The payoff for the parlay bet is determined by the odds on each bet in the parlay. Therefore, you will need to know each bet’s payout to calculate your potential winnings from the parlay. It’s calculated as follows:
Bet 1 Payout (x) = (Bet Odds) x (Bet Amount)
Bet 2 Payout (y) = (Bet Odds) x (Bet Amount)
…
Bet n Payout (n) = (Bet Odds) x (Bet Amount)
Then the total odds for the parlay bet are calculated using the formula:
Odds = (1/x) * (1/y) * (1/z) * … * (1/n)
Where x, y, z, and n are all the individual event payouts.
Looks a bit too tricky? Here are a few practical examples to help you understand the calculation process.
2-Team Parlay Payout
To calculate the total payout for a 2-Team Parlay Bet, you will need to add up all of the individual payouts for each team.
For example, if your first team wins and pays out at 1.50, and your second team wins and pays out at 1.20, then the total payout would be:
(1.50*1)+(1.20*2) = 3.90
This final value represents how much the total payout of a 2-team parlay bet would be as a factor of the wager amount you put on for the parlay bet.
6-Team Parlay Payout
As we did above, you need to calculate the odds of each game to get the total payout value.
For example, if the first three teams win and payout at 1.20, and the last three teams win with a 1.60 payout, the total payout would be:
(1.20*1)+(1.20*1)+(1.20*1)+(1.60*3)+(1.60*3)+(1.60*3) = 8.40
This final value represents how much the total payout of a 6-team parlay bet would be as a factor of the wager amount you put on for the parlay bet.
3-Team Parlay Odds
In this instance, you would calculate parlay odds for the three teams by multiplying each team’s odds against each other. So, if you have three teams, you can multiply them and get their combined odds.
If each team’s odds are set at 1.35, and you aren’t working with a parlay builder, the calculation would look like the following:
Total Odds = 1.35 *1.35 *1.35 = 2.46
7-Team Parlay Odds
The odds of a 7-team parlay are slightly different than the odds of a 3-team parlay. The calculation is:
If the odds for the first four teams are set at 1.2 and the last three teams at 2.0, the calculation will look like the following:
Total Odds = 1.2 *1.2 *1.2*1.2*2.0*2.0*2.0 = 6.912