A parlay bet is a form of sports wagering where a single bet combines together two or more individual wagers up to a total of 12 picks and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together for the bet to cash. NFL parlay picks. We have free NFL parlay picks for every week of the season from the most popular NFL betting markets. Get into the NFL action with Sports Picks and Parlays. Our NFL Free Picks and Predictions, and Expert Picks for every NFL game, will take you from the very first preseason game all the way to the Super Bowl. Our writers give the most in-depth analysis and insight around, making Picks and Parlays the top stop for winning sports picks in the NFL.
On Tuesday, according to DraftKings, an unidentified bettor risked $3 million on a three-leg parlay featuring the following: Georgia to win the SEC East division; Alabama to win the SEC West division; the Packers to win the NFC North division.
If successful, this bet would pay out $8.6 million, a $5.6 million net profit for the customer.
It's the largest parlay bet that Johnny Avello, DraftKings' sportsbook director and a 30-plus-year Nevada bookmaker, has ever taken. And it's certainly among the biggest ever placed with a U.S. sportsbook -- yet it might not even have been the most interesting bet of the week.
On Thursday, a bettor at the William Hill sportsbook at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas placed a $240,000 money-line bet on heavily favored BYU to beat Texas-San Antonio straight up. The Cougars were favored by 34.5 points. To bet BYU to win outright on Saturday, the bettor had to put up $240,000 for a chance to make a $3,428.55 profit.
UTSA took an early lead and was within one possession late in the fourth quarter but ultimately lost 27-20.
Nfl Parlay Betting Online
The bettor won $3,400, a 1.4% return on their investment in three days. To quote from the classic poker film 'Rounders,' 'Pay that man his money.'
Another way to look at such a unique bet is, 'Holy bleep! They bet $240,000 to win just over $3,000. What the heck were they thinking?' It turns out, though, that giant money-line bets on large favorites aren't that unique in Las Vegas.
'This happens way more than anyone really thinks,' Dave Sharapan, a former Las Vegas bookmaker at CG Technology sportsbooks, said of big money-line bets placed on heavy favorites.
Details regarding the BYU bet are slim. We know the what, when and where, but not the why or by whom. Only a select few know the true thinking behind risking $240,000 for a chance to win $3,400.
Some believe it has to do with reward club points for casino comps and hotel upgrades. Others suspect something more nefarious: money laundering. A customer has illicit funds and is looking to clean the money through an unsuspecting sportsbook. But that seems unlikely -- or extremely dumb -- says Mac Verstandig, a Las Vegas attorney who specializes in gambling cases.
'If this were a laundering effort, it would be absolutely horribly done,' Verstandig said.
In the past, when Verstandig has seen instances of suspected money-laundering efforts with sports betting, he says it normally involves a team of bettors betting both sides of games on the point spread, willing to pay the typical 10% vig to eliminate the risk of the favorite losing.
'If someone had $240,000 in somewhat illicit funds, and they had a runner that could walk into a Las Vegas sportsbook without arousing suspicion with that amount, BYU, until kickoff yesterday, seemed like an incredibly safe bet, and it gets you the return of your principle into reportable, taxable income, which is what you want from a laundering point of view,' Verstandig said. 'It just sends up more red flags than a May Day parade at Tiananmen Square.'
Sportsbooks, like typical financial institutions, have to follow know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering protocols, and relationships are established with customers who place large wagers.
Sharapan didn't know the specifics of the BYU bet. But during his years behind the sportsbook counter, he saw plenty of big money-line bets on prohibitive favorites. He's seen customers carry cash into a sportsbook in a duffel bag to place big bets, but says most often they are handled with wire transfers to the casino cage or through a VIP host.
'Someone bet a house on BYU to win the game,' Sharapan said, 'and it may never occur to that person that they could lose -- until it does.'
Here is this week's edition of Notable Bets, our look at storylines from sportsbooks around the nation.
NFL
• The Raiders' upset of the Chiefs produced the biggest win Sunday for multiple sportsbooks. The SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas said the Raiders winning outright was one of the book's most profitable games of the season so far. 'Very high-volume game, with so many money-line parlays and teasers to the Chiefs,' John Murray, executive director for the SuperBook, told ESPN.
