Parlay betting continues to be an underutilized tool in a sports gambler’s arsenal in 2025. So much attention is paid to actual wager types: the moneyline, point spread, over/under, even futures. That’s only natural. After all, a parlay isn’t a single betting line so much as a custom-built slip. Its purpose is to boost your potential return without raising your initial stake—though it does come with added risk

A lot goes into smart parlay betting. How does it work? When’s the best time to use it? And what tricks can help you capitalize on it? For a full breakdown of all wager types, see our all-encompassing betting guide. Here, though, we’re focused on explaining—and maximizing—the parlay betting process.

How Parlay Bets Work

Parlay bets entail taking two or more separate wagers and combining them into one transaction. There’s not technically a limit to how many different lines you can pile on to one slip, but some sportsbooks will set a maximum on the number you can include.

The intent behind parlay bets is simple: By attaching all these different wagers to one another, you increase your prospective payout when it hits.

Imagine you saw the following hypothetical NFL betting odds and were intrigued by the following moneylines: New England Patriots (-150), Philadelphia Eagles (+200), Denver Broncos (+125), and Los Angeles Rams (-110). You could throw money at each of these odds separately, but you’ll be capping your return.

If you placed $100 on each game separately and all four won, you’d walk away with about $483 in total profit. Not bad. But if you combined those same four picks into a single parlay, the payout multiplier would jump significantly—closer to 16-to-1—meaning a $100 stake could return more than $1,600 instead of just under $500.

So, if you invested the same initial $400 across those four games as single bets, your total profit would be just under $500. But parlaying them together would boost the potential return to roughly $6,400. That’s a massive difference, and it doesn’t require staking more money up front. Even if you cut your stake down to just $100 on the parlay, you’d still have the chance to win more than $1,600.

Here’s the thing to remember, though: Parlay bets demand you go undefeated with your predictions. In our hypothetical, if you were to successfully pick three of the outcomes but miss on one, you’d have built a losing parlay. It’s an all-or-nothing proposition.

If this style of betting interests you, you’re in luck—every sportsbook lets you build parlays. The experience isn’t the same everywhere, though, which is why we’ve put together a list of our top picks

When Does It Make Sense to Build Parlays?

Building parlays solely for the flashy payouts isn’t enough motivation. Chasing long-shot odds without a clear strategy is a quick path to losses

Parlays are best served in situations where you're ultra-confident in your picks, so much so that straight single wagers won't cut it for you. They're also worthwhile transactions when you don't feel like unloading the financial clip. You can cobble together a semi-realistic parlay slip with 20-to-1 odds, a lineup that would require only a $5 investment if you're looking to earn a cool $100.

How many games or betting lines you tie to each wager is ultimately up to you. The more you include, the higher your potential return. But we recommend moneylines more than point spreads or over/under. They're easier to predict; you're dealing strictly in wins and losses rather than point differentials and final scores.

Sure, if you fancy yourself a point spread or over/under expert, you're free to disagree. But the hit rate on moneyline-only parlays, assuming you're betting with actual insight, are going to be higher than those that include multiple wager types or are built strictly out of the over/under or point spread.

Plus, with the moneyline, you also have the opportunity to capitalize on underdog odds. Those don't exist in the over/under or point spread departments. You're looking -110 rates pretty much across the board. That's stellar if you're prioritizing consistency with your odds, but it doesn't leave much room for payout growth.

Best Parlay Betting Strategies

Sports gamblers have infinite access to betting strategies. They are everywhere, and there are tons of them. Not only that, but new approaches are cropping every year, with the statistics to back them up.

The truth of the matter, however, is that no betting strategy is even remotely close to infallible. Flaws are peppered throughout everyone, in the sense that everything will always ultimately come back to whether you know the sport you're betting on and have made the right pick.

Still, parlay betting strategies are worth exploring. You might stumble upon something you like or just find out the approach works for the disposable income you're working with. Let's tackle some of the most popular parlay betting strategies, shall we?

Long-Shot Parlay Betting

While some people like to build extensive parlay bets, others don't like risking money on so many different outcomes. They like to limit the number of wagers they're tying to each transaction.

If that's the case, and you're also on a stringent betting budget, it's not a bad idea to poke around the long-shot moneylines. Should you find even just two that you like, you can combine them for what will be a pleasantly surprising return.

Parlay Betting Vector

Take the following two hypothetical lines: Kansas City Chiefs (+275) and Arizona Cardinals (+550). Let’s assume you believe both underdogs will win. If you bet $100 on each separately, you’d risk $200 for a combined profit of $825—not bad at all.

But if you parlayed the two together, the return jumps dramatically. A single $100 parlay at those odds would pay out about $2,750, giving you a profit of $2,650. These are two highly unlikely outcomes, of course, but the example shows how parlays let you lower your upfront risk while massively increasing your potential reward

Heavy-Favorite Parlay Betting

Flip the script from the previous parlay strategy, and you get this one.

Heavy-favorite parlays mandate that you seek out as many "sure things" as you can reasonably find. These lines, of course, aren't actually sure things. They're merely moneyline odds your absurdly confident in or betting lines that are so thoroughly tilted in one direction, the implied risk is minimal.

Imagine you were browsing some hypothetical NBA betting odds and came across the following favorites:

  • Los Angeles Lakers (-750)
  • Los Angeles Clippers (-800)
  • Brooklyn Nets (-650)
  • Miami Heat (-500)
  • Boston Celtics (-575)

Investing in each moneyline individually doesn’t make much sense here, not unless you’re working with a very large bankroll. If you go the single-wager route, you’d typically be better off targeting spreads or totals, where the risk/reward balance is more practical.

But parlaying these five heavy favorites creates a very different scenario. To win $100 on each game individually, you’d need to risk more than $3,200 in total stakes. By contrast, a single $100 parlay combining all five favorites would pay out roughly $250 to $300, more than doubling your money without tying up thousands of dollars. The return isn’t astronomical, but the efficiency is clear: you’re leveraging strong favorites for a modestly higher risk, rather than committing massive stakes for relatively tiny single-bet profits.

Avoiding Extensive Parlays in Certain Sports

This method runs semi-counter to the strategy we just discussed. While you are free to seek out heavy-favorite odds in every league and parlay a bunch of them, not everyone endorses it. Count us among them. Kind of. We're not saying you shouldn't do it, but it should definitely be done with extreme caution in certain leagues.

Upsets are more common in the NFL. If you're looking at five different games, with a favorite laying -500 or better in all of them, that might suggest you're staring at a conceptual sure thing.

Chances are good, though, that at least one underdog will pull off an upset, the reason is because one play in every NFL game can be rendered incredibly impactful. This isn't a team in basketball hitting a two-pointer or even three-pointers. Touchdowns in the NFL can be worth anywhere between six and eight points. One score can change everything long before the buzzer sounds. That's why football has the "Any Given Sunday" mantra.

Similar logic should be used when considering parlays for NHL betting odds. Goals are only worth one point, but they're so hard to get that even a single score can dictate the outcome of an entire game. Ditto for soccer. You can hold the same stand when looking at MLB betting odds and college football betting odds, but for us personally, we're not as worried about either. Heavy favorites are both more predictable in these leagues.