out.

Teasers

One of the most common parlay variants is the teaser. The teaser is the sportsbook’s attempt to lessen some of the risk that comes with parlay betting.

Quite simply, a teaser allows the bettor to tease, or move, the odds of the bets in a parlay in his or her favor. Teasers are only permitted for point spreads and totals – it wouldn’t really make sense to try and apply a teaser to a moneyline.

You must adjust each leg of a teaser by the same number of points. So, if you move one of your selections by five points, all of your selections must move by five.

However, the movement will always be in your favor. So, a bet on a favorite might reduce the spread, but a bet on an underdog would increase it.

Of course, nothing is free in this world, and teasers come with a price. Specifically, a successful teaser will not pay out as much as a parlay with the same selections. The sportsbook charges a premium for the reduced risk.

Still, for a bettor who wants to try parlays but doesn’t like the risk profile, a teaser might be a way to slide into things. The odds will still be long, but maybe not as unacceptably so.

For more information about teasers, click here.

Pleasers

Please be aware that sportsbooks will sometimes offer a parlay variant called a pleaser. While they are less common, they are simply the mirror image of teasers.

So, the odds in a pleaser will actually be worse than a standard parlay. However, the associated payout will be higher to compensate for the increased risk.

If a parlay just isn’t risky enough for you, a pleaser might be exactly what you’re wanting. Keep an eye out for them.

Round Robins

Round robins are a fascinating variant of parlays because of their margin for error. Almost every parlay requires perfection to pay out, but round robins have no such requirement.

Round robins are bets that are combinations of parlays. If parlays were a mathematical concept, round robins would be the next power of exponent to them – the cube to parlays’ square, so to speak.

Since they are composed of multiple parlays, it is possible to win a portion of a round robin even if one (or more) of the parlays fails. The different permutations mean that parts of the round robin might not be affected by the doomed parlay.

If you’re confused, don’t worry.

Example

You have 5 bets (A, B, C, D, and E) you want to make. You could make a single 5-leg parlay that would look like this:

• ABCDE

-or-

You could make a round robin with 10 separate 2-team parlays in it. Here’s how it would look:

• AB
• AC
• AD
• AE
• BC
• BD
• BE
• CD
• CE
• DE

Now…let’s say that you lose bet B.

In the case of the parlay, the entire bet is lost. However, in the case of the round robin, six of the parlays are still alive and well:

• AC
• AD
• AE
• CD
• CE
• DE

So, even though the loss would’ve been disastrous for the straight parlay, it’s not the end of the world on a round robin. If you want to do some parlay betting but want to have some backup options, a round robin might be the way to go.

It takes time and work to turn a small wager into a hefty payday. Though some people (THIS GUY!) have needed only 30 minutes to spin $10 into $650 on a video poker machine.

One recent FanDuel Sportsbookbettor heard that tale and said, “Hold my beer.”

According to a sportsbook spokesman, a New Jerseysports betting customer took $20.13, built a 15-leg parlay and came away with a whopping $178,221.66.

Not a bad Wednesday.

Not intimidated by long odds

Playing through the FanDuel online sportsbook, the lucky bettor faced what, for most everyone else, would be insurmountable odds.

Statistically, this user would have more luck finding a pearl in an oyster than hitting the parlay. Even winning an Oscar carries better odds. (Bet on it.)

Per FanDuel Sportsbook, the true odds of hitting the 15-leg parlay — which included moneyline, point spread and predicting first-half winners in the NBA and NCAA men’s basketball games — stood at roughly 16,500-1.

NBA legs of the parlay

Six legs of the miraculous parlay involved NBA action. Here are the bettor’s picks:

Fortunately, only one game really hung in the balance.

After all, the Milwaukee Bucks led the Washington Wizards 50-35 after the first quarter en route to an 85-65 halftime lead. (The Bucks eventually polished off their highest-scoring game of the season, a 148-129 victory.) Similarly, the Golden State Warriors cruised to a 66-52 lead at the break, and the Utah Jazz went into the half up 56-46.

Even the New Orleans Pelicans’ game, a 125-120 win, was not that close, as the Chicago Bulls poured in some garbage points to narrow the gap. And of course the Houston Rockets laid waste to the Sacramento Kings, outscoring Sacramento 44-17 in the second quarter en route to a 127-101 victory.

The only concern came with the Dallas Mavericks, whose win was never in doubt, really, during the game’s waning moments. Dwight Powell made two free throws with 9.2 seconds left to push Dallas in front by six points. But the Charlotte Hornets had several opportunities to spoil the parlay, though two missed shots and a turnover secured the Mavericks cover.

NCAA legs of the parlay

Like the NBA picks, most of the bettor’s NCAA selections were never in doubt, with six of nine chosen teams winning by double digits.

Las Vegas Parlay Payout

Of the moneyline picks, Maryland handled Nebraska 60-45, and Georgetown dispatched Providence 76-67, both on the road.

Overtime was needed for LSU, which missed two shots within the final 5 seconds of regulation to send the game to an extra period. There, the Tigers got a 3-pointer from Naz Reidwith 11 seconds remaining to seal their 92-88 win over Mississippi State.

10 Leg Parlay

Five of six point spread picks went smoothly for the FanDuel bettor. The second-closest game of the picks was Texas beating Baylor 84-72.

Some sweat certainly poured during Wisconsin-Minnesota, during which the Badgers narrowly covered their 2-point spread. Wisconsin, which never trailed and was only tied twice, led 49-46 with 2:11 to play but pulled away enough to pay out with a 56-51 victory.

As a result, a $20 wager became a cool $178,000.

10 Leg Parlay

One bettor hit this INSANE 15-leg hoops parlay last night😲💰

✅ Bucks 1H
✅ Warriors 1H
✅ Jazz 1H
✅ Pelicans ML
✅ Rockets -3
✅ Mavs -5.5
✅ Maryland ML
✅ Georgetown ML
✅ LSU ML
✅ Temple -3.5
✅ Clemson -3.5
✅ Miami (FL) -3.5
✅ Davidson -4
✅ Wisconsin -2
✅ Texas -3 pic.twitter.com/soNpxZXxrQ

3 Leg Parlay

— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) February 7, 2019