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Sportsbetting - Parlay Bets

Also called combo bets, (combos are primarily for soccer teams) parlays are essentially a combination of multiple sports bets at one time.  Designed to give sports bettors a chance to wager on two or more games at once - while increasing payouts - parlays can be made with fixed odds or with true odds and a moneyline.

There are several guidelines that bettors should know before making a parlay.  First, in order for a parlay to win, all events composing the parlay must be bet on successfully for the parlay to payout.  There are no partial payouts, meaning that if five of six bets win, the entire parlay still loses all wagers.  Not to scare bettors off, parlays can indeed payout very nicely if bettors do their research ahead of time on the events they are interested in betting on.  In general, parlays can be made on events within 90 minutes of the start time. If there are any ties, the event is cancelled and the parlay will payout according to one less bet. Also, if making multiple parlay bets on the same event, there is usually a maximum of four permitted bets.

Many online sports bettors who have never made a parlay bet often wonder what their payouts are going to be if they win.  This is not too difficult to compute, especially if you have a calculator handy.  For fixed odds bets on basketball and football, all events are fixed at standard odds (-110 or 10% juice), which means that a $110 wager will win $100.  The payouts are based on the number of events selected, and will be visibly posted on a chart - at least at the best online sportsbooks.  Typically, the payouts are 2.6/1 for two events, 6/1 for three events, 12/1 for four events, 25/1 for five events, 35/1 for six events, and goes all the way up to 12 events (600 to 1).  If any fixed odds events are made in conjunction with true odds events, the fixed odds will automatically be subject to true odds.

Calculating trued odds payouts is a little more complicated, but is easily determined with a little practice.  All bets are posted with corresponding moneylines, which also have a corresponding calculation table.  Consulting this table, find the appropriate moneyline and take note of the value that directly corresponds to it.  After doing this for all the events of the parlay, multiply them all together with the value of how much you will be wagering.  For instance, let's say your parlay is composed of two events with a -140 moneyline (corresponds to 1.71 on the calculation table) and a third event with a +120 moneyline (corresponds to 2.2 on the calculation table). 

For a $20 bet, the payout would be calculated by this:  $20 x 1.71 x 1.71 x 2.2 = $128.66

As for actually placing the parlay bet, the best online casino sportsbooks make it very simple.  Having an account with a sportsbook, you will be given access to a schedule of events.  Each event can be selected, which is stored in a "My Picks" area quite similar to an online shopping cart.  After choosing all the events, you will have the chance to click on a "Parlay" button, which will then load the events into a single parlay bet displayed on the screen.  After being confirmed, you may set down your wager on the parlay.

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