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• What Is A 3 Leg Parlay
• How To Parlay Sports Bets
• 3 Leg Parlay Meaning

A parlay, accumulator (or acca), combo bet or multi is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay is that there are much higher payoffs than placing each individual bet separately, since the difficulty of hitting all of them is much higher. If any of the bets in the parlay lose, the entire parlay loses. If any of the plays in the parlay ties, or 'pushes', the parlay reverts to a lower number of teams with the odds reducing accordingly.

The true odds for this 3 leg parlay are actually 8-1 given that each individual leg is a 50/50 chance of landing. No wonder sportsbooks actively promote the points spread parlay! The only caveat to the poor value of the point spread parlay is if the bettor firmly believes they have found games where the sportsbooks have the handicap wrong. Start a small ($10 or $20) five-leg parlay and make the first four legs Show bets on lower-priced horses. Then close it to a Win bet on the horse you like most. You just might be able to parlay your $10 or $20 base bet into a $50 or $100 Win bet on your horse just by making a series of Show bets.

Odds and payout[edit]

Parlay bets are paid out at odds higher than the typical single game bet, but still below the 'true' odds. For instance, a common 2-team NFL parlay based entirely on the spread generally has a payout of 2.6:1.^{[citation needed]} In reality however, if one assumes that each single game bet is 50/50, the true payout should instead be 3:1 (10% expected value for the house). A house may average 20-30% profit on spread parlays compared to perhaps 4.5% profit on individual sports mix parlay bets.

Start a small ($10 or $20) five-leg parlay and make the first four legs Show bets on lower-priced horses. Then close it to a Win bet on the horse you like most. You just might be able to parlay your $10 or $20 base bet into a $50 or $100 Win bet on your horse just by making a series of Show bets. On a three-team RR two-way parlay, you would have three different two-teamers. Let’s just give an example to show you how a three-team RR two-way bet would work. You like three teams we’ll call the Cowboys -7, Packers -7 and 49ers +4. Let’s say you wanted $100 on each pair. Here’s how your wagers would look: Parlay 1: Cowboys -7 Packers -7.

Aside from 'spread' parlays, another way to parlay is to bet on two or more teams simply winning straight up. In order to calculate the payout of this parlay, one must multiply out the payout for all games. For example, if 3 teams are -385 favorites, a successful parlay on all 3 teams winning would pay out at a ratio of approximately 1/1. This is because (385/485)^3 is approximately 50%.

Examples[edit]

Typical payouts for up to 10 team parlay bet[edit]

The following is an example of a traditional Las Vegas Parlay Card at William Hill Sports Book, which shows the typical payouts for an up to 10 team parlay bet based on -1.10 prices (amount won is assuming $100 is bet)^{[citation needed]}:

Profitability of parlays in sports betting[edit]

Many gamblers have mixed feelings as to whether or not parlays are a wise play. The best way to analyze if they are profitable in the long term is by calculating the expected value. The formula for expected value is: E[X] = x1p1 + x2p2 + x3p3…xkpk . Since the probability of all possible events will add up to 1 this can also be looked at as the weighted average of the event. The table below represents odds.^{[citation needed]}

Column 1 = number of individual bets in the parlay

Column 2 = correct odds of winning with 50% chance of winning each individual bet

Column 3 = odds payout of parlay at the sportsbook

Column 4 = correct odds of winning parlay with 55% chance of winning each individual bet

The table illustrates that if a 55% chance of winning each individual bet were achievable, parlays would be profitable in the long term. Compare the expected value you receive on an individual bet at a typical price of -110 with a 55% chance of winning: ((100/110+1)*.55)-1 = .05 (exactly 5 cents won for every dollar bet on average), multiplied by 11 = .55, to the expected return on the 11 game parlay ((1234/717.8)-1) = .719 (72 cents won for every dollar bet on average). In this case a parlay has a much higher expected value than individual bets with greatly increased variance in outcomes.

See also[edit]

A parlay is a type of wager where multiple outcomes are selected. Each of the outcomes must win in order for the parlay to win. Any point spread tie reduces to the next lowest number of teams in the parlay. The odds for the number of teams placed in a parlay are based on the pay table below when the selections (point spreads and totals for football and basketball, games and segments) have a default line of -110. Listed below is the BetMGM/Borgata Online pay table.

All Football and Basketball Parlays
(Point Spreads and Totals all - 110)

Parlay Odds Selections:

The legs in a Pay Table parlay all must meet the following requirements:

1. Football, basketball (excluding money lines) and their halves or quarters
2. Point spread or totals
3. Default odds that are set at -110.

