What is a parlay?
Two or more bets on one ticket. The payout is bigger because every pick has to win — which is far less likely than it feels.
Beginner · 2 min read
The short answer
- Each pick on the ticket is a leg, and one miss loses the whole ticket.
- Adding legs multiplies the payout, but shrinks your chance of winning just as fast.
- The sportsbook's cut applies to every leg, so most parlays lose money over time — the exceptions are legs that are each already priced in your favor.
How a parlay works
A parlay's legs can come from different games and even different sports, and each is settled on its own result — but they pay as one unit, so a single miss loses the whole ticket.
Example
Two bets at -110 each. Each price works out to about a 52% chance on its own. The parlay needs both, so its chance is roughly 0.52 × 0.52 — about 27% — and it pays about +264 instead of -110.
The sportsbook's cut stacks with every leg
Every leg you add multiplies the payout, the chance of losing, and the sportsbook's cut (the vig) along with it. Paying that cut five times over is why a five-leg ticket is a worse price than the same five bets placed one at a time.
Same-game parlays
Legs from one game usually depend on each other (correlation): a quarterback throwing for 300 yards makes his receiver going over more likely. Books know that and charge extra for it, though they don't always judge the strength of the link correctly.
Unrelated legs only compound the cut, so a standard parlay is a poor long-term bet. The exceptions are tickets where every leg is already a better price than it should be, or where the book has underpriced how the legs connect.
Common mistakes
- Adding legs you don't actually believe in just to inflate the return.
- Treating a same-game parlay as a bargain when the book has already charged for how the legs connect.
Common questions
Are parlays a good bet?
Over time, most are not: the sportsbook's cut is charged on every leg and compounds.
What happens if one leg pushes?
A push is a tie — the leg lands exactly on the number. Most books drop that leg and recalculate the parlay at the reduced number of legs.
How many legs can a parlay have?
Most US books cap somewhere between 12 and 25 legs depending on the sport.