A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers for a high payout. A 2 team parlay might pay 13/5, a three team parlay might pay 6/1, a four team parlay might pay 10/1, and so forth with the payouts getting higher with more teams or totals selected. For a single bet, 2 to 8 teams or totals can be selected. Betting parlays is easy with online and sports betting apps and self-service betting kiosks at Michigan retail sportsbooks. For the most part, you tap the screen on the sport you’re interested in betting on, browse through the betting markets, and tap on the bets you want to make a part of your parlay.

Parlays, or accumulators, are big business for sportsbooks, with an occasional bettor defying the odds and landing themselves with substantial cash prizes.

Accumulator, or parlay bets, consist of wagers that are made up of several selections across different sporting events. For your bet to win and the parlay to land, all legs must be the winners.

The advantage of parlay betting is that you can score a big prize off small stakes, which makes this type of betting that much more appealing. Here is the list of the largest parlay wins ever and the lucky winners who scored them:

1. Won US$250,000 (US$8,500 on 29/1 Odds)

Las Vegas is the gambling centre of America and has seen some huge wins over the years. One unnamed MGM bettor staked a massive US$8,500 parlay bet on five NFL teams, during the 2017 season.

He first selected his four favourites – New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Ravens – and then predicted Detroit Lions beating New York Giants in the end. When all five parlay legs came up, the man increased his US$8,500 to a massive US$250,000, which he can thank his confidence and his football skill predictions.

2. Won US$305,000 (US$5 on 61,000/1 Odds)

One anonymous resident of Las Vegas bet on 15 basketball selections in March of 2016, resulting in one of the biggest wins ever in the history of basketball betting. What made this win even more impressive was that, apart from two selections, none of the others were NBA picks.

In fact, most of the US$5 progressive parlay wager consisted of NCCA college basketball teams. In the end, all 15 legs came in, resulting in a more than impressive US$305,375 win being scooped up.

3. Won £500,000 (30p on 1,666,667/1 Odds)

Most parlay bettors stick to one sport, but an unnamed punter from Lichfield in the West Midlands decided to include a bouquet of sporting selections in 2000. In the end, he betted 16 events on the same 30p slip.

Ultimately, the lucky bettor predicted the winners of English football’s top five leagues, the bottom three leagues in Scotland, the rugby union premiership winner, as well as the victor of the cricket Country Championship.

4. Won £574,287 (£1 on 573,286/1 Odds)

A housewife from the UK, fed up with her son and husband’s obsession with soccer, decided to bet £1 on 12 teams winning in the English Football League 2017 season. And, her predictions came full circle when all 12 results came off, winning her a massive £574,287.

5. Won £823,000 (£19 on 181,015/1 Odds)

The Punchestown Festival is the closing act of the Irish horse jumping season, with some of Ireland’s top racehorses on show. One brave bettor put parlays on the Friday of the 2017 meeting, which was the Punchestown Festival hurdle day.

The finish line saw Canardier (33/1), Bacardys (10/1), Definite Rugby (7/1), Woodland Opera (9/2) and Das Mooser (10/1) coming in, forcing the Coral bookmakers to fork out the largest sum ever on horseracing in their history. The £4 fivefold and the five £3 fourfolds increased the £19 to just under £823,000. Talk about a bookie pummelling!

6. Won £1 million (50p on 2 million/1 Odds)

In 2008, a fertilizer salesman, Fred Craggs, scored an incredible eightfold at the horseraces. The Yorkshire local placed a 50p parlay bet at his local William Hill betting outlet, in the town of Thirsk.

The bet was struck at a colossal odds of 2 million/1. In the end, all eight of Craggs’s preferred runners came in. However, the lucky punter didn’t know that his parlay had come off until he revisited the betting shop branch. Ultimately, the £1 million prize came in as a perfect 60^th birthday gift and one that Craggs will remember forever.

7. Won £1,4 million (£2 on 725,335/1 Odds)

The biggest parlay bet winner reported to date has been Steve Whiteley, an engineer from North Tawton in Devon. Whiteley’s £2 winning combination contained six selections: Lupita (12/1), Lundy Sky (5/1), Mr Bennett (16/1), Ammunition (16/1), Black Phantom (12/1) and Semi Colon (2/1). The resultant prize amounted to an incredible £1,450,671.71, the largest in the history of Tote Jackpot.

While parlay bets might not be as targeted as single-bet wagers, they offer a great winning potential. The ability to spreads your bet over several races allows for some pretty sizeable prizes resulting from small stakes. Why not give parlay betting a shot and see where your luck takes you.

A parlay takes multiple wagers and combines them into a single ticket. For a parlay to pay off, all bets on the ticket must win. If even one pick on a parlay loses, the entire ticket is a loser.

Parlays present a higher risk for bettors, but can also pay off at dramatically higher odds versus single bets. The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator functions as a tool that allows you to see the parlay odds and implied win probability for any combination of bets.

