3 Leg Parlay
Parlay betting allows horseplayers to bet the races they want, their way. Since your Parlay races don’t have to be consecutive on the card, you can identify the horses you want to bet no matter the race they’re in. Plus, you can alternate between Win, Place and Show bets, so you can build your Parlay based on how strongly you feel about each horse. Plus, parlay wagering is the only way to roll over all of your winnings to the next bet – even the pennies. So you really are betting every penny.
My preferred Parlay betting approach is to build a Parlay around my day’s ‘best bets,’ especially when they’re racing later in the card. Start a small ($10 or $20) five-leg parlay and make the first four legs Show bets on lower-priced horses. Then close it to a Win bet on the horse you like most. You just might be able to parlay your $10 or $20 base bet into a $50 or $100 Win bet on your horse just by making a series of Show bets. And if you lose along the way, you’re only out your starting amount. But if you win, you could be looking at a very nice payout.
A round robin (RR) is simply a nickname for a type of parlay wagering strategy. You take a group of three or more selections and put them in combinations of individual parlays. You could enter these parlays individually yourself, but a lot of sportsbooks allow you to select a round-robin option and do it automatically. This proves to be a much faster proposition.
The true odds for this 3 leg parlay are actually 8-1 given that each individual leg is a 50/50 chance of landing. No wonder sportsbooks actively promote the points spread parlay! The only caveat to the poor value of the point spread parlay is if the bettor firmly believes they have found games where the sportsbooks have the handicap wrong. A parlay bet is a wager in which multiple choices are included on a single betting slip. A minimum of two selections is required, and books can cap the total number of choices that can be included somewhere north of 10. The chances of being correct on all legs of a parlay lessen with each selection that’s added to the ticket. On a three-team RR two-way parlay, you would have three different two-teamers. Let’s just give an example to show you how a three-team RR two-way bet would work. You like three teams we’ll call the Cowboys -7, Packers -7 and 49ers +4. Let’s say you wanted $100 on each pair. Here’s how your wagers would look: Parlay 1: Cowboys -7 Packers -7. Jul 07, 2020 There are several different types of combination parlay a sports bettor can make. Choose 5 games and combine ten 3-leg parlays, five 4-leg parlays, and a single 5-game parlay. Throw a bunch of 2-game parlays in the mix if you want to. The cost of a combination parlay ticket can add up, but so can your profits. Find an Edge for Parlays. For example let’s say you want to bet Patriots -7, Packers -3, Rams -3, and Saints +3 in a parlay all four teams would have to cover the spread for you to win your parlay wager. However, the good news is that your returns from a $100 wager would be around $1,200 if each leg is the standard odds around -110.
Round robins get a lot more complex as the number of teams goes up. A two-way round robin means that you are betting as many different two-team parlay combinations as you can with a given number of teams. On a three-team RR two-way parlay, you would have three different two-teamers.
Let’s just give an example to show you how a three-team RR two-way bet would work. You like three teams we’ll call the Cowboys -7, Packers -7 and 49ers +4. Let’s say you wanted $100 on each pair. Here’s how your wagers would look:
- Parlay 1:
Cowboys -7
Packers -7
Betting $100 to win $260 - Parlay 2:
Cowboys -7
49ers +4
Betting $100 to win $260 - Parlay 3:
Packers -7
49ers +4
Betting $100 to win $260
How Do You Win a Round Robin?
So, you’ll be risking $300 for a potential profit of $780. Your only options will be to lose all three, win all three, or lose two and win one. If you lose all three, you would obviously be out $300. If you win one and lose two, you would win $60. So, you basically have to go 2-1 or 3-0 to show a profit.
Are They Worth It?
That’s why it might be better to just bet all three separately for $100 each because if you go 2-1, you win $90 instead of $60. If you go 1-2 you lose $120 instead of $300. However, if you go 3-0, you would only win $300 compared to $780! The chances of going 3-0 are 7/1, meaning you will only hit one three-team parlay out of every seven you bet.
Here is a look at the Round Robin table showing you how many picks, how many ways you can bet them, and how many different combinations of bets you will have for each.
Picks | Ways | Number of Bets |
---|---|---|
3 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 2 | 6 |
4 | 3 | 4 |
5 | 2 | 10 |
5 | 3 | 10 |
5 | 4 | 5 |
6 | 2 | 15 |
6 | 3 | 20 |
6 | 4 | 15 |
6 | 5 | 6 |
7 | 2 | 21 |
7 | 3 | 35 |
7 | 4 | 35 |
7 | 5 | 21 |
7 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 2 | 28 |
8 | 3 | 56 |
8 | 4 | 70 |
8 | 5 | 56 |
8 | 6 | 28 |
3 Leg Parlay Meaning
As you can see, there are so many different combinations you can bet. The problem is that the more teams you have, the more bets you are going to have to place. Say you have eight teams and want to do as many 4-team parlays as you can do with those eight teams. Well, there’s a whopping 70 different combinations of 4-team parlays with eight teams. So, if you’re betting $100 on each parlay, that means you will be betting $7,000.
It’s simply not worth the risk in my opinion. If you go 3-5, you lose all 70 bets for a grand total of $7,000. You would have to go at least 4-4 to get any money back, and even then you’d only hit one 4-team parlay at 10/1 odds, which would bring back $1,000. So, you’d still lose $5,900 by simply going .500. You’d lose 69 bets at $1000 each and win one for $1,000.
Parlay Odds Formula
The novice sports bettor sees a chance at a huge payout with these Round Robin parlays. And, if you do bet as many parlays as you can with six teams and go 6-0, then you are going to make a fortune. But how many times have you actually gone 6-0 in a day? The chances of doing so are slim to none, and if you bet too many of these Round Robin parlays, then you’re going to be broke before you ever get the chance to go 6-0.