NFL Parlay Explained

Almost every sportsbook offers NFL parlay betting which provides big returns with low risks. We just need to choose more than one winner.

Justin Herbert and the Chargers take on the Broncos © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Click the links to jump to each section.

• NFL parlay bets in 30 seconds

• What is an NFL parlay bet?

• NFL parlay explained

• How to place an NFL parlay bet

• What do NFL parlay minus and plus odds mean?

• Why bet the NFL parlays vs single bets?

• NFL parlay FAQs

• Learn more about NFL betting

The simplest of parlays involves just two teams.

In one game week, the Denver Broncos hosted the LA Chargers and the Houston Texans played the New York Jets . Denver and the Jets were both underdogs, both were given a +3 on the spread and both were priced at -110 with that spread.

If we bet a traditional single bet with the 3 points start of $10 on each of the two games and both won, we would have staked $20 in total and the total profit would be $9.09 from each bet or $18.18 in total. We would, of course have our $20 total stake returned.

However, if one of these single bets lost, we would make $9.09 profit from the winning bet plus our $10 stake, but would lose the $10 stake on the unsuccessful wager. Overall, we would be down just under a dollar.

A parlay is a different way to wager on these two against the spread bets, but crucially with different risks and rewards.

If we wager the full $20 on a two-team parlay involving Denver (+3) and the Jets (+3) we would yield $52.89 of profit and stakes returned, if as happened, both Denver and the Jets were successful. Both won outright.

However, the downside is quickly evident as should one leg fail to win, the whole bet and the $20 stake is lost.

The attraction of parlays is apparent: returns can be large, a 6-team parlay, each priced at -110 wins $474.13 of profit on a $10 stake and such wins receive lots of publicity and live long in the memory.

They are a lottery style bet where the bettor can exercise a degree of skill and expertise, rather than relying entirely upon the randomness of how the lottery balls are chosen.

It also doesn’t require a large stake to potentially return a big win.

However, as you would expect, there are downsides and sportsbooks would not offer such wagers if they were not profitable for them in the long run.

There is little room for error - selecting two winners appears achievable, but those hoping for large returns must be flawless over a greater number of selections.

There is also the sportsbooks’ juice to consider. A true even money chance will likely be priced at -110 or an implied probability of 52.4% and although the winning odds are combined to calculate the returns, so is the bookmaker’s advantage, if the price is well made.

It is difficult to find six winners, but the chances of those also being at value prices to try to make a sustainable profit, are negligible.

Many bettors will have mastered turning American betting odds into implied probabilities and being able to accurately estimate the risk and reward associated with a single leg wager.

Parlays quickly become difficult to visualize as the number of legs increases and odds deviate from the more usual -110, which is where the OnlineBetting.com bet calculator becomes an essential tool.

We’ve already seen that a $10 winning 6-team parlay, each priced at -110 returns $474.13, but it may surprise that the same bet with each leg priced at +110 nearly doubles the potential profit to $847.66.

More typically a bet may involve straight up wagers, where a side merely needs to win the contest and a reliable bet calculator easily copes when combining prices such as -263 ( Green Bay Packers to beat Pittsburgh Steelers ), -149 ( Chicago Bears to beat Detroit Lions ) and +123 ( Indianapolis Colts to beat Miami Dolphins ). The returned profit would be $41.42 on a $10 stake.

The attraction of parlays over single bets is plain to see - large wins are possible without over stretching stakes or betting outside of your comfort zone and negating any pleasure a casual bettor might have.

It spreads the interest over a full NFL weekend and although a loser kills a parlay, it can be enjoyable to ride a wave of winners and potentially hedge your bets by backing the other side of the final leg of a bet to ensure a reduced but guaranteed return.

A few sportsbooks now allow same game parlay, albeit at reduced odds.

Last season you could bet Travis Kelce to score at any time (+100) and KC to beat the Chargers at -213 in a same game parlay. But the return for this correlated bet to $100 would be just $163 rather than the full combined odds return of $193.90

Parlays, especially with large numbers of legs are unlikely to appeal to a bettor seeking to make a long-term profit. The lines set by the sportsbooks are very efficient and finding one, never mind six or seven wagers that are available at a value price is unlikely.

And the compounding effect of the ever-present sportsbook’s juice charged on each individual bet is all but impossible to overcome and parlays should be viewed as an entertaining accompaniment to the weekend’s big games, not an income source.

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