Parlay Calculator

Enter the bet amount and the American Odd for each game in the parlay and your bet amount. If you are not using American odds, enter your decimal odds or fractional odds into this odds calculator.

What Is A Parlay Bet?

Legal sportsbooks allow bettors to put together just about any combination of available bets and play them as a parlay. Any ticket that combines two or more bets into a single ticket qualifies as a parlay wager.

The odds on a parlay bet are calculated as moneyline odds, and most US-facing legal sports use the American odds notation to display moneyline odds. American odds are denoted by a “+” or “-“ in front of the odds number. For example, lines like -110 and +150 use the American Odds notation.

Calculating Payouts From Positive Moneyline Odds

To calculate “+” American odds, take the odds number and divide by 100, then multiply that by the size of the bet.

A $50 bet at +150 odds, for instance, is calculated as 150/100 (which yields 1.5), multiplied by $50 (1.5*$50=$75). A winning $50 bet at +150 odds would return $125 total to the bettor ($75 profit plus the original $50 bet.)

Calculating Payouts From Negative Moneyline Odds

To calculate “-“ odds, divide 100 by the odds number, then multiply by the amount of the wager.

A $50 bet at -110 odds would be calculated as 100/110 (without the “-“ for the 110 odds), which yields 0.909. You then multiply that by the size of the bet (0.909*$50=$45.45). A $50 winning bet at -110 odds would return $95.95 to the bettor ($45.45 profit plus the original $50 bet).

Decimal Odds

American odds aren’t the only notation sportsbooks use to display moneyline odds. Decimal odds represent another common way to display moneyline odds. Odds notations like 1.20 and 10.00 are moneyline bets represented with decimal odds.

To convert “+” American odds into decimal odds, take the odds number and divide by 100, then add 1. Converting +150 to decimal odds is executed as (150/100)+1. That reduces to 1.5+1, which equals 2.5. So 2.5 decimal odds are equivalent to +150 American odds.

Converting “-“ odds to decimal odds requires dividing 100 by the odds and subtracting that quotient from 1. The -110 are converted as 1-(100/-110), which reduces to 1-(-0.909) and solves as 1.909. So -110 American odds convert to 1.909 decimal odds.

To calculate the return on a bet using decimal odds, multiply the wager by the odds. For example, a $50 bet at 1.909 decimal odds returns $95.45 to the bettor. To calculate profit, subtract the amount of the wager from this product ($95.45-$50=$45.45).

Favorites Versus Underdogs

The favorite in a game is the team with the higher implied probability of winning. Favorites are denoted by “-“ odds when using American odds. Favorites win more often overall, but pay out less on a win compared to underdogs.

Underdogs are the team with the lower implied probability of winning and are denoted with “+” odds. When making a parlay bet, combining multiple underdogs can produce potentially huge payouts, but the implied winning probability of such a ticket is low.

Implied Probability

The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator allows you to take any number of moneyline bets, input them into the calculator, and see both the payout odds and implied probability of winning. Implied probability can be derived from any moneyline number.

Implied probability for “+” odds is calculated as 100/(“+” American odds + 100)*100. So for instance, the implied probability of +150 moneyline odds is calculated as 100/(150+100)*100. That reduces down to 40, so a bet with +150 odds has a 40% implied probability of winning.

For “-“ odds, the implied probability is calculated as “-” odds / (“-” odds + 100)*100. Putting -110 odds into that equations yields 110/(110+100)*100, which solves to 52.38. So a -110 American odds bet translates to a 52.38% implied probability of winning.

Looking for other calculators to use when sports betting? Check out:

Finding Value In A Parlay Bet

The implied probability of any bet, including parlays, can be used by astute bettors to find value in a sports wager. Finding value means making bets on teams that have a better chance of winning on the field versus what the implied probability indicates.

When trying to find value in a parlay bet, you must evaluate whether all of the bets on the tickets have a better chance of winning than the implied probability of the entire ticket. Keep in mind, however, that all of the bets on a ticket have to win for the parlay to win.

What Is A Parlay Calculator?

The Parlay Calculator will help you determine the expected payout for a given moneyline parlay bet. Parlay bets are a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and are dependent on all of those bets winning.

Parlays have higher payoffs than placing each individual wager since the difficulty of winning it is much higher. If any of the bets in the parlay lose, the entire parlay loses. Any plays in that “pushes” or ties, then the parlay eliminates that bet from the parlay and is recalculated based on fewer bets in the parlay.

How The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator Works

The math calculating a parlay gets more difficult with each new bet, but if you understand how moneyline calculations work, it becomes just a matter of a couple of extra steps. Let’s take a set example.