• More money was bet on Raiders-Chiefs than any other game Sunday at sportsbook PointsBet. It was also the most profitable game of the day for PointsBet, followed by the Giants covering the spread in a loss to the Cowboys, and the Dolphins' upset of the 49ers.
• The Cardinals' 30-10 rout of the winless Jets produced one of the books' biggest losses of the day. At BetRivers sportsbooks, only 6% of the money bet on the game (point spread and money line) backed the Jets.
• Since the 2018 season, the Jets are 12-24-1 against the spread, the worst ATS mark in the NFL. They have yet to cover the spread this season.
• '[It's] basically a struggle to take a bet on [the Jets] regardless of the number,' John Sheeran, sportsbook director for FanDuel, told ESPN.
• 'Up and down' was how multiple sportsbooks described Sunday's results. 'We probably lost more games than we won with public sides like the Cardinals, Steelers, Rams, Ravens, Texans, Browns all covering,' Murray said, 'but we won the really big games.'
• The sportsbook at The Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reported taking a $100,000 bet on the Panthers +4 for the second half of their game against the Falcons. The Panthers led 20-7 at halftime and appeared poised to cover the spread in the second half before Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo made a 54-yard field goal with four seconds to play, making the final score 23-16.
• DraftKings reported taking a $5 bet on Steelers receiver Chase Claypool to score at least three touchdowns on Sunday, at 150-1. Claypool finished with four TDs, three receiving, and the bettor won $755.
• BetMGM said it took a $290,000 bet on the Seahawks -6.5 versus the Vikings in the Sunday night game.
Nearly 80% of the money bet on Vikings-Seahawks was on the Seahawks at PointsBet. The lopsided action on the Seahawks continued after kickoff, too -- PointsBet reported early live betting on them after the Vikings jumped out to a 10-0 lead. The Seahawks won the game but by just one point, 27-26.
• Vikings running back Dalvin Cook scored the first touchdown of the game against the Seahawks. FanDuel had boosted Cook's odds to +750 to score the game's first TD, a promotion that a company spokesperson said cost the sportsbook more than $1 million.
Nfl Parlay Betting Strategy
• The chances of a team being forced to forfeit a game thanks to a violation of league protocols on COVID-19 seem to increase each week. A forfeit, while recorded as a loss on a team's record, would have different impacts on season win total bets, depending on the sportsbook. Here's a couple of examples of how sportsbook rules address forfeits, but check your book's house rules:
At BetMGM, the house rules stipulate that teams must play all scheduled games for the bets in the season wins market to be honored. If a game were to be forfeited, all impacted season win market bets would be refunded.
At William Hill, a forfeited game would count as a win or a loss in terms of season win total bets.
College football
• Las Vegas sportsbook Circa Sports opened with Alabama as a 5-point favorite over Georgia in Saturday's prime-time SEC showdown in Tuscaloosa. The line grew to Alabama -7, before settling back at -5.5 on Sunday afternoon. The total on the game had more dramatic early movement, growing from the opening number of 49.5 to 55 within the first three hours after Circa posted it.
• Florida opened as a 14-point favorite over visiting LSU. That line quickly dropped to -11 by Sunday afternoon.
• Two of the three largest college football bets FanDuel accepted on Saturday were on Florida to cover the 5.5-point spread against Texas A&M: $49,000, and $25,000 on the Gators -5.5. A&M won 41-38.
NBA
• The Lakers were favored in each of their 21 playoff games en route to winning the NBA title. According to ESPN Stats and Information, they are the fourth team in the past 30 seasons to be favored in every playoff game, followed the 2016-17 Warriors, the 2014-15 Warriors and the 1995-96 Bulls.
• The amount wagered on Sunday's decisive Game 6 between the Lakers and Heat attracted a similar betting handle to an average NFL game at the SuperBook.
• The SuperBook said any money it won on the NFL on Sunday, it lost on its NBA title futures market. The Lakers attracted more bets and more money to win the NBA title than any other team by far at the SuperBook.
