Parlay

A parlay is a single bet that combines two or more individual wagers — called legs — into one ticket. Every leg has to win. If any leg loses, the entire parlay loses, no matter how many other legs hit.

Why parlays exist

The math is the appeal. Each leg’s probability multiplies, and the payout multiplies with it. A 3-leg parlay at -110 each leg pays roughly 6:1 — much higher than any single -110 line. Books offer parlays because they’re high-margin: most bettors badly underweight how unlikely a 3+ leg parlay is to actually cash.

How parlay payouts are calculated

Multiply each leg’s decimal odds together, then multiply by your stake.

Three legs at -110 (decimal 1.91 each):

1.91 × 1.91 × 1.91 ≈ 6.97

A $10 parlay pays about $69.65 ($59.65 profit) — but the implied probability of cashing all three is only 1 / 6.97 = 14.3%.

Correlated parlays

Two legs are correlated when one outcome makes the other more likely (e.g., “Team X wins” + “Team X covers the spread”). Sportsbooks typically block these or reprice the parlay, because naive multiplication overstates the payout.

Same-game parlays (SGPs)

An SGP combines props within a single game. The book uses its own correlation model, so the SGP price is rarely the same as multiplying the leg prices yourself. Always trust the book’s quoted SGP price for SGP-specific bets.