The risk/reward ratio of parlays has long made them an enticing proposition for bettors. Naturally, adding more “legs” to a parlay wager boosts both the difficulty and potential payout. Needless to say, the more outcomes in play, the less tolerable these bets are for the faint of heart.

1. How Much Does A 6 Game Parlay Pay
2. What Does A 6 Way Parlay Pay
3. 6 Team Parlay Payout Calculator
4. How Much Does A 6 Way Parlay Pay

The flip side — the part that makes parlays the darling of many bettors — is how sweet it is when these long-shot wagers do hit.

A New Jersey bettor at FanDuel Sportsbook at New Meadowlands Racetrack experienced that side of the equation Friday night. His MLB/NBA six-team parlay came through, turning his $4,999 wager into a $525,867.50 payout:

No shortage of sweat during six-game gauntlet

To get the parlay odds for our three-leg wager we now need to multiply these odds together. 3.00 x 3.50 x 1.63 = 17.12. To discover what the American odds for this parlay would be we need to convert it back by multiplying by 100 and then subtracting 100. Once you hit Calculate the payout field will populate with how much you are going to win if every leg of your parlay hits. Let’s say you want to be a $100 4-team parlay on the Packers -7 -110, Patriots -8 -110, Steelers +3 -120, and the Lions +3 -115. The Caesars Super Parlay Special pays 1,400 for catching 12, 60 for 11, and 6 for 10. The MGM pick-12 Premium Payout parlay card pays 3,000 for catching 12, and a 'bad beat' pay of 50 for catching 11. More on those below. The bettor must have had a good read on the matches Tuesday, because he went 6-for-6. That left the Dodgers. Check out this $50 parlay that turned into $128,995 last night 🤯. Your payout, if every bet in this parlay hits, would be $723.68 – your original $80 comes back along with your winnings of $643.68. If there’s a PUSH, that bet is removed from your ticket as if it never happened.

One way to at least slightly bump up the odds of parlay success — theoretically — involves going heavy on moneyline (ML) bets. Statistically, there’s typically a higher degree of success in predicting an outright winner than a margin of victory.

However, baseball can certainly be a difficult sport to prognosticate night to night, especially in the early going this season, it seems. So, a six-teamer that relies on correctly pegging four MLB winners still carries a hefty amount of uncertainty.

Predictably, Friday’s winner had to survive a handful of close calls, which all came about an hour apart. The final one of the night involved the sole NBA leg of the wager, one where the better took advantage of a somewhat surprising moneyline:

Yankees-Rays (End time: 10:15 pm Eastern)

One of two MLB underdog calls that went right. Rays starter Tyler Glasnow — the primary reason for the Rays’ status as favorites — had given up two runs to the Yankees through five innings. However, Tampa had just overcome that deficit with a three-run surge just before the right-hander took the hill to start the sixth. Glasnow began to succumb to forearm tightness at that point. He was subsequently pulled after allowing two of the first three hitters of the inning to reach.

Reliever Emilio Pagan would go on to allow New York to regain the lead by yielding two runs after entering the game. Then, the bettor would have to sweat out four more chances for the Rays before the Yanks’ 4-3 lead held up for a win. That included a no-out, bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the seventh that reliever Adam Ottavino wiggled his way out of by retiring the dangerous duo of Tommy Pham (strikeout) and Ji-Man Choi (inning-ending double play).

Pirates-Cardinals (End time: 11:09 pm Eastern)

Meanwhile, over in St. Louis, the Pirates and Cardinals were locked in a somewhat unlikely pitcher’s duel. The better had taken an underdog Pittsburgh squad to win outright with the Cards sending the inconsistent and aging Adam Wainwright to the mound. The wily veteran was seemingly operating in a time warp, however, as he’d held the Pirates scoreless through seven innings after allowing a leadoff homer to Adam Frazier.