Maximum payoff on off the board parlays is 10000/1. Acceptance of all parlays is at the discretion of management.

Example 1: The 2-team parlay (See picture below) is a standard parlay paying 2.6 to 1 or 3.6 for 1. Using the Pay Table, $10.00 x 3.6 = $36.00 payout. Pay Table parlays are not calculated using “true odds” (-110 is not .9091 in this case). The Pay Table Multiplier section below explains the way that Pay Table odds are calculated.

What Is A 3 Leg Parlay

Pay Table Multiplier

This is the factor that, when used for each leg of a parlay, gives the Pay Table payout. For a 2-team parlay at default odds, the factor is a square root. For a 3-team parlay, it is a cube root, for a 4-team parlay, it is the 4th root of the payout.

The return on a 2-team Pay Table parlay at 2.6 to 1 is 3.6 for one, as the payout. The square root of 3.6 is 1.8974. This is the Pay Table Multiplier for 2-team parlays.

$10 X 1.89736 X 1.89736 = 36.00.

How To Parlay Sports Bets

Below is the pay table multiplier which is used as the method to calculate pay table parlays when the default odds are -110.The respective Pay Table Multiplier (shown below) by the True Odds Multiplier of the number (other than -110) minus the True Odds Differential (shown below).

Non-Pay Table Parlays

We use the term Non-Pay Table parlay when at least one leg does not meet requirements 1 and/or 2 of the Pay Table parlay default odds section above.

Sports like Boxing, Baseball, and Hockey use Non-Pay Table Odds. Football money line bets also use them. The True Odds Multiplier section below explains the way that Non Pay Table odds are calculated.

3 Leg Parlay Meaning

Example 2: The 2-team parlay below uses the True Odds Multiplier because neither leg meets the Pay Table requirements, so $10 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 (rounded) = $36.45 payout.

Example 3: The 2-team parlay below uses the Pay Table Multiplier for 105 because it meets all other requirements for Pay Table Odds (see Pay Table Parlays above). Note: The root for the Pay Table Multiplier is based on only the number of legs that meet the requirement. It usesthe True Odds Multiplier for 107 (-1/-120 = .8333) because that leg does not meet requirement 2. Although it is a Football game, it is a money line wager.

$10 x 1.9091 x 1.8333 = $35 payout.

Pay Table Non-Default Odds

We use the term Pay Table Non-Default Odds when all legs meet requirements 1 and 2 of a Pay Table parlay: 1) Football, basketball, and their halves or quarters 2) Point spread or totals, but at least one leg does not meet requirement 3 because it hasodds that are not equal to the default odds.

Pay Table Non-Default parlays are not calculated using “true odds” (-120 is not .8333). The True Odds Differential section below explains the way that Pay Table Non-Default odds are calculated.

Example 4: The 2-team parlay below uses the Pay Table Multiplierfor default odds for 302 (which meets all the requirements of a Pay Table parlay like Example 1 above). However, the other leg (304 Saints) has non-default odds -120, so a factor called the True Odds Differential is used to adjust the True Odds Multiplier of the -120 to derive the new Pay Table Multiplier for non-default odds -120.

$10 x 1.8974 x 1.8216 = $34.56 (rounded to nearest nickel $34.55)

True Odds Differential

The only time that the True Odds Differential is used is when a leg contains a Pay Table sport that has non-default odds for point spread or totals (Example 4 above has -3-120 instead of -3 -110).

Calculating the True Odds Differential for a Non-Default Odds leg when default odds = -110

(True Odds Multiplier of -110) - (Pay Table Multiplier of -110) = True Odds Differential

1.9091 - 1.8974 = .0117

Calculation to find the Pay Table Multiplier for Non-Default odds -120 in Example 4

True Odds Multiplier of -120 = 1.8333 – True Odds Differential = . 0117

Pay Table Multiplier of -120 = 1.8216

The only exception for not using the true odds differential is when the pay table multiplier exceeds that of true odds (-110 or .9091).

Calculations to find the True Odds Multiplier

When the Leg is a Favorite

When laying odds (money line is less than 0): (-1) x (100)/ (money line) +1.

Example: True Odds Multiplier for Money line: -110: (-1) x ((100)/ (-110)) +1 = 1.9091

When the Leg is an Underdog

When taking odds (money line is greater than 0): (money line)/ (100) +1 Example:

True Odds Multiplier for Money line: +130 = ((+130) /(100)) +1 = 2.3