Parlays, Multiple Bets & Accumulators

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3-leg parlay example

In the first round of the FIFA World Cup, you think Chile, South Korea, and the USA will win their games, and you are willing to put 300 m฿ on them at these odds.

Selection	Odds
Chile	1.74
South Korea	2.30
USA	3.10

Combined, your bet would be at odds of: 1.74 X 2.30 X 3.10 = 12.40

For a stake of 300 m฿, you are hoping for a return of 300 m฿ * 12.40 = 3720 m฿

To understand the payout better, imagine they are 3 separate bets starting with 300 m฿. After each bet wins, the full payout is put on the next bet, like this:

➡️ The first bet is on Chile, if it wins: 300 m฿ * 1.74 = 522 m฿.

➡️ The second bet in the parlay is South Korea. If it wins: 522 m฿ * 2.30 = 1206 m฿

➡️ The third leg of the parlay is Team USA. If it wins: 1206 m฿ * 3.10 = 3720 m฿

They all won, so it doesn’t matter which order you look at them in. If you had made 3 separate bets each, with a stake of 100 m฿ and they all won, you would have only won 714 m฿ for the same total risk of 300 m฿.

That is the appeal of the parlay.

Scenario	Parlay (One 300 m฿ Bet)	Individual (Three 100 m฿ Bets)
All 3 Win	3,720 m฿	714 m฿
2 Wins / 1 Loss	0 m฿	~404 m฿ to 540 m฿*
1 Win / 2 Loses	0 m฿	174 m฿ to 310 m฿*
1 Win / 2 Losses	2 Wins / 1 Loses	0 m฿

*Range depends on which specific teams win/lose.

Larger complex variations

A popular option is to combine 8 games into an 8-leg parlay. You could increase your chances for a return by including all 5 leg combinations possible for your 8 selections, so that you only need 5 out of 8 legs to win for you to see a profit. That would be 56 different five-fold parlays.

You won’t have to do this manually; the sportsbook will have various parlay options available at the click of a few buttons. If 5 out of 8 teams win, the amount of your return will depend on what the odds were on those 5 teams.

You could take a Goliath, which is a parlay consisting of 247 bets involving 8 selections in different events. The parlay breakdown is 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds, and one 8-fold. If any 2 teams win, you will see some return, though it may be less than your total stake.

Should you make parlays or single bets?

Sportsbooks love to encourage bettors to take parlays because they multiply the odds. The odds include the sportsbook’s overround, so multiplying the odds multiplies the overround, which is bad news for the bettors. In fact, unless you only include positive expected value bets, the more legs you have in a parlay, the worse value you are getting.

Parlays are great fun, but serious bettors looking to make long-term profits are better off betting on individual games with a customized staking plan. If you do want to make parlays, consider including smaller combinations within the parlay. This means that one loss won’t derail the whole bet.

Betcoin and Nitrobetting are the best sportsbooks to make parlays at because they are so easy to set up and adjust in the bet slip. They are also top-shelf operators all around, so if you want to try parlays, you would do well to open an account with them.