• 'Hats off to the bettors on this one, they bet [the Lakers] from the beginning,' Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill U.S., told ESPN.
• The Lakers have already been installed as the favorites to win the title next season as well.
Odds and ends
• $206.8 million was bet with Indiana sportsbooks in September, the most in a month since the state authorized sports betting in the same month last year. Statewide, Indiana bookmakers finished up a net $14.2 million during the month. Bettors did get the best of the books in September at the sportsbooks at Caesars Southern Indiana (-$109,488) and Horseshoe Hammond (-$280,245). Those were the only two casinos to report a net loss on sports for the month.
Football Parlay Payouts
Here is the breakdown by sports via the Indiana State Gaming Commission:
Football (college and pro): $48.4 million
Basketball: $34.2 million
Baseball: $30.5 million
Parlays: $50.6 million
Other: $43.1 million
• $72.4 million was bet in September with Iowa sportsbooks, who won a net $5.2 million during the month.
• A new interactive video conferencing platform centered on sports betting, BettorView Live, is prepping to launch in the U.S., showcasing betting odds, point spreads and win probabilities, and even helping place your delivery order. Think Zoom for friends wanting to watch and wager on a game together.
The BettorView Live platform, virtually toured by ESPN last week, is the result of a partnership between two tech companies, Edison Interactive (EI) and BettorView, formerly known as KonekTV. BettorView content can currently be found in 1,000 venues nationwide, and there are partnerships with restaurants and sportsbooks like Hooters and William Hill, respectively.
Ultimately, BettorView Live aims to include direct integration into sportsbook partners' betting apps, and allow for live streaming of professional sports.
One of the most lucrative sports bets you can make is a parlay, but unless you employ some kind of betting strategy it can also be one of the toughest bets to actually cash-in on. In simple terms, a parlay is when you combine two or more picks into one single wager. The plus side is that the top online sportsbooks as featured on SportsBettingStats.com offer some very attractive odds for groupings of two to even 16 teams. Our favorites are Bet365 for non Americans and 5Dimes for US players. The down side is that the more teams you add to a parlay play the higher the odds are stacked against you to win.
Sometimes it can be hard to pick even a single winner so the catch to winning a parlay is that you have to win every one of your picks. The only exception is in the case of a PUSH when two teams tie with the closing point spread. In that case, you total parlay is reduced by one team.
Nfl Parlay Betting Tips
For example, if you put together a four-team parlay at 12.28/1 betting odds and one of your plays ends as a PUSH, it would be reduced to a three-team play at 6/1 odds.
The betting odds for parlays using point spreads is fixed and based on the total number of teams you group into one bet. Betting parlays for MLB games is an attractive option since you will be working off money line odds as opposed to a point spread that is commonly used in sports such as football and basketball. When betting money lines you only have to pick the straight-up winners, but keep in mind that your payout odds will be based on the actual money line odds for each of your picks. The top online sportsbooks should have a parlay calculator on their website where you can enter the actual money line for each of your individual picks to provide a projected payout of that particular parlay if you win.
Whether you are betting money line parlays for baseball and hockey or point spread parlays for football and basketball, there are a few betting tips and strategies that you should always employ to give yourself the best chance to win. First and foremost, you need to properly handicap each game as an individual pick before grouping them together in a parlay bet.
For example, if you decide to go with a two-team NFL parlay at 13/5 odds, you should probably take the time to breakdown three or four games to come up with your top two plays. Winning parlays is all about your overall confidence level for each one of the picks you decide to group together. If you are not absolutely in love with each one of your picks individually, then do not risk your money by grouping them together in a parlay.
Nfl Parlay Betting Tips
A second tip is to avoid the temptation of parlay picks of three or more teams. You may get excited over the 91.42/1 return you would get if you hit a seven-team parlay, but this is nothing more than lottery ticket when you start calculating your true odds of actually winning all seven games.
Finally, make sure you have some kind of set money management system in place if you are going to be betting parlays. There is a reason why sportsbooks are willing to give you such a generous return on multiple team parlays. The odds are already stacked in their favor that you are going to lose one of your picks even in a two-team wager. Parlays should always be reasonable unit plays that will not break the bank if you lose.