Meanwhile, although Pittsburgh’s Trevor Williams was just as sharp, St. Louis had finally broken through in the home half of the seventh with a Paul DeJong infield single that knotted the game at 1-1. The sweat wouldn’t last too long, however. Starling Marte put the Pirates right back on top in the visitors’ half of the eighth with an RBI single. Reliever Kyle Krick made it interesting in the home half of the frame by putting two on before whiffing Dexter Fowler and inducing an inning-ending double play from Kolten Wong.

Warriors-Rockets (Approx. end time: 11:55 pm Eastern)

This one may arguably have been the most gut-wrenching of the three while it unfolded. Despite checking in as sizable moneyline favorites, the desperate Rockets hadn’t been able to separate from a short-handed Warriors squad dealing with the absence of Kevin Durant. Then, after snapping a 95-95 tie with 6:43 remaining on a James Harden 10-footer, the Rockets failed to score during the following 3:56. The Warriors built a five-point lead during that span.

Eventually, Chris Paul’s driving layup got Houston to within 104-102 with 1:45 remaining. That’s when the Splash Bros. came through for the lucky New Jersey bettor. Stephen Curry (11 points) and Klay Thompson (three points) would go on to score Golden State’s final 14 points to vault the Dubs into the conference finals and the bettor into a six-figure payday.

ALSO READ: FanDuel Sportsbook Bettor Turns $20 Into $178K With 15-Leg Parlay

Lead image courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook Meadowlands

Parlays are the Frankenstein’s monster of sports betting. They are wagers that consist of other bets glued together with one another.

They are also a high-risk, high-reward opportunity for the daredevil sports bettor. If you are a Colorado resident who feels like kicking things up a notch, make sure you read this guide to parlay betting first.

How parlay betting works

The first thing to understand about parlays is that they consist of multiple choices. Where other types of sports bets involve your choice of a single variable, parlays require players to predict outcomes on several different bets.

Each selection in a parlay is known as a leg. These bets can all be the same type of wager, or they can be varied. The exact composition of each parlay is entirely up to the bettor.

Why parlays are so risky (and well-paid)

The escalated source of risk in parlay betting is the fact that a bettor must be completely correct in his or her selections to get paid. Even one mistake causes the entire wager to be lost.

Naturally, as you increase the number of legs involved in a parlay, the chance of an incorrect prediction goes up. So, sportsbooks offer increasing payouts to compensate for the risk.

In fact, parlays with many legs are capable of producing some incredible wins for you. For instance, a successful 20-leg parlay in 2019 allowed a Mississippi bettor to turn a $25 wager into more than $104,000.

Of course, these stories drive more people to give parlay betting a try. However, it’s important to realize that successful parlays make the news because they are so unusual.

In a sense, these outsized payouts are not unlike lottery winnings. A bettor who successfully predicts a string of unlikely events has beaten very long odds, indeed.

Sportsbooks are, of course, more than happy to allow you to take such a risk. Truthfully, if the money you bet on parlays does not affect your lifestyle or living conditions, then they can be a fun diversion for a sports bettor seeking to get the blood pumping.

Parlay betting examples

Building a parlay is exceptionally easy, particularly on an online sportsbook. For mobile app or laptop users, they will usually need only to select the bets they want in their parlay and click a button on their bet slip to set things up.

In the following examples, the wagers we’re using are actual bets offered on DraftKings Sportsbook.

2-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +160
Bet #2: Over 230.5 points @ -113
Overall odds: +321

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The first thing to notice is that neither of these choices have particularly long odds. The moneyline is only an 8/5 underdog, and the chosen over was the favorite.

Still, their combined chances of happening are more than 3 to 1. So, even if things are looking good individually, the odds of both events occurring are much less likely, and you will get paid far less often than if you bet each element individually.

3-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #2: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #3: Moneyline @ -165
Overall odds: +199

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Just to ram home the point about the odds involved, we chose three moneyline favorites to populate our parlay here. To reiterate, each of these choices is expected to win their game.

