When it comes to online sports betting, parlay bets can be one of the best ways to make some quick money.  First off, we’ll explain exactly what a parlay is, and how it works.  Parlay’s are essentially one big bet, that includes many different small bets within it.  Parlay’s can include as few as two teams, or as many as 15 teams (on some sites).  The max number of teams allowed can vary quite a bit depending on the specific online betting site.  The kicker for parlay’s, is that if you lose one of the bets inside of it, then you actually lose the entire bet.  So if you were doing an NFL betting parlay, and had 10 total teams in it, and all but one of them covered the spread, you would still lose the bet.  This is what makes these bets so hard, and why the payouts on them are so high if you can hit them.
Parlay bet sizing is very important, as many players will get stuck looking at the massive payouts that a parlay will offer, and they will end up betting far too much than they should on a single bet.  Parlay’s shouldn’t be the same size bets as a standard bet on say, the NBA.  These bets payout odds of around 48 to 1 on a six team parlay for example, so simply betting $2 on something like this would pay out $96 for your that small of a bet.  Controlling your bet sizing on these is crucial.  You can go through many parlay’s without ending up hitting one of them, and this is why it’s so important.
Other Tips
One thing to consider when you’re betting online is to use parlays as a good option for when/if you end up going on any type of a down swing.  As much as we’d all love to avoid them, down swings simply do happen, and there’s not much of a way to avoid them.  One way to avoid losing your standard sized bets on a point spread or run line, is to make a switch over to small bets on parlays and hopefully win some of your money back!  As you can tell from the odds listed above, you can make back some money quickly.  If you are betting $5 on each regular bet, and lose 5 in a row, that’ll put you down $25.  So if you hit one $1, six team parlay, you get your full money back almost twice over.
As you can tell there are some great ways and great times to use parlay bets to make money, but it’s important not to OVER use them.  Going for the big win can cause some sports bettors to make some big mistakes, such as betting too much (as spoken about above), or betting parlays too often.  Last but not least, when you are choosing your bets for a parlay, be sure to do your research about each to make sure that you have the angles on each one that can help you take in a profit!
