Parlays: how they are calculated

Single bet first

A single bet, often called a straight bet, is one prediction with one stake. If it wins, you are paid the stake times the decimal price. $10 on Toronto at -150 (1.67) returns $16.67 if Toronto wins: $6.67 profit plus the stake back. That is the baseline every parlay is measured against. If American and decimal odds are new to you, start with our odds formats guide; this one assumes you can read a single price.

How a parlay is calculated

A parlay links two or more selections, called legs, into one bet. The decimal prices of the legs are multiplied, and the bet wins only if every leg wins.

In decimal odds

Take three legs on one NHL night:

• Toronto to win at -150 (1.67)
• Winnipeg to win at +120 (2.20)
• Over 6.5 goals in a third game at -110 (1.91)

Using the exact prices, 1.667 x 2.20 x 1.909 = 7.00. A $10 parlay returns $70.00 if all three legs win, which is $60 profit. If any one leg loses, the whole ticket loses. If you multiply the rounded prices (1.67 x 2.20 x 1.91) you get 7.02; the sportsbook uses the exact prices, so small differences like this are rounding.

In American odds

American odds cannot be multiplied directly. Convert each leg to decimal, multiply, then convert the result back:

1. Convert each leg. -150 becomes 1.667, +120 becomes 2.20, -110 becomes 1.909.
2. Multiply. 1.667 x 2.20 x 1.909 = 7.00.
3. Convert back. For a decimal price of 2.00 or more, subtract 1 and multiply by 100: 6.00 x 100 = +600.

So the three-leg parlay is +600 (7.00). The bet slip does this for you, but doing it once by hand makes it easier to see when a parlay price looks wrong.

The chance multiplies too

The probability of the parlay winning is the probability of each leg multiplied together. Using the implied probabilities of the three prices above, 60.0% x 45.5% x 52.4% is about 14.3%, roughly one ticket in seven. Four legs that each have a 50% chance of winning give 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 = 6.25%, or one in 16. One wrong leg loses the ticket, however good the others were.

What each extra leg costs

Every leg carries the sportsbook's margin, and in a parlay those margins multiply. The more legs you add, the bigger the share of fair value the sportsbook keeps.

The table assumes every leg is a coin flip priced at -110 (1.91) on both sides, where a no-margin price would be +100 (2.00). Each leg therefore pays about 95.5% of fair value. That is a typical standard price, used here as an example.

A four-leg parlay at -110 per leg pays 13.28 against a fair 16.00, so about a sixth of fair value is gone before the first puck drop. Big parlay prices are not a sign of value. They are a sign that several margins have been multiplied together.

Cancelled legs and pushes

If a game in your parlay is postponed or cancelled, most sportsbooks settle that leg at 1.00 and the rest of the ticket stands with the remaining legs. In the example above, if the Winnipeg game is postponed, the parlay becomes Toronto and the Over: 1.667 x 1.909 = 3.18, so $10 returns $31.82 if both win.

A push works the same way at most sportsbooks. A push is a tie against the line, for example a football point spread of 3 when the team wins by exactly 3, or a whole-number hockey total of 6 when exactly six goals are scored. The pushed leg counts as 1.00 and the parlay is paid on the other legs. A few sportsbooks and some provincial lottery products have their own rules for ties and reduced tickets, so check the book's rules.

Hockey adds one more trap. A leg on the 60-minute line, where a regulation tie is its own result, loses if the game is tied after three periods, even if your team wins in overtime. The standard moneyline usually includes overtime and the shootout. Our puck line guide explains how overtime affects each hockey market.

Round robins: several parlays from one list

A round robin takes a list of picks and builds every parlay of a set size from it. Each parlay is settled on its own, so the ticket can still pay when one pick loses. Outside North America the same idea is called a system bet.

The size is in the name. A "round robin by 2s" with three picks makes every two-leg parlay from them, which is three parlays. With four picks, by 2s makes six parlays and by 3s makes four.

Worked example

Three picks at +100 (2.00), -125 (1.80) and -200 (1.50), as a round robin by 2s with $5 on each parlay, so $15 in total. The three parlays are 2.00 x 1.80 = 3.60, 2.00 x 1.50 = 3.00 and 1.80 x 1.50 = 2.70.

