The idea of making a sports bet is one of those things that many believe you have to choose between two teams on who is going to win. The problem is that is only one particular type of sports betting and it is referred to as straight bet. Another type of sports betting is a parlay bet.

A parlay bet is where you bet on two or more teams. Now the teams don’t have to be from the same sport as you can bet on a baseball game and a football game for your parlay. It can also include bets against different point spreads, money lines and over/under total points. Now the main difference then a straight bet is the payouts are usually higher the down side is you need more then just one team to win or cover the points.

For example here is a parlay bet:

You bet the Cowboys (-3) to beat the Redskins (+3).
You bet the Yankees (-2) to beat the Redsox (+2)

So the Cowboys have to win by more then 3 points while the Yankees need to win by more then 2 runs. This would be a parlay bet.

Now parlay bets usually can go from betting 2 outcomes to betting all the way up to 10 outcomes. The more outcomes you bet the higher the payout you will receive as it’s a harder achievement.

Here is how the payouts work and this varies on where you are betting at.

So say you bet a 4 team parlay and you bet $100 and you win all 4 games. Your payout would be $1000.

Parlay bets are as simple as that. The hard part is picking the correct teams while the best part is the higher pay outs you receive if you pick correctly!