Due to the potentially large winnings possible while betting small amounts of money, parlays are amongst the most popular sports bets around. When betting on several teams, where all of them must win in order for you to win the bet is called a Parlay. It does not matter whether you bet on 3 teams or 4, the only thing all parlay bets have in common is that all bets must win or end in a tie, or you lose the bet.

Fixed parlays

For example, let’s assume you placed a bet in a fixed 5 team parlay at 25 -1 odds. This means if you win you receive $25 for every dollar you have wagered, if all the games win. This is also the main reason this particular type of Parlay betting is highly popular among sports bettors.

Variable Parlays

Variable Parlays take the betted amount and put it on one team. Should this team win, the bet is recalculated and placed on the next, and so on, always putting the total amount on the next team until all have played and then your winnings are paid out if all the teams have won. If one team loses you lose all the money wagered.

To illustrate the above, let’s say you like one team that is rated + 100 and another at -120, and decide to place a $10 bet on them in a variable parlay bet. On the first game you would make $26 if you win, that $26 would then go on to team 2 and should you win again it would make a total of $46, compared to $36 you would have made in the case of a fixed parlay bet. This considerable difference is due to the bad odds team two was given which worked in your favor while doing a variable parlay bet.

Parlay bets are not the best sports bets one can make as the odds that are betted on differ from the real odds one would get in other types of sports bets, and as a rule the difference increases the more teams are betted on in parlay betting. In comparison to other types of sports bets, doing parlay bets puts you at a disadvantage. On the up side, parlay betting require much less minimum wagers to enter them which in turn still makes them one of the most popular types of sports bets around.

M.A.H.