How To Bet Parlays

If you’re a Canadian sports bettor you’re likely familiar with parlay bets because you’ve been making them for years on Pro Line. For anyone totally unfamiliar with a parlay here’s how it works.

Say you’ve found three games on the schedule tonight that you think are can’t miss winners. The only problem is that all three of your teams are big favorites, so you’ll be making pennies as profit. Instead of making three cheap straight bets you can make one parlay bet to increase your profits.

A parlay bet is a wager that combines two or more bets together with a bigger payout than straight bets. The only catch is to get paid all of your picks must be winners.

A parlay can include different sports, point spreads, money line and even totals on the same wager. How much you’ll receive on a winning parlay depends of the number of games you wager on and of course your stake.

Let’s look at an example. Say you wagered on these three CFL games as a straight bet and all three turn out to be winners.

Calgary -3 (+100)
Edmonton -6 (-105)
Montreal -10 (-105)

If you bet $5 per game your total winnings on all three bets would be $14.52. Not very much profit huh? Let’s look at the same three bets done as a parlay. You bet $5 on the parlay and you’re actually risking less than a $15 you wagered on all three games as straight bets. All three of your games win and the parlay pays $33.12. That’s more than double the payout you made from your three straight bets.

The profits may be better, but that doesn’t mean you should combine all your wagers into parlays. The reason you’re getting better odds and a better payout is because it’s harder to correctly pick multiple games. That 10-team parlay you’ve put together may payout thousands of dollars, but even if you correctly pick nine of 10 it’s worth nothing.

If you’re a Pro Line junky who’s gets their parlay fix at the local corner store you may want to think about switching to online parlays. Online you can choose to bet the spread or the moneyline, while Pro Line only gives you one line and they also force you to follow their inane tie rules. Leave the frustration of a win in football being by three points or more behind for good and stop getting suckered.