• All three picks win: every parlay pays, $18.00 + $15.00 + $13.50 = $46.50 back on $15.
• The -200 pick loses: only 2.00 x 1.80 pays, $18.00 back, a $3.00 profit.
• The -125 pick loses: only 2.00 x 1.50 pays, $15.00 back, so you break even.
• The +100 pick loses: only 1.80 x 1.50 pays, $13.50 back, a $1.50 loss even though two of three picks won.

For comparison, the same $15 as one three-leg parlay at 5.40 returns $81.00 if all three win and nothing if any one loses. A round robin trades the top payout for a cushion, and as the last line shows, the cushion does not always cover the stake.

Per parlay or total stake

Check what the stake box means before you place a round robin. Some sportsbooks charge the amount you type per parlay, others split it across all of them. The same entry can cost six times more or six times less than you meant on a four-pick round robin by 2s. The bet slip shows the total stake before you confirm; read that number, not the one you typed.

You may also see British names for full-cover bets on some sites: a Trixie is 3 picks in 4 bets, a Yankee is 4 picks in 11 bets, and a bet called a Canadian, or Super Yankee, is 5 picks in 26 bets. $1 on a Canadian costs $26.

Same-game parlays

A same-game parlay, or SGP, combines several bets from one game: for example Edmonton to win, over 6.5 goals and an Edmonton player to score. Ordinary parlays at many sportsbooks do not allow legs from the same game, because the results are linked. If Edmonton's top line scores, the over and the Edmonton win both become more likely.

Because the legs are linked, a same-game parlay is not priced by simple multiplication. The sportsbook sets the price itself, allowing for the link, and the price is usually lower than the legs multiplied together. That also means you cannot check the margin with a calculator the way you can on an ordinary parlay. Treat a same-game parlay price as the sportsbook's own product, and compare it with the same legs at another sportsbook before you bet.

The rules on the bet slip

Every sportsbook publishes limits and settlement rules for parlays, and a few of them change what you can win:

• Maximum legs: the number of selections you can add to one ticket.
• Maximum payout: a cap on what one ticket can pay, whatever the price says.
• Linked selections: legs that affect each other are blocked or moved to a same-game parlay.
• Cancelled and pushed legs: usually settled at 1.00, as above.

Some sportsbooks also boost the price of parlays with enough legs, or refund a parlay that loses by one leg. These are operator promotions with their own conditions, such as a minimum price per leg or a minimum number of legs, and they change often. Read those conditions on the sportsbook's own site, and see the sports betting hub for the operators on our Canadian list.

A short history: parlays in Canada

Before August 2021, a parlay was the only way to bet on sports with a provincial lottery. Paragraph 207(4)(b) of the Criminal Code stopped provinces from conducting betting on the outcome of a single sports event, so provincial lottery products such as PRO-LINE in Atlantic Canada, Sport Select in Western Canada and Mise-o-jeu in Quebec were built as tickets on several games at once.

That changed with Bill C-218, the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act. The House of Commons passed it 303 to 15, it received royal assent on June 29, 2021, and it came into force on August 27, 2021. The Act removed the single-event exclusion, so provinces can now offer a bet on one game. Horse racing stayed under federal rules. Ontario and Alberta have since set up their own markets and are not covered by this site.

Parlays stayed popular after the change, and many Canadians still build them out of habit. The arithmetic above is the reason to be deliberate about it.

Four checks before you build a parlay

1. Count the legs. Each one multiplies the margin as well as the price.
2. Read the overtime rule for every hockey leg. The moneyline and the 60-minute line settle differently.
3. Check the stake on round robins. On a four-pick round robin by 2s, $15 typed in the box can mean $15 or $90 in total.
4. Compare the price. A parlay of the same legs can be priced differently at two sportsbooks, especially a same-game parlay.

If a term on the slip is unfamiliar, the glossary explains it, and the NHL betting guide covers the hockey markets in more detail.

Bet within a budget

Parlays are where losses grow fastest on the sportsbook side, because one ticket can carry several bets' worth of margin and lose on a single leg. Set a budget before you build a slip, use the deposit limits in your account and stop when the budget is spent. Betting is for adults only: 19+ in most provinces, 18+ in Quebec and Manitoba. Our responsible gambling page lists free, confidential help for every province we cover.

Sources

Read October 21, 2026.

• Canada Gazette: Order fixing August 27, 2021 as the day the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act comes into force (SI/2021-56)
• Parliament of Canada: Bill C-218, royal assent text