However, the combined chance that all three bets will win is still almost 2 to 1 against. So, bear in mind that in parlays, there’s no such thing as a safe option.

10-Leg Parlay

Bet #1: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #2: Moneyline @ +145
Bet #3: Puck Line @ +118
Bet #4: Over 5.5 Goals @ +105
Bet #5: Moneyline @ +180
Bet #6: Moneyline @ -195
Bet #7: Moneyline @ -143
Bet #8: Moneyline @ -455
Bet #9: Over 231 points @ -112
Bet #10: Spread @ -112
Overall odds: +85379

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Here is an example of how outsized both the odds and payouts for a parlay can get. Here we have a collection of 10 wagers that are all going off at odds shorter than 2 to 1. Yet, the combined odds of all 10 events is a staggering 853.79 to 1!

One other thing to note is that, in order to construct this parlay, we had to choose from different games each time. In order for a parlay to be valid, there cannot be bets that are related to one another – for instance, you cannot bet both the moneyline and total for a single game.

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Parlay variants

Along with standard parlays, sportsbooks commonly offer one or more variants of the combination bets. These variants each have their own appeal, so judge for yourself if you want to try them out.

Teasers

One of the most common parlay variants is the teaser. The teaser is the sportsbook’s attempt to lessen some of the risk that comes with parlay betting.

Quite simply, a teaser allows the bettor to tease, or move, the odds of the bets in a parlay in his or her favor. Teasers are only permitted for point spreads and totals – it wouldn’t really make sense to try and apply a teaser to a moneyline.

You must adjust each leg of a teaser by the same number of points. So, if you move one of your selections by five points, all of your selections must move by five.

However, the movement will always be in your favor. So, a bet on a favorite might reduce the spread, but a bet on an underdog would increase it.

Of course, nothing is free in this world, and teasers come with a price. Specifically, a successful teaser will not pay out as much as a parlay with the same selections. The sportsbook charges a premium for the reduced risk.

Still, for a bettor who wants to try parlays but doesn’t like the risk profile, a teaser might be a way to slide into things. The odds will still be long, but maybe not as unacceptably so.

For more information about teasers, click here.

Pleasers

Please be aware that sportsbooks will sometimes offer a parlay variant called a pleaser. While they are less common, they are simply the mirror image of teasers.

So, the odds in a pleaser will actually be worse than a standard parlay. However, the associated payout will be higher to compensate for the increased risk.

If a parlay just isn’t risky enough for you, a pleaser might be exactly what you’re wanting. Keep an eye out for them.

Round Robins

Round robins are a fascinating variant of parlays because of their margin for error. Almost every parlay requires perfection to pay out, but round robins have no such requirement.

Round robins are bets that are combinations of parlays. If parlays were a mathematical concept, round robins would be the next power of exponent to them – the cube to parlays’ square, so to speak.

How Much Does A 6 Game Parlay Pay

Since they are composed of multiple parlays, it is possible to win a portion of a round robin even if one (or more) of the parlays fails. The different permutations mean that parts of the round robin might not be affected by the doomed parlay.

If you’re confused, don’t worry.

Example

You have 5 bets (A, B, C, D, and E) you want to make. You could make a single 5-leg parlay that would look like this:

• ABCDE

-or-

You could make a round robin with 10 separate 2-team parlays in it. Here’s how it would look:

• AB
• AC
• AD
• AE
• BC
• BD
• BE
• CD
• CE
• DE

Now…let’s say that you lose bet B.

What Does A 6 Way Parlay Pay

In the case of the parlay, the entire bet is lost. However, in the case of the round robin, six of the parlays are still alive and well:

6 Team Parlay Payout Calculator

• AC
• AD
• AE
• CD
• CE
• DE

How Much Does A 6 Way Parlay Pay

So, even though the loss would’ve been disastrous for the straight parlay, it’s not the end of the world on a round robin. If you want to do some parlay betting but want to have some backup options, a round robin might be the way to go.