A parlay is a bet that combines two or more individual selections into a single wager. To win, you must win every leg of the parlay. Miss even one leg and you lose the entire bet.
The tradeoff: winning all legs pays out at a multiplied rate — significantly higher than any single bet would pay.
How Parlays Are Priced
Each leg's odds are multiplied together (using decimal odds) to create the parlay price.
Two-team parlay (both at -110):
- -110 = 1.909 in decimal
- 1.909 × 1.909 = 3.64 decimal = +264 American
A fair 2-team parlay would pay +264. Most books pay +260, taking a small additional margin on the parlay structure.
Three-team parlay (all -110):
- 1.909³ = 6.96 decimal = +596 American
The Math Problem with Recreational Parlays
The book's margin compounds across every parlay leg. A 5-team parlay with all -110 legs has significantly worse expected value than five individual -110 bets. The payout is bigger, but the probability of winning all five drops and the book's margin multiplies.
When Parlays Can Make Sense
If every leg of a parlay has genuine positive expected value — you're getting paid better than fair odds on each leg — then combining them in a parlay preserves the positive expectation. The key: all legs need to be +EV individually.
Betting positive EV legs in a parlay doesn't hurt your edge. Betting negative EV legs (which most recreational parlay legs are) in a parlay amplifies the damage.
[Grade each leg of your parlays before placing them with Oddible →]