Bet 1: -110

Bet 2: -150

Bet 3: +100

To calculate the payout we need to evaluate each set of odds into decimal odds, multiply the result, and subtract a factor of 1. Remember from the moneyline calculator article, that negative odds and positive odds need to be evaluated differently. Here is what that looks like:

Bet 1: (-1*-110+100)/-1*-110 = 1.909

Bet 2: (-1*-150+100)/-1*-150 = 1.666

Bet 3 (100+100)/100 = 2

Next, we multiply the three results and subtract 1 from the total, and multiply by the Bet Amount:

(Bet 1 * Bet 2 * Bet 3 -1) * Bet Amount = Parlay Payout

Which looks like:

(1.909 * 1.666 * 2 -1) * $100 = $536.08

Not a bad result, but don’t be fooled: the multiplication here is also consistently multiplying the risk. The implied probability of the above occurring is 13.59%. Those odds would look like a +536 longshot bet. Now let’s look at the event where Bet 2 is a push:

Bet 1: (-1*-110+100)/-1*-110 = 1.909

Bet 2: (-1*-150+100)/-1*-150 = 1.666

Bet 3 (100+100)/100 = 2

(1.909 * 2 -1) * $100 = $281.80

In the above case, the push is removed entirely from the outcome and the odds adjust accordingly. Below is a basic parlay chart for -110 odds for each bet:

This graph shows the profit as the number of bets in a parlay increase, based on a total $100 bet.

What Is Line Movement?

Sportsbooks set the lines on each game to produce enough bets on both sides of the line to allow the house to make money. If 100% of bets come in on the favorite of a given game, for example, the sportsbook loses massively if the favorite wins.

To balance that out, the sportsbook sets lines that encourage plenty of bets for both the favorite and the underdog. If too much money starts to come in on one side of a bet, the sportsbook will adjust the line in hopes of prompting more bets on the other side.

Note that the house sets betting lines in a way that allows the sportsbook to take vig, aka house cut. For example, totals bets often set the line at -110 on both sides, though a true even money bet would set the odds at +100 for both the under and the over.

The Legal Online Sports Betting Industry In The US

A change in federal laws in 2018 prompted the current boom period of the US sports betting industry. Many states offer both retail and online sports wagering legally.

In states with both physical and mobile sportsbooks, online wagering produces the majority of overall bets. DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, and PointsBet have emerged as three of the top online sports betting platforms in the US market.

3 Best Online Sportsbooks In The US

DraftKings Sportsbook

Online Parlay Betting Sites

DraftKings Sportsbook offers a selection of sports that yields almost infinite ways to put a parlay ticket together. DraftKings Sportsbook operates in Michigan, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator can be used as a valuable tool to evaluate the best ways to assemble a parlay ticket from the vast selection of wagers at DraftKings Sportsbook.

FanDuel Sportsbook

FanDuel Sportsbook represents another major player in the legal US online sports betting market. Much like its competitors on this list, FanDuel Sportsbook allows bettors to combine several different kinds of bets on a parlay.

Using the Parlay Calculator, you can compare the parlay odds at FanDuel Sportsbook to what the same ticket would pay out at DraftKings or PointsBet. Bettors in Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Tennessee, and West Virginia can access FanDuel Sportsbook’s mobile platform.

PointsBet

Operating in Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, PointsBet presents one of the most unique platforms in the legal US online sports betting industry.

PointsBet offers many different ways to put together parlays, including the Single Game Parlay. The Single Game Parlay allows you to combine moneyline, totals, and point spread bets from a single game into a parlay ticket.

Claim up to $2,000 in bonus offers at PointsBet – Use code BIGBONUS

Gaming Today Parlay Calculator FAQ

Yes. The overturn of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018 cleared the way for states to decide their own individual sports betting laws.

States that choose to legalize sports betting can opt to allow retail and/or online sports betting. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Colorado host some of the biggest legal online sports betting markets in the US.

Always. The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator presents a critical tool that should always be used to evaluate the overall payout odds and implied winning probability of a parlay.

How To Bet Parlay

Parlay tickets involve complicated odds calculations and potentially massive payouts. With that kind of money on the line, bettors would do well to crunch the numbers of any parlay bet through the Parlay Calculator.

Yes. The Gaming Today Parlay Calculator is a legal tool, and you can rest assured that sharp bettors across the country are using it to evaluate any parlay they might be thinking about making.

Online Sports Betting Parlay

Each sportsbook has a team of bookmakers, aka oddsmakers, that evaluate where the sportsbook should set the lines on each game. To make money, sportsbooks must choose lines that bring in an appropriate amount of money on each side of the bet.

The public can affect the movement of a line. After the bookmakers set a line, the line will move if too much money starts coming in on one side of the bet.

Favorites are the team or athlete which the sportsbook presents as having the higher implied probability of winning a game or match. Favorites are denoted with “-” odds when using American odds notation and pay out at less favorable odds compared to underdogs.

Underdogs have a lower implied probability of winning and are denoted with “+” American odds notation. Underdogs win less often than favorites, but the payouts are better.

DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, and PointsBet represent three of the top-tier online sportsbooks in the US. All three of these platforms offer a comprehensive menu of domestic and international sports.

Online Betting Parlay

The huge selection at each of these sportsbooks yields almost infinite ways to combine bets into a parlay ticket.