How Parlays Work: odds, payouts and why they're hard to hit

The odds multiply

Each leg's odds are converted to decimal odds and multiplied together. A −110 leg is about 1.91 in decimal, so two of them multiply to about 3.64, which is +264 in American odds. A $10 bet on that 2-leg parlay returns about $36.45 if both legs win: your $10 back plus about $26.45 in profit.

Add a third −110 leg and the decimal odds become about 6.96, or +596. Each leg you add multiplies the payout, but it also multiplies the chance that something goes wrong.

Why parlays are hard to hit

The price also tells you the probability the book is charging for. +264 implies about 27.4%, so a 2-leg parlay at that price needs to cash a bit more than 1 time in 4 just to break even. A 5-leg parlay at −110 per leg is about +2,436, which implies about 3.9%: roughly 1 time in 25.

Each leg carries the book's margin, so the margin compounds as you add legs. That is why a long parlay can pay a lot and still be a poor price.

Pushes and voided legs

If a leg lands exactly on the line (a push) or is voided, for example because a player didn't play, most books drop that leg and recalculate the parlay with the legs that remain. A 3-leg ticket with one push becomes a 2-leg ticket at a lower price. If every leg pushes or is voided, you get your stake back. Always check your book's house rules: some treat these cases differently.

Same game parlays

Legs from the same game are often related: if a quarterback throws for a lot of yards, the game total is more likely to go over. Books account for that, so a same game parlay usually pays less than multiplying the legs would suggest.

Track it leg by leg

Once you've placed a parlay, BetTracker HQ shows which legs are winning or in danger, and recalculates nothing on your behalf: your book's ticket is the official result.

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