We all love to read about bold bettors who’ve overcome the odds to win a lot of money.
Some of the most exciting wagers and biggest wins over the years have come from parlays, so what are some of the most impressive bets of this type ever made?
What’s a Parlay Bet?
To start with, we need to explain what exactly parlay bets for NFL are. They are combination bets where you predict more than one outcome on the same bet slip.
Let’s say that you think that the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears will both win their games this weekend. By adding both bets together, you increase the potential payout of getting it right.
However, it also becomes more difficult to predict. The more wagers that you add, the bigger the odds climb and the more difficult it is to get right.
You can also try different types of bets, from moneyline wagers to choices such as who scores the first basket or touchdown. You could make all the bets on a single game, or spread them across different games and teams if that suits you better.
All of this adds to the excitement and explains why parlays are now so popular. They offer a great way to test your sporting knowledge and try to win a large sum of money at the same time.
How Do You Bet on a Parlay?
Making a parlay bet is easier than you might think. By using an online sportsbook, as Bovada’s Twitter shows, you simply need to look for the games or events you’re interested in. Then click on the bet you’re interested in making.
This lets you see the odds for it, and when you enter the amount of the wager you’ll also see how much you would win if it comes up. At this point, you can place the single bet, but if you want to make a parlay bet then you need to look for something else to wager on.
Add the second bet to the same bet slip and you’ll see how the odds increase and the amount you could win also go up. The great thing here is that a parlay gives you a better return than the same bets made individually would, so there’s a definite incentive to do it this way.
Can you add on any type of bet? No, but the site will let you know if you’re trying to add together wagers that can’t go together on a parlay. As long as you see each element get added on you’ll know that they all work together as a parlay.
Once you’ve created the combination bet you had in mind, you just need to accept it to place it with the sportsbook. It’s then a question of waiting to see whether each part of it comes up as you expected.
What Are the Biggest Parlays Ever Made?
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to look at some examples of eye-opening parlay bets that have won a lot of money for smart bettors. While there’s no definitive list of the most impressive winning parlays, by doing some research we can find some interesting details.
One bet that stands out as possibly the biggest parlay in history wasn’t made in the NFL, but rather in the NBA. However, it’s worth mentioning here because of the fact that it shows us the power of these wagers. In fact, it was reported that three different bettors all made the same bet at odds of over 260,000. The bettors were all from Pennsylvania and they bet on the first basket scorer in each of six different NBA games.
Among the players they backed were LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Evan Fournier of the Dallas Mavericks. Incredibly, the bettors were absolutely right and each of these players made the first basket in their respective games. This turned a simple $0.50 bet into a winner worth more than $130,000.
Turning to the NFL now, the most incredible parlay bet we could find was made up of two correct scores. Anyone who follows football knows that predicting the winner of a game is difficult but working out the correct score in advance is almost impossible to do.
Well, this bettor decided that the Cincinnati Bengals would beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24, while the Los Angeles Rams would defeat the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 20-17. By adding those two bets together, the odds jumped to almost 29,000 to 1 and the payout to over $500,000.
We can see another example that lets us see how difficult it is to combine several bets into one. In this case, a bettor put together a 16-leg parlay, so they needed 16 different results to go their way. They were simple moneyline bets based on choosing which team would win.
The wager was $25 and the win would be worth more than $700,000 if it came off. Well, the first 15 results all went the way that the bettor had expected. This means that the whole thing came down to the last game, which was between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers.
The final leg of the parlay was based on Detroit winning, but this was the bettor’s biggest underdog selection. The Lions were winning at halftime but eventually fell to a 17-14 loss.
Should You Try an NFL Parlay?
This is the kind of decision that each person needs to make for themselves. Do you want to make a simple bet that gives you the best possible chance of winning, or would you prefer to boost the odds to huge levels by adding in additional wagers to the same bet slip?
If you’re confident about your football knowledge and want to add some excitement to the games, you might feel that a parlay is just what you need. However, this type of bet isn’t right for everyone and some people will never use parlays even if they bet regularly on NFL games.
If you would like to get a feel for picking against the spread, check out OfficePoolStop’s Pickem Pools, or their NFL Play Money pool that is rapidly growing in popularity.
