What is a Parlay?

A parlay is a bet made up of a combination of two or more game selections. A parlay bet wins only if all of the selections are winners. If one of the selections loses, then the whole wager is lost.

To illustrate, let us suppose that the following imaginary games are taking place, and we have selected the picks shown in the table

This is a 5-play parlay. If all the predictions of the parlay turn out to be correct, then the amount you are paid for each dollar of bet is obtained, in the most logical case, by multiplying the individual odds. Thus, for this particular example, each dollar you wager brings you $40.22. (3.25 * 1.50 * 1.91 * 2.40 * 1.80 = 40.22). Note that the equivalent US and fractional odds are also listed for those who may not be comfortable with decimals.

It would be more convenient to refer to the product of the individual odds as the 'parlay-odds', so that the payout can be easily be determined by multiplying the parlay-odds by the stake. Thus,

Payout = stake * parlay-odds

In the above example, if you wager $25, then the payout would be 25 * 40.22 = $1,005.50

Important Parlay Features

Parlays are offered in different forms at different sportsbooks. For instance, some sportsbooks do not allow cross-sport parlays, others make you fill out ready-made parlays, many offer fixed-odds parlays (odds are fixed, therefore, payouts are fixed too based on the number of selections in the parlay). The example parlay we used above constitutes a nearly ideal type because of the following reasons:

1. the bettor forms his/her own parlay slip,
2. cross-sports betting is allowed (it has soccer, tennis, basketball, and football),
3. not all the odds are evens, which indicates that bettor can pick any event offered by the  sportsbook to be included in the parlay,
4. payouts (and winnings) are calculated by multiplying the individual odds,
5. last but not least, bettor is allowed to buy and sell points.

Indeed, these features may not be self-evident unless we see what types of parlays are offered by various sportsbooks. And that is exactly what we will see in the section dealing with parlay types.

There is also one more very important feature that is offered only by very few sportsbooks. This feature is the option of betting on any 2, 3, or 4 of a 5-play parlay, for example. That is, instead of, or in addition to, betting on all selections to be correct, you can bet on, say, any three to be correct. In fact, this is the same as forming all the possible 3-play parlays of the five selections - there are ten of them. So, a $1 wager on any-three-bet will cost you $10. If all five selections are correct, you'll receive payments from all ten of the any-three-bets. To learn more see the page on Sub-Parlays.