Is it better to put a straight or a parlay in sports betting? Well Parlays are big bets if you win, but the bad thing about parlays is that you don’t often win. Like the lottery, parlays are high-risk, high-return bets. You can choose whether or not you want to hit the Powerball jackpot (a 10-leg parlay) or going for the less risky scratch of the ticket (2-leg parlay). You can see why sports gamblers are attracted to the thrill of the game. But should you bet on parlays? And if you do, are there strategies that work best for negotiation? I’ll cover all of this with you, but let’s start by making sure you know what Parlay is.
Is it Better to Put a Straight or a Parlay in Sports Betting? – What is a parlay?
Parlay is a bet where you roll multiple bets into one when the game starts, All of the individual bets must win to be paid for the bet, so your payout is larger than if you won the bets individually (we’ll cover how much more later).
For example, you can bet Sunday morning on the NFL that the Chicago Bears will win, the Indianapolis Colts will win, and the Patriots-Packers game will be over 48 points. If you win all these bets, you get paid big. If you lose any of the bets, you lose your money.
The difference between parlay vs straight bet is that you can still bet on multiple games with straight bets, but you don’t have to win them all to make money back like you do with parlay. And on the other hand, if you do hit all the bets, you get paid more than you get paid vs a straight bet.
What is a 2 leg parlay? 3 leg parlay?… 10 leg parlay?
Parlay’s “leg” is just a gamble, So the number of legs tells you how many bets you need to win in your parlay once you place your bet. A 2-Rig parlay is when you place 2 bets in your parlay. Both individual bets must win to win your money.
A 3-legged parlay is when you place 3 bets in your parlay. All 3 individual bets need to win for your bet to be paid.
Once you choose you parlay on sportsbook A 10 leg parlay is when you make 10 bets in your parlay. You won’t win (because who can hit all 10 bets), but… if you do you’ll get a lot of money!
Is it better to put a straight or a parlay in sports betting? – How much do parlays pay out?
Let’s say you have $20 to bet on baseball. You decide to place $20 on 2 legs of the parlay: win the NY Mets and NY Yankees. if both win and you team in the parlay bets, instead of making two $10 bets (one $10 bet on each team winning) you get paid more. Because Vegas has to pay you more if the Mets or Yankees lose and you risk losing all your money.
How often do parlay bets hit?
A bet that requires both teams to win lowers your odds significantly, and that’s just a 2-leg parlay!
Imagine if you have an 8-foot parlay. You’d be a genius (or super lucky) to have your first 7 bets hit, but if the last one misses, you get rewarded absolutely nothing. The money you bet now belongs to Sportsbook.
So how often do parlays crash? There’s no answer just like there’s no answer to how often straight bets hit–it depends on the odds of each bet, and in the case of parlay, how many legs you have. But one thing is certain: you’ll win less parlay bets than straight bets.
How much do parlay bets pay?
Parlay bets pay more than straight bets. They have to pay you more because you take more risks. If your bets don’t happen very often, you deserve to get paid more.
I decided to bet on the NFL. I decided to see how much I would get paid if I bet on the favorites in the first 10 Sunday NFL games with $10 to spend. Here’s what I found:
So in this scenario, if all the favorites win in the first 10 Sunday NFL games, I will win $15 if I place a straight bet and I will win $780 if I parlay. 52 times more wins with parlay!
So now we know that parlays pay more (sometimes much more, depending on the number of rounds), but they are also much harder to pull off.
Is the parlay payout worth it?
Okay, so we’ve made it clear that you’re less likely to win with parlay bets versus straight up bets.
But you will also win more money when you win.
So this brings us to the most important question about parlays:
Conclusion:
Is it better to put a straight or a parlay in sports betting? and Is a parlay bet worth it?
If I am forced to answer, parlay bets are not worth it. This hurts me to say because I don’t want to be the jerk. There’s no question that parlays are fun, they just don’t pay enough to compensate for the added risk. So if your goal is to make money on sports betting, stick to straight bets. If your goal is to get bragging rights or the thrill of a lottery ticket, throw in money you’re willing to lose on a game.
